Things To Do

The Mother Road

Route 66

Holbrook grew up on Route 66, and the Mother Road still runs right through the middle of town. This is one of the best-preserved stretches anywhere on the old highway, the kind of place where you can still sleep in a concrete teepee, drive through a hand-painted neon sign, and grab a Chicago dog out of a 1958 service station, all within a few blocks.

Spend a morning cruising Hopi Drive and Navajo Boulevard and you will hit most of it. Here is where to point the car.

Sleep here / Photo stop

Wigwam Motel

The most famous address in town. Fifteen white concrete teepees built in 1950, still taking guests, with a fleet of vintage cars parked out front. You do not have to stay the night to enjoy it. Anyone can pull in to wander the cars and grab a photo, which makes it one of the best free stops on the whole route.

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Photo stop

Route 66 Centennial Sign

One of Holbrook's newest landmarks and an instant favorite. A giant drive-through sign, hand-painted by local artist Richard Gorman and lit up for the first time in April 2026 for the road's 100th birthday. Come by day for the painted panels, after dark for the neon, and leave your own sticker inside like the travelers before you.

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Where to refuel

All that driving works up an appetite, and the road has you covered. Colonel Mustard Hot Dogs serves proper Chicago-style dogs out of a restored 1958 Richfield station. And Studio 66 Cafe opens early with a drive-through window, perfect for grabbing a coffee before a sunrise run to the park. The full rundown is down in Food & Drink.

Cap the night the old-fashioned way at the Roxy Theater, the only operating cinema left on Route 66, where general admission is still seven dollars and the marquee glowing over Hopi Drive is a photo in itself. And remember, the park out east even protects its own stretch of the original Mother Road, which we get into next.

The big ones

Attractions & Landmarks

If you only do one thing in Holbrook, make it the Petrified Forest. It is the reason most travelers pull off the interstate, and it lives up to every bit of the hype.

The Painted Desert at Petrified Forest National Park, about 26 miles from downtown.

Petrified Forest National Park is the crown jewel of a Holbrook trip and one of the most surreal landscapes in the Southwest, where 225-million-year-old trees have turned to stone and the desert is painted in bands of red, purple, blue and white. A single 28-mile scenic road runs the length of the park, so you can enter at one end and drive straight through. Do not miss the Painted Desert overlooks, the petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock, the badlands of Blue Mesa, and the weathered 1932 Studebaker marking the one stretch of original Route 66 the park protects. Plan most of a day, and go in the cooler morning light.

One local rule worth repeating: it is illegal to take petrified wood out of the park, even a small piece, so leave it where it lies and pick up a legally collected piece from a rock shop in town instead. Read the full guide, including the 2026 fee-free days.

Back in town, the rest of Holbrook's icons are an easy walk or short drive apart: the Wigwam Motel and the Route 66 Centennial Sign up in Route 66, the grand old courthouse museum in History & Heritage, and the petroglyphs at O'Dell Hidden Cove Park just north of town.

Wild West & Native heritage

History & Heritage

Holbrook was once known as one of the rowdiest towns in the West, the town too tough for women and churches, and you can still walk that history today.

The 1898 Navajo County Historic Courthouse, now the county museum and visitor center.

Start at the Navajo County Historic Courthouse Museum, the grandest old building in town and the best place to soak up the story, all for free. Built in 1898 of rough native stone, it holds ancient pottery and Native American art, Route 66 and ranching relics, and the original 1898 jail down in the basement, with iron cells that no prisoner ever escaped. It is also where you learn about the famous 1887 shootout that helped tame the town, the same era that gave nearby Bucket of Blood Street its name. On summer evenings, free Native American dances are performed right on the courthouse lawn.

Walk it yourself

The museum doubles as the visitor center and the starting point for the free, self-guided Historic Walking Tour. Follow it on our interactive map and stroll the century-old courthouse, the Route 66 storefronts, and the saloon-era landmarks at your own pace. It is a relaxed hour or two on foot, best first thing in the morning before the day heats up.

Deeper into the past

For something few visitors ever see, book a guided walk at O'Dell Hidden Cove Park just north of town, where close to 900 petroglyphs are pecked into the sandstone, some of them thousands of years old and sacred to the Hopi and Zuni. It is guided-tour-only, which is exactly what has kept it so well preserved. More on that just below in Outdoors.

Get outside

Outdoors & Nature

This is high desert country, wide open and quiet, and the best of it is just outside the city limits.

The Petrified Forest is the headliner, but it is far from the only way to get outside. North of town, O'Dell Hidden Cove Park is Holbrook's best-kept secret: a city-owned petroglyph site you can only visit on a two-hour guided walk led by a recorder of more than 40 years. Along the way you pass a century-old ranch, an old windmill, and a pond and picnic area that draw deer, lizards, and nearly 200 species of birds, so bring binoculars. Tours meet at the Hidden Cove Golf Course off I-40 Exit 283.

Speaking of which, Hidden Cove Golf Course is an easy, affordable way to spend a morning outdoors whether or not you golf, and the disc golf there is completely free. We cover it, and the rest of the local parks, just below.

Where the locals go

Parks & Recreation

When Holbrook has a free afternoon, this is where it spends it. All of these are easy, free or cheap, and welcome to visitors passing through.

Hidden Cove Golf Course is a laid-back nine-hole course in the high desert at the edge of town, open to the public with no tee time needed. Walking nine runs about fifteen dollars, and here is the local secret: the disc golf is completely free, so you can come throw a round even if you have never picked up a club.

For families, Hunt Park is the all-in-one: grassy fields, playsets, basketball, tennis and pickleball courts, a ball field, and the lit 6,800-square-foot Spencer Karol Memorial Skatepark with ramps and rails. Lisitzky Park is the quieter neighborhood alternative, a little smaller and tucked off the main roads, with a playground, ball fields, and plenty of shade for a picnic.

And in summer, the easiest way to beat the Arizona heat is the Holbrook City Pool. Open Swim runs every afternoon from 1 to 5pm, with a Night Swim on Monday through Wednesday evenings once the heat breaks, and admission tops out at four dollars.

Eat & drink

Food & Drink

For a small town, Holbrook punches way above its weight, from Chicago dogs and Texas brisket to a one-man sake brewery judged among the best in the world. Here is where to eat your way down Route 66.

Route 66 classics

Colonel Mustard Hot Dogs does proper Chicago-style dogs out of a beautifully restored 1958 Richfield station, with a shady pet-friendly patio out back. Wayside Soda Shop is a true hidden gem, an old-fashioned soda fountain open only on Wednesdays, famous for what regulars call the best green chili burger in town.

Coffee & quick stops

Studio 66 Cafe is the morning headquarters, a family-run coffee bar with a drive-through and a bakery case that changes daily. Route Sixty Sips leans all the way into the theme with Route 66-named lattes, lotus energy drinks, and dirty sodas. And Bijou Bowls is the feel-good stop, an acai bowl counter inside the Bijou Teen Center where every dollar funds the local nonprofit.

Sit-down dinners

Big Fella's BBQ is the home of real-deal, slow-smoked Texas brisket right on Route 66, with a pool table inside to settle in. Mesa Italiana has been the town's go-to for hand-tossed pizza and hearty Italian classics for years, and doubles as one of the better date-night spots around.

One of a kind

Do not leave without the strangest, best story in town. Arizona Sake is a tiny one-man brewery whose junmai ginjo took gold for the best sake brewed outside Japan. It is made in such small batches that you call or text ahead to set up a private tasting and buy a bottle to take home.

Take some home

Shop in Holbrook

Holbrook's signature souvenir is about 200 million years old. Polished petrified wood, fossils, and Route 66 keepsakes fill the shops here, and browsing them is an attraction all by itself.

The landmark rock shop

Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Co.

More than a rock shop. Display cases hold fossils and finds millions of years old, the shelves run from pocket-sized polished pieces to whole rainbow logs, and there is a stone yard out front to wander. You will find it on Highway 180 just south of downtown, on the way to the Petrified Forest's south entrance, and it is free to browse.

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More local shops and galleries are coming to this page. If the rocks get their hooks in you, ask at the counter where to hunt next.

Stay the night

Stay in Holbrook

Holbrook is the town that put sleeping in a teepee on the map, and it is still one of the best overnight stops on all of Route 66. Park the car, watch the neon come on, and wake up rested with the Petrified Forest waiting in the morning.

Sleep in a teepee

Wigwam Motel

Here you actually sleep inside a freestanding concrete teepee, at one of only two surviving Wigwam Village motels anywhere still taking guests. Chester E. Lewis opened Village No. 6 in 1950, and the retro feel survives right down to the original hickory furniture. Check-in opens at 3pm, and this is one of the most sought-after stops on the Mother Road, so book ahead.

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More motels, motor courts, and local stays are coming to this page. For tonight, you cannot go wrong with a teepee.