Historic Route 66

Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on 11 November 1926 and ran 3,940 km (2,448 miles) from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. It crosses eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. In 1936 its western end moved from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, where the pier is its symbolic finish.

It was the first all weather highway linking Chicago to Los Angeles. Dust Bowl families took it west in the 1930s, and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) made Mother Road its best known name. Bobby Troup's song (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 and the TV series Route 66 (1960 to 1964) followed, and Disney and Pixar's Cars (2006) is built around the small towns the interstates bypassed.

Five interstates, I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10, replaced it, and US 66 was removed from the national highway system in 1985. Many surviving sections are signed Historic Route 66, some are National Scenic Byways, and more than 250 buildings, bridges and road alignments along it are on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Heading west, the road leaves Lake Michigan for the farm fields of Illinois, the Ozark hills of Missouri, the old mining towns of Kansas, Oklahoma where the eastern woodland meets the plains, the Texas ranch country, the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona and the Mojave Desert, before Los Angeles and the Pacific.
• US 66 is no longer one numbered highway. The drive follows a chain of state and local roads, much of it signed Historic Route 66.
• In Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, the only US national park with a section of Route 66, telephone poles and the raised roadbed mark the final alignment at the Route 66 Pullout, with a 1932 Studebaker beside the exhibit.
• In western Arizona the old road climbs over Sitgreaves Pass in the Black Mountains between Golden Valley and the old mining town of Oatman, with hairpin curves and steep grades. A more direct highway between Kingman and Needles bypassed this climb in 1953.
• The Old Trails Bridge at Topock, Arizona, an 800 foot steel arch with one 600 foot span over the Colorado River, carried cars across from 1916 to 1948.
• In California the road runs across the Mojave Desert as the National Trails Highway, over 128 timber bridges between Barstow and the Mountain Springs Road entrance to I-40, all built more than eighty years ago.
• Best way to experience it: drive or ride it yourself, in your own vehicle or a hire car or bike, or join one of the guided tours that run on it.

• San Bernardino County Public Works runs the National Trails Highway (Route 66) in the California desert and posts its closures on its road closures page. At the last update in June 2026 the road was open from Amboy to Kelbaker Road, and closed from Kelbaker Road to Essex and from Essex to Mountain Springs Road.
• Flash floods in the Mojave have damaged dozens of its timber bridges at a time, and closed sections reopen as repairs finish.
• Some timber bridges on the National Trails Highway carry posted weight limits, and some sections are restricted to vehicles under 3 tons.
• Vehicles over 40 feet (12 m) long are not allowed over Sitgreaves Pass between Golden Valley and Oatman, and signs in Golden Valley say so.
• The Route 66 Pullout in Petrified Forest National Park, almost 6 miles (about 10 km) from the north entrance, has car parking, bus and motorhome parking and a photo spot.
• The route can be driven in either direction, between Chicago at the eastern end and Santa Monica at the western end, and car and motorbike hire is available at both ends.

• Last verified: 9 November 2026
• Official link: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/travelroute66/index.htm