Description - What to expect

Route 66 Road trip Itinerary



We head out of Las Vegas for this amazing “tribute to Route 66” side trip. First stop Kingman, Arizona, and yes, that is where our Route 66 journey starts! What an exciting time! We are privileged to follow down memory lane for the next 100 miles, one of the most scenic drives in the Southwest!



First things first: we pick up our personal Route 66 Passport! The next 75 miles from Kingman to Seligman is iconic 1950s-60s Route 66. This stretch is similar to what most American’s remember from the 1950s and 1960s on epic family road trips out west to the Grand Canyon or California.



Several pull-offs between Hackberry Road and Crozier Canyon, a section of Route 66, follow the railroad tracks laid out in the 1880s! It’s no wonder there are so many places to pull off and watch today’s iron horses. Next stop Truxton and Peach Springs!



The Grand Canyon Caverns Ghost Walk Tour deserves its own mention. Several paranormal investigators have peered into the Caverns after The Route 66 Paranormal Society conducted an investigation in 2013 and came up with some …interesting… results! Caverns began offering the Ghost Walk evening tour and shortly after, the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventurers became interested. In October 2015, Ghost Adventurers aired their 130th episode featuring the Grand Canyon Caverns' ghostly presence. The Grand Canyon Caverns are 21 stories below ground in the third-largest dry limestone caverns in the world and one of a handful of original Route 66 attractions still going strong today. In the 1960s, air passages were found to connect the caverns to the Grand Canyon, and it was rechristened ‘Grand Canyon Caverns’



Continue your Route 66 Road trip heading into Seligman, the birthplace of historic Route 66!! We want the timing to be right for a great treat at one of the historic lunch places like the Roadkill Cafe, or Delgadillo’s Snow Cap for a burger or the world’s biggest hotdog!



Satisfied with our choice of lunch and our experience in Selingman, we leave this part of Route 66 by way of Interstate 40 to join Nostalgic Route 66 in Kingman again and looking for one of the most dramatic stretches up the 99 hairpin turn road to Oatman, AZ. Back in Kingman, AZ the next 52 miles between Kingman and the Colorado River at Topock is the original Mother Road. Predating the declaration of Route 66 in 1926, it was built for the stream of prospectors looking to stake a claim in the Oatman Gold Rush of 1902.



Perhaps there’s more historical context to Radiator Springs than Disney/Pixar realized in the animated movie “Cars”. It seems that knowing where springs were along the highway was important for drivers who needed to top off a radiator from time to time! Cool Springs was the last service station before heading up into the Black Mountains. Much of the original structure exploded in the making of the movie “Universal Soldier”. The building was rebuilt and now serves as a gift shop and museum. Depending on the day there is any number of other vendors, including gem stone-polishers and jewelry makers, set up with their goods available to purchase!



Next to our Route 66 Road trip we make our way up towards the top of Sitgreave Pass which was first mapped out by Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves in 1851 while on an expedition to see if Colorado and other rivers could be navigated by steamboat. From the top of the pass at an elevation of 3,550ft, you can see across the Black Mountains into California and Nevada to the West and across the scenic switchbacks to the Hualapai Mountains in Arizona to the East.



We arrive at the historic and mysterious town of Oatman. Referred to as a “Living Ghost Town,” this Arizona town began as a tent camp when gold was discovered in 1902 and was the site of a multi-million dollar gold discovery in 1915! Oatman was named after Olive Oatman, a young girl from Illinois who was captured by the Yavapai Native Americans and forced to work as a slave before being rescued and adopted by the Mohave Native Americans. Browse the quaint shops and feed the many wild burros that wander the streets, left behind by the miners of old!! Such a great opportunity to take pictures! Watch out for the occasional gunfight that can flare up between the Ghost Riders and the Gold Diggers!



Oatman hasn’t changed much since the gold rush days. It is still made up of the same old buildings slapped together with whatever settlers could find. The historic buildings and the wooden boardwalks are amazing to explore and another remnant of the past is the wild burros left behind by the gold miners that today roam the streets and are forever a delight to the visitors of Oatman!



After this fun and unique experience, it’s time for us to end the nostalgic Route 66 Road trip and return to Las Vegas by way of crossing the Colorado River at the Avi Resort and Casino at Fort Mojave. The rest of the way, we drive along the Mojave Desert on the Veterans Memorial Highway where the road cuts through the beautiful desert scape of the Eldorado Valley, we come over the Railroad Pass to see a familiar place…Fabulous Las Vegas!