Route 66 road trip planner: The best stops along the way

Chicago, Hinsdale and Joliet, Illinois

The symbolic start of Route 66 is Buckingham Fountain in Chicago’s Grant Park, but it’s not really a road trip until you’re headed southwest out of the city.

A perfect jumping-off point for your trip is the Route 66 Welcome Center at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, with its excellent exhibit on the Muffler Men, huge fiberglass statues that were used to advertise car repair shops.

Restaurants still maintaining Route 66’s traditions of roadside hospitality include the Rich & Creamy ice cream stand, Joliet Kicks on Route 66 and Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, specializing in fried chicken served under the slogan, “Get Your Chicks on Route 66.”

For the ultimate all-American feast, Al’s Steak House has been serving up prime cuts to weary road trippers for 60 years. As you head farther southwest on what today is Highway 55, stop for photos at the perfectly preserved Ambler’s Texaco Gas Station in Dwight, where the gas pumps are painted gleaming red.

Where to stay

Pontiac, Illinois

Pontiac’s pride in its Mother Road heritage can be seen in its 23 colorful outdoor murals and its two museums dedicated to America’s love affair with the automobile. The Pontiac-Oakland Museum and Resource Center displays a rotating collection of rare Oakland and Pontiac models, while the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum showcases vintage ads, signs and a classic Volkswagen hippie bus housed in an old fire station.

Litchfield, Illinois

This one is a quick stop, but you don’t want to miss the Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center (yes, another one!) with its collection of nostalgic paraphernalia.

Nearby, the uber-retro Ariston Cafe is one of the oldest continuously operating Route 66 establishments, serving up a melting pot of American, Southern, Greek and Italian fare since 1924.

Springfield, Missouri

Crossing into Missouri, don’t miss Chain of Rocks Bridge, now open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic only, famed for its dramatic dogleg bend midspan.

Springfield’s vintage Route 66 establishments are preserved along two downtown streets: St. Louis Street, east of downtown, and the Chestnut Expressway on the west side. The Route 66 Car Museum is the big attraction here, thanks to its collection of more than 70 rare and collectible vintage cars.

One of Springfield’s most recognizable historic buildings is the Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Mosque. This flamboyantly Arabesque old theater was built in 1923 and is still owned by the Shriners, who use it as an auditorium and concert hall. Nearby, a plaque tells the story of Wild Bill Hickok’s murder of fellow gambler Dave Tutt, supposedly because Tutt flaunted a watch he’d won off Hickok.

Where to stay

Galena and Riverton, Kansas

The Kansas section of Route 66 is just 13.2 miles long, but it includes a couple of key stops. These include the town of Galena, a must for the old Kan-O-Tex gas station that now houses Cars on the Route, a tribute to Pixar’s animated movie “Cars.”

Housed inside the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas train depot, Galena Mining & Historical Museum is filled with vintage furnishings, tools and historical records documenting life in a mining boomtown.

Just west in Riverton, stop for lunch or snacks at the Eisler Brothers Old Riverton Store, a road trip staple since the 1920s. This deli serves up classic sandwiches, and the owner, who happens to be president of the Kansas Route 66 Association, displays his memorabilia.

Less well known, but beloved by locals, is the white-painted Rainbow Bridge that arches over Brush Creek approximately 2 miles west of Riverton.

Clinton, Oklahoma

Oklahoma has more original and still-driveable miles of Route 66 than any other state and takes great pride in this heritage. This includes the key role Route 66 played in the 1930s Dust Bowl migration.

Nowhere is this pride more on display than in the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. The museum has used its significant state and local funding to pull together a comprehensive collection that even includes the chance to sit in a re-created 1950s diner.

Those who’ve traveled this route before will mourn the loss of the classic Trade Winds Inn, which until recently sat across the street from the museum and was a favorite of Elvis Presley, who stayed there four times. Clinton also has an indoor water park known as the Water-Zoo that makes a perfect road trip break for tired kids.

Where to stay

Tulsa, Stroud and Chandler, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the food capital of the Route 66 road trip, boasting a number of eateries with some variation on a Mother Road theme, chief among them El Rancho Grande, which has been serving up Mexican food for more than 60 years under a photogenic neon sign. Looking exactly as a vintage Mother Road diner should, Tally’s is a must for breakfast all day long.

You’ll find something tasty for everyone at Mother Road Market, where you can choose from Chicken & the Wolf, Bodhi’s Bowl and even Brazilian food at Doctor Kustom, then eat on a family-friendly outdoor patio complete with Route 66-themed murals and a minigolf course.

Don’t leave without checking out the eclectic shops at Mother Road Market, where you’ll find books, toys and inspired souvenirs. Make a final stop at the Desert Hills Motel to snap a photo of its beloved neon sign.

Departing Tulsa to the west, the first landmark to watch for is Rock Creek Bridge. At just 12 feet wide, it provides a vivid sense of just how narrow highways like Route 66 were back in the early days of the Model T. You’ll find another great example of Route 66 neon in Stroud, where the Skyliner Motel beckons visitors with a towering red arrow.

Now, back to the movie “Cars.” The Rock Cafe just west of Stroud — which is made from local stone quarried in the 1920s — is a must-stop for fans because of its association with director John Lasseter. He visited numerous times as he wrote and directed the movie, leaving behind signed posters, napkins and graffiti.

Chandler is home to the Route 66 Interpretive Center, which is a bit of a departure from other Mother Road museums for its emphasis on education.

McLean, Texas

Stretching across the pancake-flat plains of the Texas panhandle for almost 200 miles, Route 66 in Texas has largely been directly supplanted by Interstate 40, with old Mother Road businesses left behind on the various towns’ business loops.

The first of these, from east to west, is the old ranching town of McLean. It wasn’t bypassed by the interstate until the early 1980s and has made impressive efforts to preserve its historic structures.

Stop for a photo op with the giant neon Texas sign and another at the perfectly preserved Phillips 66 station, where the pumps still list a price of 19 cents a gallon.

Well worth a stop is the Devil’s Rope Museum. It’s dedicated to barbed wire, called the “devil’s rope” by cowboys, and holds one of the entire Mother Road’s best collections of Route 66 memorabilia and souvenirs.

Amarillo and Cadillac Ranch, Texas

The beef industry still reigns supreme in Amarillo, which handles 2 million head of cattle a year, providing plenty of that old Wild West vibe, despite its booming population. Route 66 follows Sixth Street through what is now called the Old Jacinto District, so head there to browse boot, saddle and Western shops and antiques stores.

Back on I-40, you can’t miss the giant steer head marking the Big Texan Steak Ranch, which was located on Route 66 when it opened in 1960. Families will like the old false-front Wild West-themed building, kitschy decor and the enormous portions at reasonable prices.

However, the Amarillo area’s most photographed road-themed attraction is Cadillac Ranch, just off I-40 and about 10 miles west of town. Here, 10 rusting Cadillacs are buried nose down in the dirt, their finned backsides rising toward the sky and demonstrating iconic American midcentury design in order from 1949 to 1964.

Cadillac Ranch was created by a collective of San Francisco-based artists in 1974 at the behest of eccentric millionaire Stanley Marsh III, who moved them in the late 1990s to put them farther outside the city’s sprawl. Since Marsh’s death in 2014, the installation’s future has been less secure, but filmmakers use the day-glo-painted cars so frequently for advertisements and photo shoots that the installation seems likely to survive awhile longer.

Where to stay

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Tucumcari arguably has more time capsule photo ops than perhaps anywhere else on Route 66, thanks to the abundance of cool vintage signs lining aptly named Route 66 Boulevard. Many adorn classic motor lodges and diners, including Del’s Restaurant, which features a giant cow on its sign.

The other thing you’ll notice is the murals — nearly 100 of them — which stretch down side streets and adorn shops, restaurants and grocery stores. Make sure to see the Mother Road-themed mural at the corner of Second Street and Tucumcari Boulevard and also seek out the Magnolia gas station decorated with Route 66 signs and memorabilia.

Where to stay

Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Known for its preservation of retro signs and buildings, Santa Rosa is also home to the Route 66 Auto Museum, which you can’t miss thanks to the bright yellow car perched atop a pole high in the air.

In addition to classic cars dating back to the earliest days of the automobile, the museum has an excellent collection of vintage gas pumps that say Route 66 better than anything else. Santa Rosa’s other claim to fame, the Blue Hole, is an astoundingly deep spring-fed lake popular with scuba divers.

Where to stay

Williams, Arizona

“Last town bypassed by I-40,” reads the mural on the wall as you drive down Williams’ main street. It’s no surprise that Williams celebrates its dual identity as both a shoot-’em-up Western town and a nostalgic 1950s cruising strip.

Retro-chic photo ops are aplenty here, including the sky-blue sign for the Arizona 9 Motor Hotel and the neon cow beckoning diners to Rod’s Steakhouse. The Coca-Cola-red car on the roof of Cruiser’s 66 Cafe is visible for blocks.

Seligman and Hackberry, Arizona

Filled with a string of vintage cafes, stores and gas stations, now colorfully painted and festooned in antiques rescued from the surrounding desert, Seligman is one big photo op — and what a photo op it is. From here, Route 66 diverted from I-40 through Hackberry, where the Hackberry General Store has the gritty Mother Road vibe so many of the more cleaned-up museums lack.

Kingman and Oatman, Arizona

A key stop on the Route 66 pilgrimage, Kingman houses the unusually comprehensive Arizona Route 66 Museum. In the Powerhouse Visitor Center, it traces the history of the westward route back to when it was an Indian trail, wagon train route and railroad line before it carried road trippers. Exhibits include a covered wagon and a characteristic Dust Bowl truck, as well as brightly painted 1950s roadsters.

The sharp jog north to visit the old mining town of Oatman is well worth the detour to see a town with a main street that appears to be frozen in time. Its sidewalks are still made of wood, and burros still wander among the old storefronts.

Barstow, California

Several quirky landmarks pay tribute to Barstow’s former importance as a rail hub — including a McDonald’s made from old railroad cars. However, Barstow’s big lure for Route 66 fans is the Route 66 Mother Road Museum, located in the faded glory of the Casa del Desierto, a Fred Harvey hotel.

Outside Barstow in the Mojave National Preserve, the Kelso Depot has become a visitors center, bookstore and museum, with its former baggage room ticket office and dormitory rooms refurbished to their 1930s glory. The Desert Light Gallery has natural history and art exhibits.

Barstow is a common overnight spot for drivers on the way to San Francisco or Los Angeles, as well as the desert national parks of Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon.

Where to stay

Westward to the coast

Route 66 was rejiggered so many times as it passed through California that it’s not always easy to trace the route or even find the remnants that exist. They’re in small zigzag patches, some no longer even connected.

Victorville, California, has one short section, marked by an optimistic over-the-road welcome sign and the California Route 66 Museum. In all-but-abandoned Newberry Springs, the Baghdad Cafe had its 15 minutes of fame thanks to its namesake film, a 1980s art-house favorite.

But if you want a true sense of times long gone, these stretches of Highway 66 are perfect. Here are miles upon miles of lonely emptiness, where tumbleweeds blow across the pockmarked pavement. Motel signs stand abandoned, and vintage gas pumps behind chain-link fences still beg for attention from motorists long gone.

Where to stay