Williams, AZ to Portage, IN - July 2013 (Route 66?)

[Sonic99]

I am planning on taking a road trip this July from my home in Williams, AZ to Portage, IN to take part in a national car club meet for my 1999 Mercury Cougar. Obviously this trip takes me along a huge majority of Route 66, so I would like to try to make the EB part of the trip a "Route 66 Nostalgia" trip. My town itself has a ton of Route 66 history, so I obviously have a very high fondness of Route 66 and all the neat things that the "Mother Road" had to offer. I have seen a book or two that I definitely plan on buying (like this one in particular). I am curious as to how much time I should account for by detouring along 66 as much as I can instead of the freeway. If I can't take time for doing ALL of 66 along the way, are there any specific routes or sights that I should make sure I don't miss, even if I use the Interstate a majority of the way? Thanks in advance, guys, there is some fantastic information on these forums and I love them!

[Brandon]

I am planning on taking a road trip this July from my home in Williams, AZ to Portage, IN to take part in a national car club meet for my 1999 Mercury Cougar. Obviously this trip takes me along a huge majority of Route 66, so I would like to try to make the EB part of the trip a "Route 66 Nostalgia" trip. My town itself has a ton of Route 66 history, so I obviously have a very high fondness of Route 66 and all the neat things that the "Mother Road" had to offer. I have seen a book or two that I definitely plan on buying (like this one in particular). I am curious as to how much time I should account for by detouring along 66 as much as I can instead of the freeway. If I can't take time for doing ALL of 66 along the way, are there any specific routes or sights that I should make sure I don't miss, even if I use the Interstate a majority of the way? Thanks in advance, guys, there is some fantastic information on these forums and I love them!

Closer to Portage, Indiana, you can take US-66 through Grundy and Will Counties in Illinois.  The old road leaves the freeway in Gardner and follows IL-53 through Braidwood and Wilmington.  Along the way, check out the Gemini Giant in Wilmington, and the old alignments parallel to IL-53 (former IL-129) and the older alignments in Elwood.  The old road goes through the middle of town.  Once you get up to Joliet, there is a historical society museum in downtown with US-66 stuff and a city park on the west side, north of the Ruby Street Bridge with US-66 stuff.

[Alps]

I've put up a lot of Route 66 on my site already:
www.alpsroads.net/roads/az
www.alpsroads.net/www/az
www.alpsroads.net/roads/nm
www.alpsroads.net/www/nm
www.alpsroads.net/roads/tx
www.alpsroads.net/www/tx
www.alpsroads.net/roads/ok
www.alpsroads.net/www/ok

And putting up more this/next week in Kansas and Missouri. I tried to detail as well as possible the best way to follow old 66 as you go through the pages from west to east, including frontage roads instead of freeways and stealth old alignments you might miss by following signs or even looking at the map. In general, plan for averaging 50 MPH without stops, and then add stops for various sights, museums, etc., restaurants, gas... Old 66 moves very well for the most part, save the occasional downtown. You'll miss sights anywhere you go by taking the Interstate, because 66 is full of old buildings, old signs, old alignments, old bridges, and just plain scenery. If you have any specific questions after looking through my pages, I'd be happy to try to answer them, but there's a lot of 66 to try to do in this post.

[Sonic99]

Ok, so I have slightly changed my plans. For the drive to Indiana, I am planning on going through Denver and Omaha to see friends along the way. I still would like to do Route 66 for the drive back (maybe go into Chicago itself and start from the beginning and work my way back).

For the drive from Williams, AZ (along I-40, just west of Flagstaff) to Denver, Google Maps is taking me along I-40 and I-25 through Albequerque. Is there a secondary route that I can still do in one day and have a nice, scenic drive? The Interstate Route is taking approximately 11 hours, so if it's something that takes 13 hours that is fine, I can leave Arizona nice and early. Anyone got any recommendations for me?

[corco]

From Williams I'd bet it's faster anyway to take I-40 to Flagstaff, 89 to 160, 160 to 163, 163 to 191, 191 to I-70, I-70 to Denver. That takes you through Monument Valley, Moab, and I-70 in Colorado. Those roads move very quickly in Arizona, not as sure about Utah/CO, but it's 88 miles shorter and I'd bet it wouldn't take more than 30 minutes longer.

Alternatively, do something involving US 550 and US 50 through Colorado. 50 is gorgeous through there, and 550 is famous.

That's a lot more scenic than going through New Mexico- not much scenery there on I-40- I-25 is kind of nice, but it's still just wide open valley.

[The High Plains Traveler]

From Williams I'd bet it's faster anyway to take I-40 to Flagstaff, 89 to 160, 160 to 163, 163 to 191, 191 to I-70, I-70 to Denver. That takes you through Monument Valley, Moab, and I-70 in Colorado. Those roads move very quickly in Arizona, not as sure about Utah/CO, but it's 88 miles shorter and I'd bet it wouldn't take more than 30 minutes longer.

Alternatively, do something involving US 550 and US 50 through Colorado. 50 is gorgeous through there, and 550 is famous.

That's a lot more scenic than going through New Mexico- not much scenery there on I-40- I-25 is kind of nice, but it's still just wide open valley.

Depends on how you look at it. I-40 through New Mexico, to me, is pretty spectacular. I-25, once you get past Santa Fe and through Glorieta Pass, is classic Plains-Mountains interface. Nearly all of it is posted 75 mph except near urban areas. I doubt there's a secondary route you can do in one day. U.S. 160 over Wolf Creek Pass has very slow segments and isn't at all fast all the way to I-25. If you go up U.S. 191 to I-70, that route has lower speed limits, and I-70 across the mountains also has reduced speeds.

[Sonic99]

Alternatively, do something involving US 550 and US 50 through Colorado. 50 is gorgeous through there, and 550 is famous.

Looking at that route now, and it looks absolutely amazing! I've traveled I-40 through Albequerque several times so I've already "been there, done that" in terms of scenery. I might have to take a slight detour through Alamosa, as there is a tourist railway that is using a locomotive that used to belong to the railroad that I currently work on, and I would love to stop by for a visit and see how she is doing. But overall, the 160-550-50-285 route into the Denver area looks really nice.

[corco]

Okay, yeah- I've done that entire route except the 550 segment at this time of year. It'd be a long day, but it's definitely doable in a day.

You can average ~ 64 or so from Williams to Cortez, then figure about 53 or so on the 160/50/285 parts. 285 is fairly open valley until you get pretty close to Denver.  50 is a combination of canyon and open valley, but it moves well.  I think 550 is going to be considerably slower. Speed limits are between 55 and 65 (probably 70% 65, 30% 55)for the entire drive minus 550, which will be slower. You probably won't be able to average the speed limit though- there are plenty of passing lanes but still a lot of tourists at this time of year.

I'd budget 12.5 hours or so for it, excluding stops.

But yeah, I'd highly recommend that drive.

[Sonic99]

Doing some tinkering with Google Maps and typing up an itinerary, looks like if I left AZ at 4:30am I would arrive at my overnight stay around Denver at 7:15pm local time, this includes my stops for food/fuel and was a little conservative in my estimates for time (rounded UP to the nearest 15 minutes). Overall, that's not bad at all, and from everything I see, looks like it will be an absolutely gorgeous drive. I would much rather do that than just a simple interstate drive, much of which I've already seen numerous times.