Welcome to

East of Albuquerque, Route 66 drops down through Tijeras Canyon into the broad Rio Grande rift, a river valley 30 miles across. You can see the path of the river easily, a stretched out and meandering oasis of trees.

In Albuquerque, Route 66 becomes Central Avenue, dotted with classic motels and their engaging neon signs. The 1946 guide to Route 66, by Jack Rittenhouse, calls the tourist courts in Albuquerque among the finest along U.S. 66. When he wrote, Albuquerque was flush with the influx of airmen and soldiers. This was only nine years after the first paved road across the state and New Mexico’s largest city (then 65,000, now ten times that), depended largely on the tourist trade and "lungers." TB sanitariums welcomed the infirm from across the United States.

Here the water was shallow enough for the horses to ford and drink. The wool wagons creaked down Railroad Avenue from the far-off reservations where sheep dominated the horizon. Here the Route 66 tourist stopped at auto courts with names like Buckaroo, Lasso, Palamino, or La Mesa or El Vado. Seeing these signs, drivers could be excused for wondering if they had taken a wrong turn and landed in Old Mexico.