Day 7

Starting Point: Winslow, AZ

Destination: West Hollywood, CA

Miles Driven: 582

I’d had a long day and I hate the freaking Eagles, but nonetheless I found myself in Winslow, Arizona so naturally I had to do “The Corner.”

Winslow is a sleepy former railroad town along the old Route 66 that became suddenly famous when it was referenced in the Eagles’ 1972 hit, “Take It Easy.”

“Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”

In 1999 the town decided to capitalize on this lyric by turning a corner in the heart of downtown into Standin’ on the Corner Park. The site features a mural, a Ford flatbed truck, and bronze statues of Eagles singer Glenn Frey and songwriter Jackson Browne. There are two or three stores in the near vicinity selling kitschy classic rock/Route 66 memorabilia, and at any hour of the day one can stand on the corner and witness tourists taking selfies with the statues.

Years earlier I had stopped in Winslow for food and/or gas and I learned about this goofy Eagles gimmick. At the time I thought it was annoying and a bit pathetic. I mean, these folks were really milking it for all it was worth.

But after spending an evening and a morning in Winslow I had a different perspective. Coming into town through the outskirts it struck me just how economically ravaged the city is. All around me were abandoned motels, diners and businesses, and the residential areas weren’t in much better shape.

Like so many American cities Winslow has struggled to keep up amid waves of deindustrialization, and when the establishment of Interstate 40 made Route 66 obsolete it devastated local tourism. Talking to the proprietor of a local bar & grill I learned of a couple quality local cafes that had gone out of business in recent years. A sad story I’ve seen all too often.

In that context I realized that if building the town’s identity around a stupid Eagles song is what it takes to keep Winslow, Arizona afloat I can’t fault them one bit.

My destination that day was Los Angeles, where I’d be staying with an old friend, the incomparably talented director Peter Mackie. But I had all day to get there so I wanted to, for lack of a better term, Take It Easy.

I chose a couple of fun stops along the way. Through Atlas Obscura I learned about a large meteor crater about 30 minutes outside of Winslow. I was expecting to basically just drive up and see a big hole in the ground, but the owners of the site have turned it into a full-on attraction complete with a museum and guided tours.

The crater was formed by a meteorite which hit the earth 50,000 years ago and is described as the “best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth.” After paying the $27 entrance fee (more than it cost to visit Petrified Forest) and walking through the cheesy museum and “discovery center” I began to wonder if I’d been sold an overhyped tourist trap.

But all that changed when I finally saw the crater:

I promise you these photos don’t nearly to the place justice. The crater is the size of a football stadium and it’s absolutely jaw-dropping to behold. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like when the space rock made impact and realized it’s impossible. The meteor struck the earth with an impact estimated at 10 megatons of TNT, an order of magnitude greater than that of Hiroshima.

It was definitely worth checking out, but personally I could have done without the extended museum exhibits, which basically just explain meteors at a middle-school level. The unsettling breadth of the crater speaks for itself.

From Winslow there are basically two ways to get to L.A. The more straightforward route takes you along I-40 through Northern Arizona and the Mohave desert down into Barstow and San Bernardino. The other, slightly longer route takes you down I-15 into Phoenix and then cuts through Joshua Tree National Park and the Southern end of the California desert.

I chose the latter route for a nerdy and sentimental reason. I promised my brother I’d take a picture of a sign. In particular, I was after the “Welcome to Sky Valley” sign which introduces travelers to the obscure resort town in the middle of the desert near Palm Springs, CA. This sign was immortalized on the cover of the 1994 album Welcome to Sky Valley by heavy metal band Kyuss.

I don’t imagine too many of my readers have heard of Kyuss, but to me it’s a great example of a band whose music reflects the environment in which it was created. The band hailed from the Palm Desert area and their thundering, downtuned guitars and hypnotic, cymbal-heavy drums make a perfect backdrop for a lonely drive through the hot, windswept desert. The music sounds like the Sky Valley. That might not make sense but listen to the album if you ever pass through the area and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.

Even without the musical connection the Sky Valley/Desert Edge region is a site to behold. You drive by miles of hilly desert roads which bob up and down like a roller coaster. All around you is nothing but trailer parks and junkyards in the middle of the dry, barren sand, and then you come across one of the region’s famed resort towns; these lush, palm tree-laden communities with swimming pools and golf courses. It’s incongruous and quite surreal.

I made it into L.A. by the early evening to enjoy a delicious homemade dinner with my friend and his wife. I’ll be staying here for the next few days, the first time thus far I won’t be consigned to a motel. A welcome change, but part of me is going to weirdly miss the cheap complimentary coffee.