On the drive home from our epic Pacific Coast road trip, we drove through Arizona and New Mexico before arriving back home in Denver. After a few days in the Phoenix area at The Phoenician, we headed off for Santa Fe, and made a stop in Holbrook to check out the incredible petrified rocks.
Our first stop was the Rainbow Rock Shop. Out front, and in fact all over Holbrook, you’ll find large statues of dinosaurs. We stopped to take a quick photo with them before heading in.
There are no photos allowed within the shop, but it’s FILLED with incredible rocks and gems that have been found locally. The owner was there, actively breaking open some new items that had been brought in, and polishing some new stuff for the store.
We ended up buying a few smaller stones, and bringing them back to put in our living room. They matched our home aesthetic perfectly, and now are a constant reminder of the fantastic trip we were able to take this year. They also have some MASSIVE gem/stone statues that would make great additions, but were just too heavy to add to our already loaded up car.
The Petrified Forest National Park entrance is nearby, and you can spend an entire day wandering the amazing rocks and taking in nature’s beauty. We initially had planned to stop, or at least to drive through part of the park, but had gotten a late stop, and didn’t think we’d make it to Santa Fe by dark. We decided to skip the full park this go-around, but still were able to see some incredible rock structures from the road as we drove.
After having loaded up on rocks, we headed off to our destination of the evening, Santa Fe, New Mexico. We’d planned to spend two nights in Santa Fe so that we could truly explore the city, as our last destination on our month-long trip. Be sure to check out our entire Pacific Coast Highway road trip itinerary here. We had an absolute blast, and are already planning more road trips for the near future. Have any great recommendations of road trips from Denver? Let us know in the comments!
