Route 66


Pick a state and see the sites


Route 66 Stories, Art Sites, and Attractions

IllinoisMissouri KansasOklahomaTexasNew MexicoArizonaCalifornia

Visit each state to find maps with original alignments and attractions by 100 mile increments. Over 1,700 handpicked sights in total — landmarks, classic attractions, diners and cafes, cool old neon signs, Mom-n-Pop motels, homemade attractions, relics of days gone by, and many more classic examples of pure Americana.

  • Click on the Google map(s) to find the actual route (when the road signs disappear)

  • Over 600 roadside attractions, artist-built environments, offbeat museums and unnatural wonders

  • More than 600 favorite local eats and classic diners … (including ones from your favorite tv shows)

  • Historic markers to give you a feel for the history of the area.

Tap the map — see the sights

(Things change and may no longer be open.
Please respect private property and don’t trespass.)

Route 66

November 11, 1926 — June 27, 1985


The Mother Road

Main Street of America

The Will Rogers Highway

Immortalized by John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” popularized by the 1960s television show “Route 66” and the 2006 Disney-Pixar movies “Cars,” this 2,448 mile ribbon of highway hopes and dreams embodied the American spirit and tenacity.

Today, Route 66 is no longer an “officially” designated highway. Sadly, “progress” and interstates have rerouted it multiple times, but the spirit will continue as long as folks enjoy the ride.

Launched in 1926, just before the Depression took hold on the country, Route 66 provided the road of opportunity out of the dusty farms and dangerous mines of the heartland to the fertile lands of California.

In 1937, John Steinbeck traveled west on the “long concrete path” with his wife in their Victory Red Chevrolet. He wrote in his journal of the people and cars “panting across the country.” laying the groundwork for his seminal book, “Grapes of Wrath.”

“66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there. From all of these the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.”

America’s mood was considerably lighter by the end of the Second World War, and folks loaded up the station wagon for family vacations, Bobby Troup captured the romance and freedom of the road in the song “[Get Your Kicks on] Route 66,” after a drive from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles. In an interview, he told how the tune and main lyric, “Get your kicks on Route 66,” came easily but the rest of the lyrics evaded him. Out of frustration, he just filled up the song with the names of the cities and towns on the route.

Route 66

Songwriter: Bobby Troup

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way
Take the highway that's the best
Get your kicks on Route 66

It winds from Chicago to LA
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66

Now you go through St. Louis
Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty
You'll see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino

Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66

Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66

Tales From the road …

“PECULIAR TRAVEL SUGGESTIONS ARE DANCING LESSONS FROM GOD.”— Kurt Vonnegut