Although there’s no shortage of rock and petrified wood shops in Holbrook, the Rainbow Rock Shop is worth a stop, just for the photo op. Although the fenced yard is filled to the brim with rocks of every size and shape, the real stars at this stop are the giant fiberglass dinosaurs.
The best place to park is on the right side of the shop, which has a small paved unstriped lot, but parking is also available in a level gravel area in front. It doesn’t matter if the shop is open or not, because the real photo ops are from outside. Unfortunately the shop and the yard are so filled with rocks and petrified wood, that it’s not even remotely wheelchair-accessible. Still you can just roll up to the front to catch a glimpse of the dinosaur collection – you don’t even have to get out of your car. It’s easy to find too – just take exit 286 off of Interstate 40 and head south. The rock shop is located on the west side of the road just south of Hopi Drive.
Holbrook has a reputation as a town filled with dinosaur statues, but most of them congregate in the tiny front yard of the Rainbow Rock Shop. Owner Adam Luna reportedly took 20 years to build his 11 dinosaurs out of cement and reinforcing rods. They stand in a small concrete patio, some enclosed within a chain-link fence.
Rocks for sale are in abundance here: big piles of petrified wood out back, and smaller piles of specialty rocks scattered among the dinosaurs. Hand-painted signs try to explain geologic forces to people like us: "Geodes come from the center of the earth blown out of a volcano as a bubble. It fell to the ground and was buried by volcanic ash."
Another big fence encloses part of the back yard, decorated with a mural of various Jurassic creatures, beneath a sign that reads "See Dinosaur Bones."
The Rainbow Rock Shop is THE stop in town if you want to take snapshots of or with dinosaurs, and owner Luna knows it, charging anywhere from 75 to 98 cents for photo-ops with some of the smaller, kid-sized dinos. That annoys some people, who may have noticed all the free dinosaurs sprinkled around the Southwest.
