A Repeat Visit – Homolovi State Park

Uh oh, sustaining winds between 25 – 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. That was the forecast for our journey from Gallup, NM to Winslow, AZ. Strong winds is not a good thing when travelling major highways in the southwest with its dry, arid landscape. Especially if they were crosswinds and driving a big beast with large flat sides! The “Beware of Wet Icy Roads” signs that we saw on our trip to Bernallilo were now replaced with “Warning! Dust storm conditions”! Yep, that’s for sure – there were clouds of dust everywhere.

If that wasn’t bad enough, during our drive on I-40 (Route 66), huge tumbleweeds attacked us as they were blown across the highway. Some approached the size of small cars and were difficult to avoid. Months later we were still pulling tumbleweed bits out of the undercarriage of the coach and Jeep!

Known as the Place of Little Hills, Homolovi State Park in Winslow, AZ was our next destination, a campground we had enjoyed in 2017.

Check in was at the Visitor Center.

We had made a reservation for site #20, a pull thru along the perimeter of the campground for three nights. From our spot, we enjoyed a few gorgeous sunsets, followed by relaxation around a roaring campfire.

For those who don’t want or need hours of relaxation, there is plenty to do here. A visit to the area wouldn’t be complete without a drive by of Standing On The Corner park in Winslow which pays homage to the Eagles and the song “Take It Easy”.

Visiting the ruins, Homolovi II and Homolovi I, in the park, provides a fascinating look at the inhabitants that lived in the area during ancient times. Check out this YouTube video.

A visit to the two pueblos which contain more than 1,000 rooms and 40 ceremonial kivas is very worthwhile.

And a little further out to the west are Petrified Forest and Painted Desert Notional Parks, to the west are Meteor Crater and Walnut Canyon National Monument.

When we got hungry, it was a repeat performance at one of our favorite places – La Posada Hotel in Winslow for lunch at the Blue Turquoise Room (we had explored this hotel back in 2017).

We split a bowl of their signature soup – smooth black bean and cream of corn ($9). Presentation was awesome with the letters TR (for turquoise room) written on the top and served with honey corn bread. Delish!

Then we both had the Crispy Pork Carnitas Platter which was large pieces of crispy pork Carnitas, with red and green salsas, white corn tortillas, black beans, and sweet corn tamale and topped with papaya salsa ($15).

For dessert we split the Bread Pudding which was excellent! Apologies for not taking a video of us waddling around the hotel.

If you ever visit here, be sure explore the hotel which is essentially a museum. There is a DVD that is usually playing on one of the small reading areas that describes the fascinating history and restoration of the hotel which is a Mary Colter design. Also, upstairs there is a unique and interesting art gallery. Most of the rooms in the hotel are named after a famous person.

You might get the impression that we totally love this place, because on the morning of our departure, we returned for breakfast, where we both had the same breakfast we had on our first visit in 2017. For me, it was the Corn Maiden Delight ($14), a bowl of warm corn polenta topped with fire roasted tomatoes, fresh spinach, two poached eggs, Jalapeno jack cheese roasted corn salsa.

Rob had Chorizo Hash ($16), which was house-made mild beef chorizo, diced potatoes, two scrambled eggs, diced onions, bell peppers, cheddar cheese and topped with diced tomatoes and sliced avocado and served with a flour tortilla.