CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A one-way ride of 541 km, Gallup to Kingman - roughly 7 h 27 in the saddle. On the way it passes Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff and Seligman. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Gallup is a long, thin town squeezed between red sandstone cliffs and the railroad tracks, on the old line of Route 66 in northwestern New Mexico. It sits at about 2,000 metres, with a dry, high-desert climate and a landscape of mesas and pale grassland, and it is known as the Indian Capital of the World, since it serves as a trading centre for the Navajo, Zuni and Hopi nations. Galleries and trading posts in town sell turquoise jewellery, woven rugs and pottery, and the quality of the work is high, though prices reflect that.
Read the complete Gallup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gallup is where the day begins. Next is Holbrook.
Holbrook is a small town on Interstate 40 in northern Arizona, a place that still looks like the postcard for old Route 66. About five thousand people live here, among sunbaked streets, neon signs and dusty sidewalks. The Wigwam Motel, a ring of concrete teepees with vintage cars parked outside, opened in the 1950s and is a favourite photo stop. Across the street, curio shops sell turquoise jewellery and rubber tomahawks, and the diners offer big breakfasts and tall milkshakes.
Read the complete Holbrook write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Holbrook comes up about 156 km into the recorded legs. Next is Winslow.
Winslow, Arizona, is famous for a song. In 1972, the Eagles released Take It Easy, with the line about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and today a small park on the main street has a statue and a mural, and tourists line up to take their picture on the corner. The town sits on the old Route 66, on the high plateau of northern Arizona, beside the Little Colorado River, with a population of about nine and a half thousand, and a long railway history that shaped it.
Read the complete Winslow write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach Winslow. Next is Flagstaff.
Flagstaff stands at about 2,100 metres, higher than most Alpine villages, and it feels it. The air is thin and dry, the sky is a deep blue, and the town is wrapped in the largest ponderosa pine forest in North America, with the San Francisco Peaks rising to the north. The tallest of them, Humphreys Peak, is 3,851 metres, the highest point in Arizona, and it holds snow into early summer. The peaks are volcanic, the remains of a huge cone that blew out long ago, and they are sacred to many Native nations, including the Hopi and Navajo.
Read the complete Flagstaff write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Flagstaff, about halfway. Next is Seligman.
Seligman is the town that saved Route 66. When the interstate bypassed it in 1978, the traffic that had kept the town alive simply disappeared, and the businesses along the main street faced ruin. A local barber, Angel Delgadillo, and his brother Juan began a campaign to preserve the old road, and in 1987 the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona was founded here, launching a revival that spread along the whole route. The town is now full of neon, vintage cars and roadside kitsch, and the Delgadillo family's barbershop and the Snow Cap Drive-In, famous for its jokes and fake mustard bottles, are still going.
Read the complete Seligman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seligman sits at 433 km, late in the day. Next is Kingman.
Kingman is where Route 66 gets down to business in the Arizona desert. The town sits at about a thousand metres between the Hualapai and Cerbat mountains, with creosote flats stretching in all directions, and it has been a railway stop, a mining supply town and a highway halt in turn. Today it is a tidy, sun-bleached place of nearly thirty thousand people, with a long main street, Andy Devine Avenue, named after the gravelly-voiced Hollywood actor who grew up here. A small museum devoted to Route 66 occupies an old powerhouse, and a neon-lit downtown has diners, motels and murals that keep the mid-century atmosphere alive.
Read the complete Kingman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 541 km.
Gallup → Holbrook is 156 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Holbrook → Winslow is 54 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Winslow → Flagstaff is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Flagstaff → Seligman is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Seligman → Kingman is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.