When you visit Petrified Forest National Park, you travel back in time.

Trees that stood tall when dinosaurs roamed the earth now lie scattered on the ground,

fossilized in brilliant red and white quartz, lending the area the name of rainbow forest.

Museum exhibits take you back to the Triassic period, showing the plants and animals that

once lived there, including reptiles that predate dinosaurs.

Throughout the park, you see signs of life that were once vibrant and thriving, forever

changed by the passage of time.

But if you came for fossils, there's one sign of life that might surprise you. Driving north, you'll find

a line of abandoned telephone poles, stretching into the horizon, and the rusted frame of a

90-year-old car sitting without wheels in the dirt, the park's last remnants of what was once Route

66. Nicknamed the Mother Road, Route 66 was not the first paved road to cross the country, but it quickly became the most famous.

Connecting Chicago to LA, the 2,000 mile route became a symbol of America's rising car culture,

with iconic diners, neon signs, and drive-in-movie theaters.

It helped popularize many attractions across the West,

like Petrified Forest National Park. For others, it was a sign of opportunity. Struggling

rural towns along the road were transformed into bustling cultural hubs. Families plagued

by the Dust Bowl escaped by driving Route 66 west to sunny California. But as the 20th century

marched onward, the government paved millions of miles of interstate highways, wider roads

with higher speed limits that slowly made Route 66 obsolete. Over time, mom and pop businesses

that thrived on tourism closed their doors, gas stations,

cafes, and motels sat empty as tourists passed them by on the interstate.

In 1985, Route 66 was officially decertified and disappeared from road maps, and the abandoned

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