Historic Route 66: Seligman to Needles

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Seligman is where the day begins. Next is Kingman.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kingman comes up about 271 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oatman.

3. 3. Oatman

   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.

   Read the complete Oatman write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 359 km into the recorded legs you reach Oatman. Next is Needles.

4. 4. Needles

   Needles takes its name from the jagged pinnacles that rise above the Colorado River on the Arizona side, and it is one of the hottest places in the United States, where summer temperatures regularly climb above forty-five degrees. Behind the town, the Needles peaks stand in a jagged row, and to the east the river curves in blue loops through the brown desert.

   Read the complete Needles write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Needles closes the day.