Why this ride
From Clinton it runs 285 km to Amarillo; allow about 3 h 54 of riding. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Historic Route 66: Clinton Oklahoma to Amarillo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 285 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 54
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Clinton Oklahoma
Clinton sits in western Oklahoma on the old road that Americans called the Mother Road, and the town has leaned into that fact. The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum is here, laid out decade by decade from the road's birth in 1926 through the Dust Bowl, the migration west that John Steinbeck wrote about, and the postwar boom of motels and neon. For someone about to ride the same alignment, it works as a good briefing before the miles start. The Washita River runs just to the south, and the land around is red soil, wheat, cattle and wind.
Read the complete Clinton Oklahoma write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Clinton Oklahoma is where the day begins. Next is Shamrock Texas.
2. Shamrock Texas
Shamrock, Texas, is a town named by an Irishman, and it has never been shy about the fact. A homesteader called George Nickel, so the story goes, gave it its name in 1890, and the town now holds an annual St Patrick's Day festival with a parade, a Blarney Stone and a great deal of green. It sits on the old Route 66, in the Texas Panhandle, a country of flat horizons, grain elevators, cattle and wind. The population is under two thousand, and the nearest other town of any size, Wheeler, is a good half-hour away.
Read the complete Shamrock Texas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Shamrock Texas comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Amarillo.
3. Amarillo
Amarillo is the city where the Texas Panhandle shows its hand: a flat, windy plain stretching to every horizon, with a skyline of grain elevators, water towers and big sky. At around 1,100 metres above sea level it is higher than you think, and the wind is a constant companion, often strong enough to lean a bike over on the long straights. For anyone riding Route 66, it is the natural place to start or end a day, with everything a traveller needs and a handful of landmarks that have become part of the road's folklore.
Read the complete Amarillo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 285 km.
Leg by leg
Clinton Oklahoma to Shamrock Texas
Clinton Oklahoma → Shamrock Texas is 130 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Shamrock Texas to Amarillo
Shamrock Texas → Amarillo is 155 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.