Route 66, from Chicago to Santa Monica

From Illinois to the Pacific

Route 66 starts in the centre of Chicago and ends nearly 4,000 kilometres later in Santa Monica, on the Pacific. You switch between the old road and the interstate that replaced it, mostly I-40. The cornfields of Illinois give way to the wooded hills of the Ozarks, then to the great prairie of Oklahoma and Texas.

You stop for the roadside curiosities: neon-lit motels in Tucumcari, a blue whale in a pond in Catoosa, ten Cadillacs planted in a field near Amarillo. Then come the red mesas of New Mexico, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. In Arizona, you pass the concrete tepees of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, then the street corner in Winslow that the Eagles sang about.

The longest intact stretch of the old road is in Arizona: about 260 kilometres from Seligman to Topock, on the banks of the Colorado River. After Kingman, it climbs in hairpin bends to Sitgreaves Pass, at 1,093 metres, then drops down to Oatman, where free-roaming donkeys take over the main street. That leaves the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles.

In 1939, John Steinbeck called it the “Mother Road” in The Grapes of Wrath: the road of farmers ruined by the Dust Bowl, heading for California. After the war, it became the holiday road, sung by Nat King Cole as early as 1946. The interstates then replaced Route 66, piece by piece. Williams was the last town to be bypassed, in 1984.

The revival began in Seligman. In 1987, the barber Angel Delgadillo founded an association there, which got Arizona to designate the old road “Historic Route 66”. In 2006, the film Cars drew on it: the U-Drop Inn became Ramone’s body shop.

Deserts and Native American lands

Petrified Forest is the only national park that Route 66 crosses. Telegraph poles and a 1932 Studebaker mark the old line there. Its fallen trunks are more than 200 million years old; silica has replaced the wood. To the north, the Painted Desert shows clays in grey and red bands. Further west, Meteor Crater, 1.2 kilometres across, was made by a meteorite about 50,000 years ago.

The pueblos of Laguna and Acoma are still lived in, and Gallup sits on the edge of the Navajo Nation. The architect Mary Colter built La Posada, a hacienda hotel in Winslow, and the Desert View Watchtower, inspired by the Pueblos. She also remodelled the Painted Desert Inn.

What not to miss

1. 1The Chain of Rocks BridgeA 1929 bridge over the Mississippi, with a bend in the middle, open only to walkers and cyclists.
2. 2The Gateway ArchThe tallest arch in the world, 192 metres high, which you go up in a small pod.
3. 3Cadillac RanchTen Cadillacs planted nose-down in 1974, which anyone can repaint.
4. 4The Blue Hole in Santa RosaA deep-blue artesian spring, at 17 °C all year round, where you can swim.
5. 5Tucumcari in the eveningThe neon signs of the old motels light up at dusk.
6. 6The Oatman HighwayThe hairpin bends of Sitgreaves Pass, with no crash barriers, then Oatman and its donkeys.

Route 66 in pictures

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The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The Route 66 table

In St Louis, Ted Drewes serves frozen custard on the old road, so thick that it is handed to you upside down. In Springfield, Illinois, the Cozy Dog has been selling hot dogs in cornmeal batter since 1949. In Amarillo, the Big Texan gives its 72-ounce steak free to anyone who finishes it within an hour.

In New Mexico, everything comes down to the chile, red or green; “Christmas” means both. In Gallup, you eat Navajo frybread, a fried flatbread, sweet or topped like a taco.