Route 66: Dramamine required

Stunning highway views

Route 66 is not always like the comfortably paved highway celebrated in the classic television series of that name. At least one part is so hair-raising you need nerves of steel to drive it, and passengers may want to have plenty of motion sickness remedy handy.

The 22-mile section in question starts a few miles south of Kingman, Arizona, where Route 66 also is known as the Oatman Highway. The first few miles are pretty good compared to the rest of the journey, with mostly roller-coaster roads, but once you start the climb into the mountains, it’s a different story.

The road is narrow with steep grades and lots of hairpin turns. One driver estimated there were 122 turns, so you can imagine how twisty the final miles are. I didn’t keep count of the number of turns, but I would not dispute the other driver's figure. The drive is very nerve-wracking if you’re headed south toward Oatman because your vehicle will be in the outside lane which overlooks deep canyons and ravines. The shoulder isn’t very wide and there are no guard rails as we know them today. A few places had short curbs while wood posts connected by wire cable passed for guardrails in a couple of other places, but mostly there was nothing to keep vehicles from tumbling over the bank. Far better to drive this highway north out of Oatman where if you drive off the road, you’ll end up against a hill.

Oh, and the road isn’t very well maintained, so drive slowly, not that you could go very fast over it anyway. This would be a great road for motorcyclists, but not for RVs or large passenger cars. Route 66 – America’s highway – was built in the days when roads followed the contours of the land, bridges were only built over rivers and cars were a lot smaller.

The summit at Sitgreaves Pass

Whatever else it may be, this section of Route 66 is very scenic. You can literally see for miles and miles. There are occasional pull-offs to admire the view. The summit, at Sitgreaves Pass, is 3,550 feet high, then you start downhill, which is almost as scary, past a working gold mine, into Oatman. 

 

  

 

Downtown Oatman

Route 66 is Oatman’s main street, barely two lanes wide. Traffic slows to a crawl here because the street is frequently filled with tourists feeding wild burros.

The rest of the Oatman Highway, from Oatman to Topock, Arizona, where it joins Interstate 40, is boring in comparison, as it is mostly roller-coaster road, so you still might want to keep the Dramamine handy.

The wild burros of Oatman, Arizona

Feeding wild burros

Calling the burros that roam the street of Oatman, Arizona, wild would appear to be a misnomer. Technically, they are wild as the freely wander the area and belong to no man. In actuality, they can be petted and fed snacks.  Townspeople warn they can be aggressive, though I would call them greedy instead. No tourist carrying a sack is safe as the burros think the sack is filled with snacks for them and will take appropriate action to get them.

When the burros see someone with food, they immediately proclaim that person their new best friend. When the carrots or burro chow is gone, they immediately begin looking for their next new best friend. Jon was barely out the door of our piclup when the burros spied the bag of carrots he’d brought to feed them, and surrounded him. One burro thought he’d outsmart the others and tried to climb into the cab where he was sure Jon had more stashed away. He was SOL.

A wild burro

Today’s burros, which townspeople have named, are descendants of the burros prospectors turned lose in the 19th century. Oatman is an old mining town. It’s main street is Route 66. If a motorist is lucky, he can speed through town at the posted 10 mph. He usually isn’t, which means inching along the street filled with burros and the tourists who are feeding them. When cars are parked on both sides of the street, only one car can go through at a time.

The burros are the main draw to Oatman; restaurants even serve burro ears, which aren’t burro ears at all, just super sized potato chips served with a dipping sauce of sour cream and salsa.

Oatman was once a major stop on Route 66 between Kingman, Arizona, and Needles, California. Now it’s a tourist attraction, with lots of souvenir shops. Jon even found some antique motorcycles tucked away in one store, and said he was impressed with the collection.

Oatman's main and only street

We had lunch at the Oatman Hotel, the community’s oldest two-story adobe building. Built in 1902, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s claim to fame is that it is the place where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon after being married in Kingman in 1939. Gable reportedly visited Oatman several times to play poker with the miners.

Getting there

Traveling Route 66 to Oatman

Oatman can be reached by taking the first exit off I-40 after crossing the California border into Arizona. From there, it’s a 25-mile drive over twisty, hilly, chuck-hole filled roads. But, hey! This is Route 66, America’s highway, that you’re driving on. Just pop your favorite car-sickness remedy while remembering when the highway was built, roads followed the contours of the landscape, and were not flattened or straightened out like today’s superhighways are.

The road is filled with quaint signs, such as "Hill blocks view."  Sure enough, you can't see the view on the other side until you reach the top of that pesky hill.