EL RANCHO MOTEL & HOTEL
Located right on Route 66 in Gallup, New Mexico, the El Rancho is known far and wide as the "Motel of the Movie Stars"! John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Rite Hayworth, Mae West, Kirk Douglas...slept here!
CLICK HEREKIMO THEATER
The landmark Kimo Theater in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, located right on Central Avenue, otherwise known as Route 66, The Mother Road. Built in 1926, the Kimo is one of New Mexico's many cultural treasures.
Click HereBIG TEXAN STEAK RANCH
Right off of I-40, or Route 66, in Amarillo, is the Big Texan, home to the Big Texan Steak Challenge. Finish a Texas sized 72 oz. sirloin, baked potato, salad, dinner roll, shrimp salad and your choice of beverage in less than an hour, your mealis on the house. As they say in the Lone Star State, "Go big or go home!"
Click HereROY'S MOTEL & CAFE
Roy's Motel & Cafe and service station in Amboy, California, on Route 66, The Mother Road. A dusty oasis in the Mojave Desert where Route 66 intersects with the Twenty Nine Palms Junction. Near the Amboy Crater, an extinct volcano. Near Ludlow, Bagdad, and Daggett. Kinda near Needles. Since 1938.
Click HereFOUR ACES MOVIE RANCH
The famous 4 Aces Movie Ranch, located in the Mojave Desert in Palmdale, CA. Desolate. Secluded. Eerie. In the middle of nowhere. Served as movie locations for film classics like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Devil’s Rejects, Lucifer, House of 1000 Corpses, The Forever Purge and Natural Born Killers. Major creep factor. Here, even rattlesnakes miss their mommies!
Click HereLA CITA MEXICAN RESTAURANT
Inspired by La Cita’s very own iconic souvenir picture post card, which was sold to visitors and tourists alike back in the heyday of Route 66. After WWII, many a westbound motorist had their first taste of authentic Mexican food at La Cita Mexican Restaurant in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Click HereTUCUMCARI GLOW
“Tucumcari Glow”, depicting the neon lit night glow of the Americana Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, right there on Route 66, the Mother Road. The Americana Motel is just one example of the neon treasures that illuminate Route 66 as you cruise through Tucumcari, enticing travelers to explore the Land of Enchantment.
Click HereROY'S MOTEL & BUNGALOWS ORIGINAL
Another nostalgic Route 66 landmark. Welcome to the ‘motel’ part of Roy’s Motel and Cafe in Amboy, California. a well known gas station, cafe and famous landmark to travelers on old route 66. Roy’s is one of the original stops on Route 66 back in the 1930’s, 1940,s, 1950’s and the 1960’s before they built the I-40 and bypassed Roys and the neighboring towns of Ludlow and Baghdad.
Click HereROY'S CAFE
You’ll find ROY’S CAFE, along with the rest of ROY’S MOTEL & CAFE right off of Route 66, as the Mother Road as it makes its way west through California’s Mojave Desert. Opened in 1938 by Roy Crowl and his wife Velma. Mr. Crowl saw an opportunity and bought four acres in Amboy. The rest is Route 66 history!
Click HereTEXAS THEATER
A classic Texas landmark, this old movie theater was showing movies in black and white when it first opened. Located in the small town of Bronte, down the road a ways from Lubbock, the Texas Theater is famous for it’s adobe style architecture and distinctive red banner sign that runs the length of the facade of this old classic movie house.
Click HereTEE PEE CURIOS
The last original curio shop remaining in New Mexico, offering jewelry, pottery, t-shorts, books. Built in 1944 as a Gulf Oil Service station on Route 66 when the highway was a two-lane highway. When the road was widened, the gas station had to remove it’s gas pumps. Yet another iconic Tucumcari, New Mexico Route 66 landmark on the Mother Road.
Click HereBLUE ACOMA
The historic Acoma Pueblo sits atop a 367 foot mesa 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico and is part of the San Esteban del Rey mission. On this night the moon and the night sky conspire to turn the chapel from a brownish orange to almost a midnight turquoise.
Click HereMIRAMAR THEATER
In it's heyday, the majestic Miramar Theater in San Clemente, California once boasted 750 luxurious reclining velvet seats, air conditionoing and chandelliers, Oringinally named The El Hidalgo, you could see hit blockbusters like "Gone With The Wind" for 25 cents. Those were they days?
Click HereNUESTRO DE GUADALUPE
Established by Spain in 1629, formerly the site of the Zuni village of Hawikuh, which was sacked by conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in his quest for gold. This led to enduring animosity between the Spaniards and the Zuni people, who were part of the Pueblo Rebellion in 1680.
Click HereTAOS PUEBLO
Long before Columbus thought he discovered the "New world" and before Europe stumbled out of the dark ages, people were living at the Taos Pueblo. The adobe walls are several feet thick. Some of New Mexico's most influential artists come from this part of New Mexico. Antoniao Archueletta, Albert Lijan and Eve Mirabal, to name a few.
Click HereST. FRANCIS DI ASIS ADOBE
The St. Francis DiAsis Adobe is probably one of the only chapels where the back of the chapel is more famous than the front. Built in 1720 by the Franciscan fathers with a little help from the Spanish colonial government and a lot of Native American labor, it is still an active parish in the Diocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Click HereST. FRANCIS DI ASIS FACADE
The St. Francis Di Asis Chapel in Rancho De Taos, New Mexico in one of the most recognizeable Spanish missions in a state known for iconic mission chapels.The church was built at the center of a fortified plaza that defended against Commanche attacks.
Click HereRED TAOS CHAPEL
The most iconic Spanish mission chapel in all of New Mexico. Each year priests and parishioners gather for “The Enjarre”, to replaster the church in adobe, mixing clay, sand, straw and water into a thick mud, layer upon layer, making the entire church resilient to the elements. The only original church in the Taos area that remains intact in the Taos area.
Click HereMISSION BELL
This original art painting of the facade of the chapel at the mission San Lorenze de Picuris, twenty four miles southeast of Taos, New Mexico. Although certainly not one of the biggest or most well known of New Mexico’s mission chapels, the facade of the San Lorenzo chapel is a classic example of New Mexico’s unique iconic Spanish Colonial architecture.
Click HereN.M. FREIGHT
At the end of the day, towards dusk, you can hear a distant train horn calling out in the distance in the New Mexico desert. It could be a Santa Fe freight. Or it could be a Union Pacific freight. Or it could be an Amtrak full of drowsy passengers, wondering its way through the desert night in this pre-dusk dreamscape. Even mighty freight trains are dwarfed by the dramatic landscapes commonly found in The Land of Enchantment.
Click HereEND OF THE LINE
The legendary Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad used fleets of caboose cars during their time as one of America's great railroads. Equiped with a wood-burning stove, benches that converted into bunks and a working toilet. After decades of service, ol' #110 can be seen at the Fullerton Railroad Museum at the Amtrak Train Station in Fullerton, California. It's a piece of history on wheels.
Click HereNM CLOUDS
New Mexico is known for its breathtaking landscapes of mesas, mountains and other geological wonders. But look up and you'll see some of the planet's most dramatic and it's inspiring 'cloud scapes.' From towering billowing thunderheads to white fluffy cumulus clouds, you'll notice tht the land isnt the only thing that is enchanted in New Mexico.
Click HereTOROWEAP OVERLOOK
Some things never get old. Like the Colorado River carving through the Grand Canyon, as seen from Toroweap Overlook, on the North Rim. For the last 5 to 6 million years. From this vantage point, it’s a sheer 3000 foot vertical drop to the canyon floor. The mighty Colorado keeps cutting through the Canyon en route to the California/Arizona border near Yuma, on it’s way to it’s final destination, the Sea of Cortez, and Baja California.
Click HereMORNING MESAS
It's just another day of magnificent sunrises and spectacular sunsets. When the Grand Canyon's stunning palette off colors make their way through the early morning haze. Deep crimsons, purples, turquoise blues and forest greens. And that's just warming up.The main event is when the canyon walls turn different shades of pinkish orange and rich magentas. Yep! It's just another day at the Grand Canyon
Click HereGRAND CANYON DAWN
Another northern Arizona morning finds the mighty Colorado River carving its way through the Grand Canyon. After it nourishes the agricultural fields in southwestern Arizona and California's Imperial Valley. it flows past Yuma and into the Gulf of Baja California.
Click HereLONG MESA
Inspired by the ancient monolithic red rock formations in Monument Valley. Here colors change throughout day. At high noon the formations exhibit a softer mix of orange, violet and red hues. Sun-up and sundown bring intense and concentrated hues of these colors that seem to vibrate against a cobalt blue sky. Shadows highlight the contrasts of the rocks.
Click HereMONUMENT VIEW
In Monument Valley you with find truly epic and spectacular sandstone sculptures thousands, if not millions of years in the making. The medium is sandstone and the sculpting tools are wind, rain, snow, hail, hot, cold, water and time. Later on, cinematic artists used Monument Valley as a backdrop for some of the most memorable motion pictures ever made. Like John Ford's "The Searchers", "Cheyanne Autumn", "My Darling Clementine", "How The West Was Won", "Easy Rider", and "Forrest Gump", to name a few.
Click HereSEDONA CATHEDRAL ROCKS
Just outside Sedona, Arizona you will Cathedral Rock, a 4967 foot high sandstone butte in the Cococino National Forest in Yavapai County, Arizona. From red sandstone dunes that were located on the shore of the ancient Pedrogosa Sea during the Permian era.
Click HereTOROWEAP STUDY
Located on the remote North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Toroweap Overlook offers a glimpse at the start of a new day. Out of mist comes the meandering ribbon of the Colorado River, carving it's way through the Canyon on it's way past Yuma to the Gulf of Mexico, reflecting the rich orange sunrise off of the surface of this legendary river.
Click HereMONUMENT MESA & CLOUDS
Located in Monument Valley's Navajo Tribal Park, these red cliffs give the appearance of climbing up into the clouds that punctuate cobalt blues skies above this vast wonderland of red sandstone cliffs on the Utah Arizona border. Located in the Four Corners section of the American Southwest, where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet.
Click HereARIZONA MELL STORM
One of the things that draw me to the painting of Ed Mell is his design composition and the simplicity in which he breaks down his subjects into geometric forms, creating a sense of depth, volume and dimension in each painting. His paintings look amazingly simple, that is until you try to draw or paint one.
Click HereMELLS MESA
They say if you want to learn to paint, when you're first starting out, you want to emulate your heroes. The painters who's work you love and would like to be able to paint like. One of my favorite painters is Arizona painter Ed Mell. Ed is a very well known painter and sculptor of Southwestern Art. This piece was a good place to start.
Click HereISLAND IN THE SKY
The early morning sunrise illuminates Wotan's Throne on the North Rim and the Grand Canyon in its warm glow. This 7721 foot high summit was named after a mythical deity. At an elevation of 7,721 ft, it is one of the most majestic rock mesas in the Grand Canyon National Park in Cococino County as part of the Colorado Plateau and the Kaibab Plateau.
Click HereCORN MESA
Corn Mesa, or Dowa Yalanne, as it is known to the Zuni people. Known as “house of the gods”. Corn Mesa is sacred to the Zuni people. This steep high plateau was a place of refuge from Spanish conquistadores. Of highly religeous significance to the Zuni tribe, the mesa is known to be a place for shrines and religious ceremonies and is off limits to outsiders.
Click HereSHIPROCK DAY
Shiprock in the mid-afternoon sun, serving up a reddish orange tint against a cobalt blue sky backdrop. Depending on what time of year it is, or even the time of day, the sage in the foreground changes colors, offering up a soothing counterpoint to the dramatic shapes and shadows of Shiprock.
Click HereSHIP ROCK DUSK
Ship Rock protrudes up from the New Mexico desert near Farmington, in the Navajo Nation. It plays a significant role in Navajo myth, religion and tradition. Shiprock was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. Located in the center of the Navajo Nation, the ancestral home of the Pueblo people. This prehistoric oblisk of volcanic magma takes on a deep red hue against a cobalt blue sky.
Click HereHATCH CHILIS
Why does every day in New Mexico feel like Christmas? Because of Hatch Chiles, which come in two colors: Red and Green. Hatch Chiles are grown in the Hatch Valley of southern New Mexico. Only in this 40-mile stretch of the Rio Grande Valley exists the right combination of high altitude, intense sun and mineral rich soil, giving Hatch Chiles their distinctive flavor. Even Walter White would be envious of this formula.
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