Some Route 66 directions

[noelbotevera]

Mods, feel free to move this thread. I'm not really sure where to put this, because Route 66 doesn't fit neatly within the regional boards.

Here's turn-by-turn directions of Route 66, for beginning roadgeeks (like me): Link

Self explanatory in order to find directions, but this site is also pretty old. One page in IL says that the maps drawn for the site were created (at the earliest) 1994, predating MTR. I decided to throw it out here because it reflects some outdated construction/designations (such as CA 30, or IL I-355 never extending south of exit 12).

[Max Rockatansky]

Historic66 is a pretty decent source to look at but they don't have everything.  If I recall correctly the Yucca alignment in Arizona wasn't even covered and they just cite the Oatman Highway?   The problem with 66 or for that matter almost any defunct US Route is actually choosing what era to travel on or even hunt down.  I know of several alignments of 66 in various states of decay in the woods just between Williams, AZ and Flagstaff alone...it can get really crazy east of Flagstaff with long abandoned canyon bridges. 

I had a albums for myself for the entirety of 66 in California and Arizona earlier this decade decade.  I wasn't happy with how the overall album turned out so I deleted it but kept the individual albums it was comprised of along with the notes.  Essentially all my photos I was using are loaded onto my Flickr account but now I think that if I ever get the time I'd rather just go back through 66 in one shot to redo the complete album.  The tricky part is deciding how I want to tackle 66 in New Mexico given La Bajada Hill and Santa were once on the route...guess I'll get to it some day.


Edit:  Below is the link to my Flickr Albums if anyone is interested in US 66 for California and Arizona.  I have everything pretty well labeled but I didn't add much in the way of descriptions for older albums given the high volume I had to upload.  I want to say that there is at least 50 albums dedicated to US 66, I think the only major thing that I didn't ever go do was the Painted Desert Trade Post:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/151828809@N08/albums

[noelbotevera]

Historic66 is a pretty decent source to look at but they don't have everything.  If I recall correctly the Yucca alignment in Arizona wasn't even covered and they just cite the Oatman Highway?   The problem with 66 or for that matter almost any defunct US Route is actually choosing what era to travel on or even hunt down.  I know of several alignments of 66 in various states of decay in the woods just between Williams, AZ and Flagstaff alone...it can get really crazy east of Flagstaff with long abandoned canyon bridges. 

I must be lucky to live out east, as there are no old alignments in my area. Interstate is the new road, US Routes are the old road. It's how many towns are structured (everything was built on the routes, Interstates bypassed them), so I'd be hard pressed to find an old alignment of something like US 30 or US 11. Of course, going out west you just follow whatever railroads are there (like US 40/287 between Hugo and Kit Carson, Colorado - the old routes followed the railroad, new routes deviated).

US 66 is relatively well neutered with old alignments - the most I think is 9 in the St. Louis area, which all converged on four bridges (McKinley, MLK, Chain of Rocks, Poplar Street).

[Max Rockatansky]

Historic66 is a pretty decent source to look at but they don't have everything.  If I recall correctly the Yucca alignment in Arizona wasn't even covered and they just cite the Oatman Highway?   The problem with 66 or for that matter almost any defunct US Route is actually choosing what era to travel on or even hunt down.  I know of several alignments of 66 in various states of decay in the woods just between Williams, AZ and Flagstaff alone...it can get really crazy east of Flagstaff with long abandoned canyon bridges. 

I must be lucky to live out east, as there are no old alignments in my area. Interstate is the new road, US Routes are the old road. It's how many towns are structured (everything was built on the routes, Interstates bypassed them), so I'd be hard pressed to find an old alignment of something like US 30 or US 11. Of course, going out west you just follow whatever railroads are there (like US 40/287 between Hugo and Kit Carson, Colorado - the old routes followed the railroad, new routes deviated).

US 66 is relatively well neutered with old alignments - the most I think is 9 in the St. Louis area, which all converged on four bridges (McKinley, MLK, Chain of Rocks, Poplar Street).

Well its all looking at in perspective, for me it always gave me something to go out and find out in the desert or even the mountains asides from old mines or ghost towns.  Really as far as US Routes go I've had a lot of success finding interesting derelict segments of not just 66 but; 70, 80, 89, 91, 99, 466, 399, 299, 93, and 395....just to name a few.  I guess for me it gives me a sense of satisfaction to go out and find some along abandoned roadway that you found in your research....really I do it even for state highways on this Forum in the Pacific Southwest board.  Its like you said, out east the old US Highways largely survived because they were still part of a viable surface level infrastructure.  Out in the southwest really with few exceptions like US 101 and 395 there aren't many major US Routes that really survive as primary routes.  Hell, California went and bastardized a couple viable routes like US 466, US 99, and US 299 during the 1964 renumbering.

Really I think that if and really when I get to something like doing ALL of 66 in one shot it really require a lot of planning, research, and a theme that I want to go with.  Really for me I think that tracking as much of the original routing from 1926 would really be what I would want to do.  Problem is out west is that it require some extensive off-roading or hiking to reach certain segments that are accessible at least to the slightest degree.   I have enough notes to cover California and Arizona, really New Mexico is largely what I left have that will be difficult to pin down 100%. 

[TravelingBethelite]

Historic66 is a pretty decent source to look at but they don't have everything.  If I recall correctly the Yucca alignment in Arizona wasn't even covered and they just cite the Oatman Highway?   The problem with 66 or for that matter almost any defunct US Route is actually choosing what era to travel on or even hunt down.  I know of several alignments of 66 in various states of decay in the woods just between Williams, AZ and Flagstaff alone...it can get really crazy east of Flagstaff with long abandoned canyon bridges. 

I must be lucky to live out east, as there are no old alignments in my area. Interstate is the new road, US Routes are the old road. It's how many towns are structured (everything was built on the routes, Interstates bypassed them), so I'd be hard pressed to find an old alignment of something like US 30 or US 11. Of course, going out west you just follow whatever railroads are there (like US 40/287 between Hugo and Kit Carson, Colorado - the old routes followed the railroad, new routes deviated).

US 66 is relatively well neutered with old alignments - the most I think is 9 in the St. Louis area, which all converged on four bridges (McKinley, MLK, Chain of Rocks, Poplar Street).

I should note that, for most of the East Coast, towns were structured and planned out long before the advent of even the paved road. Some [relatively] newer municipalities, like in the Midwest, were built around industry and the railroad. I think one would find more road-based towns out west. Actually, Arizona and New Mexico only became states less than 15 years before the U.S. Route system was conceived of and built. Most towns seem to have had grown up around their first important source of transportation. For example, consider all the big cities in the United States that are on a boty of water (for ships, of course): Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and so on.

[NE2]

I must be lucky to live out east, as there are no old alignments in my area. Interstate is the new road, US Routes are the old road. It's how many towns are structured (everything was built on the routes, Interstates bypassed them), so I'd be hard pressed to find an old alignment of something like US 30 or US 11.

Whatever. http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/