Winslow, AZ, and Homolovi State Park

11/8/2015. Sunday.  “Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and such a fine sight to see.  It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowing' down to take a look at me” (from the Eagles song “Take it Easy”.)  Yep, that is exactly where we wound up after our 2 week stay in Albuquerque, NM.   As we left Sunday morning, heading West took us back out onto the wide open plains on I-40.  Just open road that seemed to go on and on, and not much to see along certain areas so we kept singing the famous song because when you hear “Winslow, AZ”,  the lyrics just linger on your mind. 

Winslow was where we wanted to stop for one night to break up our drive on the way to Camp Verde, AZ, our 2nd stop before reaching our winter destination in Surprise, AZ.  The day was cool and clear so a nice day to be on the road.  As we approached Winslow, we could see Humphrey’s Peak all the way in Flagstaff 60 miles away with a nice topping of snow.  What drastic scenery from the plains to snow covered mountains. 

We camped at the Homolovi Indian Ruins State Park.  The park is located just over a mile north of Winslow, and features historical exhibits, interpretive programs with a year-round campground. The park preserves over 300 Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites.  Homolovi is a Hopi word meaning “place of the little hills”.  The cluster of archaeological sites includes seven separate pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric people, including ancestors of the Hopi people, between approximately 1260-1400 AD.  We didn’t visit the ruins because we didn’t want to unhook the truck, plus, we have seem similar ruins.

What a nice campground! It wasn’t very large but the setting was so pretty, quiet, and peaceful.  There were only about 10 of us in the campground.  The streets were paved gravel and had nice big sites.  We had a really nice pull-out site and all we did was pull off to the side of the road into our site and hook up.  There is water and electric hookups.  We loved the wide open setting with the desert views under clear blue sky.  Just another pretty day.  

This place was full of wildlife!  Oh, boy! I had fun taking pictures of the birds, the wild burro, and especially the prairie dogs and rabbits.  I haven’t seen such a yellow chested bird before.  Didn’t see any of the larger animals like deer, elk, and cougars.  One review of the park said they saw rattlesnakes, so I stepped very carefully wherever I went to get a picture. 

Our sunset was really pretty even with just a yellow glow and shadows since there were no clouds. 

Early the next morning, the prairie dogs were out to greet the sun and eat and play.  So cute!  The one little guy even did his morning exercise.  “Now hold the head up, keep the legs and back straight, hold for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”  Then they proceeded to wrestle and chase each other around and around the bushes.  Time to eat!  Then they disappeared for their morning nap.  I wondered if this was the same pretty yellow bird. 

We stopped on the way out for one more scenic view from the campground area of snow capped Humphrey’s Peak in the distance.  We will definitely stay here again when taking I-40 back East.