Just west of Gallup, I-40 exits New Mexico enters Arizona. It was nearly 7 pm by the time we were on the road. Leaving the little Indian island behind, we drove into the dust of Arizona.

The drive took us all the way around the high mountain, winding through a land of pine forests and aspen groves, open prairies and rustic homesteads. The driving was quite interesting. As summer was close, the color of the meadows and the decoration of the forests reached a climax. There are a number of places along this route where anyone can stop to take a hike, enjoy a lunch or even set up a primitive camp. We were heading towards Flagstaff and didn’t stop anywhere else with a hidden intention to have a quick trip in Grand Canyon if time allows. However, we never made it Grand Canyon due to lack of time.

I didn’t have much information about it. Some authors made educated assumption of Muslims footprints via early Spanish explorers. The most frequently mentioned name is Marcos De Niza, who explored the Arizona Territory in 1539. The next Muslim traveler to be recorded in this area was the cameleer, Hajj Ali. He was brought to the desert to breed camels as part of an experiment proposed by a government expert seeking a more hearty animal than a horse for use in the desert. When the U.S. Camel Corps project failed, Hajj Ali (‘Hi Jolly’ as he’s known in the annals of the West) moved to an area of the San Joaquin Valley in California in which four hundred square miles of fields was being transformed from the mechanical-intensive cultivation of grain to the labor-intensive cultivation of fruits and vegetables.

For the next 200 miles west across Arizona went through several small towns such as Holbrook, Joseph City and Winslow towards Flagstaff, which has the next significant surviving section of Route 66, a 16 mile stretch through the north of the town. We visited two places in Arizona.
1)Muslim Student Association, Flagstaff
2)Kingman