Route 66 Vacation Ideas?

[KX500]

My wife & I are looking at vacation ideas. One of them is to do a partial Route 66 Vacation with trips to the Grand Canyon and 4 Corners. We've not spent much time out west and haven't seen any of that stuff except the Denver/Colorado Springs area.

Also, I've driven from St. Louis to Oklahoma City several times & don't recall seeing much I'd want to stop for.

So thinking of flying to somewhere out west & doing some driving/sight seeing over 8-10 days.

Any, what are the 'must sees' out in that area along Route 66 or not too far from it?

[Shane]

Fly to Amarillo and drive I-40/Route 66 west to Flagstaff. Lots of small towns along the way with some cool old Route 66 stuff here and there. You could begin with a drive east of Amarillo to Shamrock, if you wanted to see a really cool old art deco gas station. (Or fly in to OKC and drive west through Shamrock from there.) Then hit the Big Texan in Amarillo, some cool old buildings and shops on 6th street (old Route 66) downtown, and then the Cadillac Ranch west of town. Various Route 66 tourist traps across New Mexico, like Cline's Corners and such. You could detour up to Santa Fe. If you do that, you should also head up to Los Alamos and visit the Valles Caldera National Preserve. It's gorgeous and teaming with elk.

And then several cool stops in Arizona: Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are cool stops...the Tee Pee Motel in Holbrook (and some other old Route 66 stuff in town)….stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.....Meteor Crater....Flagstaff is a cool town....north a ways to Grand Canyon....or south a few miles to Sedona. You could continue west to Kingman and then north to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas if you wanted to.

[3DW5]

Fly to Jackson Hole Wyoming and drive all over Yellowstone, best sight seeing you will ever do.

[mad34b]

Not a whole lot there but if your an Eagles fan you have to go stand on the corner in Winslow AZ.

[Aggiehunter08]

Not a whole lot there but if your an Eagles fan you have to go stand on the corner in Winslow AZ.

Fiancé and I stopped by last year. One of the most depressing towns I’ve been to.

[kumathebear]

Fly to Amarillo and drive I-40/Route 66 west to Flagstaff. Lots of small towns along the way with some cool old Route 66 stuff here and there. You could begin with a drive east of Amarillo to Shamrock, if you wanted to see a really cool old art deco gas station. (Or fly in to OKC and drive west through Shamrock from there.) Then hit the Big Texan in Amarillo, some cool old buildings and shops on 6th street (old Route 66) downtown, and then the Cadillac Ranch west of town. Various Route 66 tourist traps across New Mexico, like Cline's Corners and such. You could detour up to Santa Fe. If you do that, you should also head up to Los Alamos and visit the Valles Caldera National Preserve. It's gorgeous and teaming with elk.

And then several cool stops in Arizona: Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are cool stops...the Tee Pee Motel in Holbrook (and some other old Route 66 stuff in town)….stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.....Meteor Crater....Flagstaff is a cool town....north a ways to Grand Canyon....or south a few miles to Sedona. You could continue west to Kingman and then north to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas if you wanted to.

I did this route, almost, several years ago headed to a national meeting in Vegas. Took a week off before the meeting, towed my Harley, yeah..towed so what of it?! LOL, and had a blast. Stopped over and spent the night in several spots, unloaded the Bike and just explored. Have to admit, my favorite was Winslow where I met two local PD officers and got a lot of history and even a tour from one of them who also rode bikes.

Back then I was "ate up with the HD lifestyle," so I hit every HD shop I saw on the way. 66 is fun in my book and a lot of history on the way wherever you are going.

[bobc]

Fly to Amarillo and drive I-40/Route 66 west to Flagstaff. Lots of small towns along the way with some cool old Route 66 stuff here and there. You could begin with a drive east of Amarillo to Shamrock, if you wanted to see a really cool old art deco gas station. (Or fly in to OKC and drive west through Shamrock from there.) Then hit the Big Texan in Amarillo, some cool old buildings and shops on 6th street (old Route 66) downtown, and then the Cadillac Ranch west of town. Various Route 66 tourist traps across New Mexico, like Cline's Corners and such. You could detour up to Santa Fe. If you do that, you should also head up to Los Alamos and visit the Valles Caldera National Preserve. It's gorgeous and teaming with elk.

And then several cool stops in Arizona: Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are cool stops...the Tee Pee Motel in Holbrook (and some other old Route 66 stuff in town)….stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.....Meteor Crater....Flagstaff is a cool town....north a ways to Grand Canyon....or south a few miles to Sedona. You could continue west to Kingman and then north to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas if you wanted to.

Just got back on Sunday from going up through Shamrock on to Amarillo. Museum in Shamrock was cool. Did the Texan and Cadillac ranch as well. A couple of the cafes in town have excellent hamburgers. You should also check out Palo Duro Canyon. I was amazed by how it went from prarie to canyon so fast.


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[HOOKNBULLET2]

Fly to Jackson Hole Wyoming and drive all over Yellowstone, best sight seeing you will ever do.

This!

[Jon B]

My wife and I have a goal to visit and stay the night in all 50 states. Just last February we did a great road trip. We flew to LAX, visited my little sis in Bakersfield. We left there and visited Vegas, Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Twin Falls, ID, then went up to Kennewick, WA, and then Klamath Falls Oregon. We drove back down through Reno and on to Vegas and then caught our flight back to Texas. It seems like a lot of driving but we picked one large historical site or landmark to see each day and then did our driving. Didn't feel like it was a crazy amount of driving but it might be for a family who doesn't travel a lot. Lots of pretty country unfortunately we were there during the bomb cyclone so I go to do plenty of spooky snow and ice driving. We have another one of these big fly-in road trips coming up and I am ready to go again. The next one is New England and DC.

[cva34]

Kingman to Oatman az .....Cliff dwellings out of Durango co....Black Canyon co

[muzzlebrake]

Don't forget to stop and stand on the corner in Winslow

[tradman]

If you do visit the Grand Canyon I would spend an extra day or two driving up to Zion National Park in Utah. From there drive about an hour north to Bryce Canyon. The Grand Canyon is impressive, but in my opinion driving into Zion is more bang for the buck!