A Honeymoon Road Trip: Arizona's Historic Route 66--from The World's Greatest Honeymoons

Great Honeymoon Road Trips

• Historic Route 66: Arizona •

This wonderful drive along Historic Route 66 is a National Scenic Byway. The distance covered is about 550 miles. You could do it in as little as two days—or as many as you like, leaving time for leisurely meals, browsing towns, and taking in Arizona's many natural wonders. You'll find a Byway itinerary land route maps here. But never forget Rule No. 1 of a Great Road Trip: follow your instincts, not the map. If a detour grabs your fancy—go for it!

Start your trip in Topock (the actual town no longer exists, though it still appears on many maps). The 1916 Trails Arch Bridge, now used to carry gas and utility lines across the Colorado River, is an iconic Route 66 site. The marsh here has great fishing and is a notable birding area.

Related Interest: Route 66 Overview | Route 66/Illinois | Route 66/New Mexico

From Topock it’s 25 miles to the former gold-mining boomtown of Oatman. A typical small, Old West town with buildings dating back to the 1800s, it’s got a few interesting quirks. Among them are wild burros. Descended from those brought more than a century ago by miners, they stroll the streets in search of handouts (burros have legal right-of-way in Oatman). Costumed gunfighters with six-shooters stage daily shows. Every 4^th of July, when the temperatures soar, the town hosts a sidewalk egg-frying contest. And honeymooners take note: one-time major movie stars Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned at the Oatman Hotel in 1939, and their suite is rentable…but don’t expect any frills.

Thirty miles from Oatman is another Old West town, Kingman, with over 60 buildings on the National Historic Register (pick up a free map at the visitor center for a self-guided tour). The former powerhouse now holds the Route 66 Museum, which shows the road's historical evolution through murals, photos, film, dioramas, and artifacts. You’ll also find the Mohave Museum of History and Arts and the Kingman Army Airfield Museum in town.

Next up, about 50 miles down Route 66, is Peach Springs, whose name is derived from peach trees growing beside the local springs. The town is home to the Hualapai Indians, and served as inspiration for the fictional town of Radiator Springs in the Disney/Pixar movie, Cars. A few businesses remain from the highway’s heyday, but a few cafes and motels remain abandoned.

From here it’s 12 miles to the Grand Canyon Caverns, discovered by accident in 1927. To visit here long ago you had to be lowered 21 stories into the caverns by rope and hope your fiery torch wouldn’t give out. These days, though, you’ll be whisked below by elevator, stroll along lighted trails, and have the 3 million-year-old sights explained to you by a trained guide.

Twenty-five miles on is Seligman, a once-thriving railroad town founded in 1886. A visit here is a bit of a trip back in time, as many of the motels and curio shops from the great days of Route 66 are still around. Like most people who encounter this charming place, you’ll probably want to get out, explore, and power up your camera.

Down the road in Williams—the self-proclaimed "Gateway to the Grand Canyon"—Wild West Junction is a sort of one-stop shop for Old West experiences. This compound of buildings is staffed with saloon singers, gunslingers, and others in period dress. The Junction's venues include a museum with a collection of John Wayne saddles, guns, and other movie memorabilia; a saloon and restaurant serving BBQ and offering great sunset views; a Wild West revue; and a hotel with five themed rooms (opt for the Bordello Room). If that's not your thing, check out the town's sprinkling of 1950s Route 66 motels. The Lodge on Route 66 maintains its authentic motel exterior, but on the inside walls have been knocked down to create larger, and luxurious, rooms and suites. It's tempting to stay over in Williams, because the Grand Canyon Railway runs each morning from the historic downtown to the south rim of the Grand Canyon 65 miles away, returning in the afternoon. You get to see the Canyon with no muss, no fuss, and no long lines of cars waiting to enter the Park.

Now it’s on to Flagstaff, about 75 miles distant. Situated at a 7000-foot elevation at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, captivating Flagstaff was named one of the Prettiest Towns in America by Forbes Magazine in 2008. Among its many charms are four distinct seasons, including mild summer temperatures and up to 100 inches of winter snow. With a population of about 60,000, it’s big enough to offer a wide variety of accommodations and restaurants serving everything from cowboy grub to sushi. It makes for a terrific home base to explore three major attractions nearby: Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.

Walnut Canyon: The 300 dwellings here were built over 1,000 years ago to take advantage of the water source (Walnut Creek). You can walk 240 steps into the canyon for a close look at the ruins built into the walls of Walnut Canyon, or traverse the rim trail with its views of the ancient homes and the surrounding area. Today Walnut Canyon is a valuable habitat for plants and animals. Ranger-led hikes are available during warm months, or check out a Discovery Pack containing binoculars, a magnifying lens, field guides, and sketching materials to explore on your own.

Sunset Crater: When Sunset Crater Volcano—technically, it’s a cinder cone—was born in a series of violent eruptions sometime about 1000 years ago, the surrounding landscape was changed forever. The lava flows and cinders at Sunset Crater still look as they did when formed a millennia ago, but trees, wildflowers, and wildlife returned long ago. The one-mile-loop Lava Flow Trail winds through a volcanic landscape of lava flows and cinder fields at the base of Sunset Crater. A newly-remodeled visitor center offers up interpretive exhibits and films to best show what effects the eruptions had on the area. Ranger talks are given in summer, and you can also check out one of those handy Discovery Packs (see Walnut Canyon, above, for a description).

Meteor Crater: About 50,000 years ago a giant meteor hit the earth with the approximate force of 20 million tons of dynamite. Scientists today estimate the size of the meteor at 150 feet in diameter, with a weight of 300,000 tons (600 million pounds). Needless to say, this big rock changed the landscape at the point of impact. It left a huge crater three-quarters of a mile in circumference and 550 feet deep. Privately-owned, Meteor Crater is open to the public for a fee. It’s fascinating to stand on the rim and try to comprehend the enormity of that hole.

After leaving Meteor Crater, it’s a 26-mile hop to Winslow. If you think you’ve heard the name before, you’re right: it’s the town in Take it Easy, a #1 Eagles song—their first hit—back in the 1970s:

    Well, I'm a standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,

    and such a fine sight to see

    It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford,

    slowin' down to take a look at me...

Downtown, a mixed artwork—a trompe-l'oeil mural with a statue of a man “standin’ on a corner”— depicts the sentiments of the song (you’ll probably want to grab a photo of that). There’s a lot to see in Winslow, including the fine Old Trails Museum. Housed in a 1920 bank with the original tile floor, marble counters, and vault, the museum's exhibits center around Route 66; Hopi, Navajo and Anasazi artifacts; the Santa Fe Railroad; vintage clothing; and the history of western ranch life.

Winslow's La Posada Hotel was built by Fred Harvey, once prominent for “civilizing” the west with his Harvey Houses. The hotel opened in 1929, and its many famous guests included Charles Lindbergh, Gene Autry, John Wayne, Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Temple, Amelia Earhart, Will Rogers, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, and on and on. Abandoned for many years, it’s recently been extensively restored and is now quite a showplace.

Get an early start in the morning. You’ll make quick work of the 30-mile trip to Holbrook, home of Wigwam Village, a motel and a major Route 66 icon. It’s hard to think of a Baby Boomer who ever traveled Route 66 as a kid who didn’t yearn to spend a night in one of those distinctive concrete-and-steel wigwams. At one time there were seven Wigwam Villages in six different states, of the three that remain, two are on Historic Route 66 (the other is in San Bernardino, California).

From Holbrook, it’s 26 miles to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park. The park consists of two large portions; in the north is the highly-colored, multihued badlands area known as the Painted Desert; in the south are significant petrified remains of a great forest from 225 million years ago, petroglyph sites, and Agate House—an ancient building made of petrified wood that was reconstructed during the 1930s. Visit the Painted Desert Inn Museum, with its archeological objects, fossils, geological specimens, and historical photographs. Take a guided walking tour, or hike one of the many trails throughout the Park.

And that concludes your roadtrip on the Arizona portion of Historic Route 66.

All written material ©WGH ~ Photos: Thanks to Wikipedia and the following photographers—pretzelpaws (Oatman), Derek Cashman (Flagstaff), Daniel Schwen (Walnut Canyon), Mark Turner (Winslow mural), Jon Sullivan (Petrified log)