Day 11: AZ to CA – My Route 66 Road Trip

We weren’t planning to get to the LA area on Thursday. The target was Friday or Saturday. The whole trip seemed like we were behind schedule, scrambling to get to a destination we picked out that wasn’t too far ahead, that seemed like a big enough town so that the hotels and motels would be decent.

It looked like a lot of territory to cover and some interesting places to see along the way. We ate a real breakfast at the diner across from the restaurant, rode the canyon coaster, then hit the road.

Seligman, Kingman, a photo shoot in the desert, Oatman, one hell of drive over the rocky divide, and on in to California. And then we were close enough that we might as well blast on through and get in late Thursday night. And so we did.

Canyon Coaster

Driving into town the night before we saw the Canyon Coaster and being speed freaks we knew we had to ride it. It was closed for the day so after breakfast on Thursday we hit the hill.

It was a lot of fun! The scenery is fantastic, not that you get a lot of chance to see it as you’re whizzing around corners and shooting down the hill. They tell you if you’re wearing a hat to wear it backwards. There’s a tree at the top festooned with a number of baseball caps, presumably lost by riders who didn’t follow that advice.

It was a memorable end to a very nice stay in Williams.

Seligman, AZ

There’s a lot of buzz online about Seligman, AZ. In my mind I conceived the town to be bigger than it actually is. One thing that is true is that they’re all-in on Route 66. We stopped at a shop on the westbound side of the road and it was filled with a ton of memorabilia and the prices were reasonable. We spent money.

On the other side of the street and a block or two down were three tour buses. Of course I had to see what the attraction was! Several more shops festooned with all kinds of decorations and pretty neat content inside. One had a collection of 60s and 70s motorcycles, another had a fountain counter. One of the groups of people was speaking Italian.

From Kingman to Needles, what a drive, what a ride! It’s the classic road over the mountain pass, no guardrails, a few posts and cables at the hairiest turns, and the drop-off to oblivion. Out of Kingman I shot some video of the Vette driving through the desert.

The scenery is breathtaking, there’s Oatman on the west side of the pass where donkeys stroll down the narrow road in the middle of town, and I thought I took a video driving through Oatman but evidently didn’t press the button.

According to reports there was flash flooding the day before and once out of the mountains all the dips through washes showed evidence of recent flooding and cleared debris (mud, rocks, etc.) from the road.

Driving Up The Mountain

Cable Guardrail

West of Oatman

No Guardrail Curve

Coming Into Oatman

Coming Out of the Mountains

California – Mojave Desert

Once across the Colorado River and across the state line into California, the drive became very depressing. The scorching hot Mojave Desert in the summertime, homes in sparsely populated towns with yards of sand and dry scrub, old roadways and not much else to see.

The National Trail Highway, part of Route 66 through Chambless, Amboy and Cadiz Summit, was closed. I tried three different ways to access any part of the road and was stymied each time. Back to I-40 westbound.

There is some great scenery, vast expanses of desert and mountains miles away. But not much else!

Between Needles and Barstow, the towns can hardly be called that. We stopped at a diner in Barstow, the only one we saw on Route 66, sat down for a few minutes and left. The AC cooled the place to I’m guessing the 80s and the “aroma” was, well, interesting. Once out of Barstow it was I-15 into Victorville and then into the LA Basin.

Coming down I-15 the guidebook says to take a side-route at the Cajon exit. It’s worth the detour! Another great road.

Then it says to get back on and get over the left. What it doesn’t say is to get over to the left IMMEDIATELY or you’ll get stuck on the I-15 instead of I-215 and miss the loop into San Bernadino – including the second Wig Wam Hotel. We missed it and took I-15 down to Rancho Cucamonga and took Foothill Blvd. west for a ways.

We stopped at the restored service station, which was closed. We stopped and snapped a few pictures as dusk was making its presence known.

I found it a striking contrast to Soulsby’s Shell station in Mt. Olive IL, where a local encouraged us to go on in, it was open, even though no one was there. Priceless antiques were on display or stacked against the wall and we were free to stroll and look on the honor system.

The Rancho Cucamonga service station was behind a locked fence. There are many great things about southern California, but unfortunately a huge population also means a higher number of folks who will vandalize and steal, and so the difference from the midwest to a large metropolis.

From there we proceeded west down Foothill Blvd until sunset and jumped up to I-15. There’s only so much of stoplight traffic to convey the experience of driving the mother road that no longer looks like the mother road that you’ve got the concept. From there it was in to Pasadena to spend the night at a friend’s before concluding our journey.

Thursday, Aug 18 – Williams, AZ to Gallup, NM

It’s My Birthday!