Rainbow Rock Shop

Roadside attractions featuring oversized statues and unusual visual hooks were a defining feature of Route 66 commerce during the Mother Road's commercial peak. Businesses competed for travelers' attention along the long stretches of highway, and oversized concrete animals, statues of various subjects, and other visual spectacles emerged as one of the standard strategies for attracting drive-by attention.

Rainbow Rock Shop's concrete dinosaurs fit firmly in this tradition. The dinosaurs are oversized — large enough to register clearly to passing drivers — and positioned for photography from the parking area. The combination of the dinosaurs and the petrified-wood retail business creates a thematic coherence: the prehistoric subject matter (dinosaurs, fossilized trees) connects the visual spectacle to the merchandise.

The dinosaurs have become some of the most-photographed roadside-Americana subjects in northeastern Arizona. Travelers stop for photographs regardless of whether they enter the shop, and the dinosaurs anchor Rainbow Rock Shop's identity as a Route 66 destination distinct from its actual retail business.

Petrified wood is fossilized tree material — wood that has been mineralized into stone through millions of years of geological process, with the original wood structure preserved at microscopic detail while the original organic material has been replaced by silica and other minerals. The result is essentially trees turned to stone, with the wood grain, growth rings, and other structural features clearly visible.

Petrified Forest National Park, just east of Holbrook, contains the world's largest concentration of petrified wood — fossilized trees from the Triassic period (around 225 million years ago) that have been exposed by erosion across the park's dramatic badland landscape. The petrified wood within the park is protected by federal law; removing even small pieces is a federal crime that has been enforced.

Outside the national park, petrified wood from surrounding private lands is widely available through retailers like Rainbow Rock Shop. The shop offers specimens ranging from small polished pieces (affordable souvenirs) through substantial display-quality logs (significant purchases). The wood is genuinely beautiful — the mineralization process produces vivid colors, with reds, yellows, browns, and other hues visible in the rings and grain of the original wood structure.

Rainbow Rock Shop is located on Navajo Boulevard in Holbrook, easily accessible from the Route 66 corridor through town. The dinosaur statues are visible from the road and serve as the obvious visual marker for the shop's location.

The shop is free to visit; purchases are obviously optional. Many travelers stop just for photographs of the dinosaurs without entering the shop; others spend substantial time browsing the petrified wood inventory and selecting specimens for purchase. Plan 15-30 minutes for a casual visit or longer for serious petrified-wood shopping.

For Route 66 travelers, Rainbow Rock Shop combines naturally with a Holbrook itinerary that includes the Wigwam Motel, the downtown Historic Route 66 District, Petrified Forest National Park, and the Navajo County Historical Museum. The shop's petrified wood is the take-home complement to a Petrified Forest visit — legal access to genuine petrified wood that the national park itself does not allow.