Route 66 Thru Arizona
Route 66 slices horizontally through the State of Arizona exposing some of the best historic artifacts and Americana in the USA. This article explains what you’ll find along the original alignment or Route 66 through Arizona. The accompanying two videos will visually show you what you’ll find along this 385 mile-long stretch of the Mother Road in Arizona. Scroll down this article and you’ll also see several renderings of historic scenes by prolific Route 66 artist, Bob Waldmire.
This article and the two videos below are designed for anyone planning on exploring the historic attractions along Route 66 through Arizona. Watch the videos to see what we saw and/or continue reading this article below to learn more about these places and our suggested touring route.
Part 1: Lupton (New Mexico Border) to Flagstaff
Part 2: Williams to Topock (California Border)
Coming soon
About Route 66
Route 66 is probably the most well-known and popular road trip destination in the United States, if not the World. When we travel around Europe, the Route 66 highway shield appears in just about every city we’ve visited. Numerous travel companies offer sight-seeing tours of the old road in different states. Across the USA, signs mention Route 66, and people wear Route 66 shirts and hats. Without doubt, Route 66 is a very popular.
This highway, that traverses the Country diagonally, from Chicago to Los Angeles, will forever be engraved into the culture and heritage of the United States. What you’ll see along Route 66, is pure Americana. Thanks to the many preservationists and historical associations that wish to preserve America’s history, there’s a lot of neat things for all of us to go out and see. Many of those things can be found in Arizona and shown in our videos and explained more in this article.
Its Beginnings
Keep in mind that Route 66 was established in 1926, but it utilized many existing roads that were established in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Originally, there were numerous pioneer trails and later the Santa Fe Railroad established a fixed route through Arizona in the 1880s. Later, in 1912, when automobiles appeared on the scene, the National Old Trails Road was established and linked the East Coast to the West Coast. When Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, it used the same alignment through Arizona. East of Arizona, National Old Trails Road took a very different route.
Old Trails Bridge over Colorado River circa 1920 – click to enlarge
Much of what you’ll see on this tour are the remains of what Route 66 passed through between those years and into the 1970s. Starting in the mid 1960s, the replacement to Route 66 was being built, Interstate 40. Unlike Route 66, which stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles, I-40 crossed the USA from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Barstow, California. As I-40 was built across the eastern half of Arizona, it was mostly built on top of the old alignment of Route 66. On the western half however, I-40 took a shorter path, leaving much of the old Route 66 alignment intact.
Since part 1 of the video tour covers the eastern half of the state, it covers Route 66 where it mainly serves as a main street through a town, such as Winslow. Part 2 of the video covers much of the original “drivable” road as I-40 passes mainly to the south of Route 66’s alignment.
Bob Waldmire
During the videos, you’ll hear about the prolific artist, Bob Waldmire. Before he left us in 2009, he created numerous informative drawings and paintings of places along Route 66, especially in Arizona.
Where available, the video compares what Bob painted (most of his paintings are from 1990 until 2008) to similar scenes we found around 2020-2024. In the article below, you will find several of Bob’s paintings, along with his explanations about a given place, that he wrote out in his meticulous writing font.
Below is an example of one of his paintings of Route 66 in general:
Click to enlarge
The Tour
Unlike our other Route 66 tours covered in our blog, this article covers the old road through the entire state. As seen in our virtual video tours above, this article and videos also serve as a photo essay of the historic places and Americana found on Arizona’s segment of Route 66.
Our tour runs across Arizona from east to west. The reason we choose this direction, is it is the same direction that so many people would have driven on the highway in its heyday. Just like in the classic movie, the Grapes of Wrath, they traveled from the dust bowl of Oklahoma in the east, to the hopeful land of prosperity in the west.
From east to west the places we’ll visit include:
- Lupton
- Fort Courage
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Holbrook
- Joseph City & Jackrabbit
- Winslow
- Two Guns
- Twin Arrows
- Walnut Canyon National Monument
- Winona
- Flagstaff
- Williams
- Ash Fork
- Seligman
- Grand Canyon Caverns
- Peach Springs
- Truxton
- Valentine
- Hackberry
- Antares
- Kingman
- Oatman
- Topock
Lupton
As mentioned, our journey begins on the New Mexico, Arizona state line, in the town of Lupton. Just inside the Arizona border, you’ll find a number of classic Native American trading posts that existed before the 1940s. Lupton actually started life as a stagecoach stop before mechanized travel. Later, when Route 66 began attracting travelers, the area Native Americans built their trading posts along the road.
The most prominent trading post here is the Yellowhorse trading post. It’s been family owned and operated for most of its existence. David Yellowhorse installed the animals you see on the ridge above the buildings. Later, along our tour west on Route 66, you’ll see that models of animals and various creatures, was a common theme during the old road’s heyday. The animals you see here erected by Mr. Yellowhorse.
A short segment of Route 66 still exists on the east side of I-40. You’ll need to get onto I-40 at the next intersection to the west.
Yellowhorse Trading Post – animal models above at left
Fort Courage
On I-40, take exit 348 to visit the remains of a Route 66 attraction. Fort Courage was primarily a child’s attraction along Route 66. It was a mockup of the fort used in the popular TV show, F Troop, that aired from 1965 until 1967. When we visited, all that remained were these ruins and there were no signs of any business here being open.
Petrified Forest National Park
The next point of interest along our tour is Petrified Forest National Park, which is accessed from exit 311 from I-40. One can easily spend a day or more here looking at all the unique scenery preserved by this park.
Although exit 311 will take you to the park’s visitor center and one of its grand viewpoints, providing you have enough time, we recommend traveling through the park from south to north. The reason for this direction is for the lighting. This way, the sun will be behind you the whole way and will not hinder your vision. If you’re coming from the west, exit at Holbrook and then head to the south entrance to the park, which is called Rainbow Forest. If you’re traveling the direction of our tour (coming from the east), take exit 311 but drive non-stop to Rainbow Forest, then turn around to go north.
Most of the park and its famed petrified wood is on the south side of I-40. However, the visitor center, gift store, several viewpoints of the Painted Desert, and the historic Painted Desert Inn is located on the north side. There’s also a visitor center on the south side at Rainbow Forest. That way, you can get information no matter what direction you’ll be driving.
If you visit all the sites in the park, mainly on the one road that goes north-south, it can take all day. But if you spend just brief periods of time, it can be done in half a day or less. There’s lot of interesting and color sights to see here, so you don’t want to miss out.
Petrified Wood
Petrified Wood Shops
On I-40 heading west from exit 311, a stop at exit 303 or Adamana Road will lead you to two interesting petrified wood shops. One shop is called Stewart’s. The property butts up against the national park boundary where there is a significant amount of petrified wood. The specimens that the owner sells is simply dug up with a backhoe.
You’ll see that Stewart’s also displays a lot of interesting, almost corny or campy, decorations. The owner placed these items here during Route 66’s heyday. Back then, travelers from the east would have never seen anything like this before, making this place real special to them. Today, most people will laugh at these old artifacts, but in the 1950s they were certainly cherished.
Steward’s Petrified Shop
On the south side of I-40 is the Painted Desert Indian Center. It too offers petrified wood as well as other Native American goods. Keeping with the petrified wood Triassic theme, you’ll see more models of what animals may have looked like from that prehistoric era, standing around. There’s also plenty of models of Native American features to be seen here. Although we are near the Navajo Nation, the models you’ll see depicted here is mainly from the Hopi culture. The Hopi and Navajo are two very different Native American cultures. The Hopi Reservation is roughly 30-50 miles northwest of here.
Next to the Indian Center, you’ll see a deteriorating bridge that once carried an immeasurable amount of Route 66 travelers before I-40 was built. Between Lupton and Flagstaff there are many abandoned bridges that was once used by both Route 66 and National Old Trails Road. Between Flagstaff and Topock, many of the old bridges are in use and being maintained.
Holbrook
The next stop on our is Holbrook. We’ll take exit 286 and drive Hwy 77 southbound, which is the old 66 alignment. Although I-40 services Holbrook with three exits, not many people have a reason to visit this historic town anymore. Sadly, since I-40 was built, the town has been slipping slowly into decay – a common theme all along historic Route 66.
Holbrook was founded in 1882 by the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, which later became the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, now BNSF Railway. The city was named after Henry Randolph Holbrook, chief engineer of the Atlantic and Pacific.
What Holbrook does offer are numerous old buildings sporting wonderful paintings. It’s worthwhile either driving around the streets or getting out to walk around to admire the paintings like we did. After the alignment of Route 66 makes a 90 degree right turn to west, there is more classic Americana to enjoy, such as the famous Wigwam Motel, several old restaurants sporting neon signs, and assorted motels.
Wigwam Hotel in downtown Holbrook
Since Holbrook is the county seat here, there is a classic old courthouse situated just off Hwy 77 and Route 66, that now serves as the Navajo County Historical Society museum. According to their website, they are open seven days a week.
Just south of the intersection where Route 66 turns west and Hwy 77 continues south, you’ll see Holbrook’s historic railroad depot. The depot has been nicely restored. Its historical significance comes from when Geronimo, the famed Apache military leader, surrendered in 1886 and was taken to this depot to be sent to a prisoner of war camp in Florida.
Further south, past the depot, is a very large petrified wood shop. Unlike the other shops along I-40, this one specializes in gem-quality specimens, as well as very large pieces of petrified wood. Walking around this store is almost like walking around a museum. In our opinion, this is a worthwhile stop.
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