After descending a bit from Flagstaff on our way to Albuquerque the snow retreats so we decide to stop at Two Guns ruins, an interesting location along old Route 66. There is a bridge here over the Diablo Canyon making it a great place for stop on the very popular old Route 66. However when the interstate was built bypassing the area it was closed after the lone service station caught fire in 1971 and then eventually abandoned.
There are quite a few ruins to explore and we decide to walk around and see what we can find. The views are quite impressive over the canyon rim and we enjoy our walk this afternoon. In fact there are two stages of development here, first the original settlers built a trading post, restaurant, gasoline station and even a post office by early 1920s. And then by 1925 an eccentric leased part of the land and opened a new trading post and his own zoo, complete with mountain lions, cougars, snakes and Gila monsters.
Interestingly this is not the end of the story. Only one year after leasing the land the owner and the lessee got into an disagreement and the owner was shot in cold blood, killing the unarmed man. And then after he was acquitted, he was mauled by not one, but two of his mountain lions and then was then bitten by one of his own venomous Gila monsters forcing him to leave. So to us the most interesting area is the old zoo where the animal pens are still visible. This includes the iconic Mountain Lions pen that sits in ruins, luckily the lions are long gone so no danger of mauling in present times. And then it is time to continue on towards Winslow our last stop before Albuquerque.
