A donkey will probably block your way into Oatman, and you should let it. The wild burros that wander the main street are descendants of animals left behind by prospectors, and they are tame enough to take carrots from tourists and stubborn enough to hold up traffic. The town itself is a little gold-rush survivor of about a hundred people, with wooden boardwalks, saloons and gift shops, and staged gunfights in the street for the benefit of visitors. It is kitsch, certainly, but there is something genuine in the dust and the mountains behind it.
The road is the reason to come. Old Route 66 climbs out of the Mojave Desert over the Black Mountains, through Sitgreaves Pass at about 1,100 metres, in a series of tight switchbacks with no guardrails and some steep drops. It is narrow, twisting and sometimes rough, and it was bypassed in the 1950s when a new, easier road opened further south, which is why the town went quiet. Travellers in the 1930s often had to let passengers out to walk the steepest corners, with the car overheating and the brakes complaining. A motorcycle takes it all in its stride, and the views over the desert are superb.
The gold is gone, though in the early twentieth century this was one of the richest mining camps in Arizona. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent a night at the hotel on their wedding trip in 1939, and the room is still shown. Prospectors' shafts scar the hills around the town, and the old mine buildings can be seen from the road.
Practical details matter in the desert. Oatman has no reliable fuel, so take fuel at Kingman or Bullhead City, on the Colorado River, before the climb. The summers are brutally hot, with temperatures that can reach well over forty degrees Celsius, and the road should be done early in the morning or in spring and autumn. Carry plenty of water. Spring wildflowers, after wet winters, can cover the slopes.
Mind the burros. They are protected, they kick, and they do not understand traffic. Feeding them is allowed only with approved food sold in the shops, and they can be pushy, so keep your pannier lids closed.