Take a Ride on America's Main Street

Return to Old Route 66

As I went walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway; I saw below me that golden valley This land was made for you and me.

To the cadence of Woody Guthrie's folk anthem, I hiked along an evocative remnant of “America's Main Street.” Our nation's vagrant virtuoso knew every inch of Route 66, and it's easy to envision the lanky owleyed rebel poet right over there, perched on a pine-shaded rock, pencilling onto the back of an envelope the lyrics of “This Land Is Your Land,” “So Long, It's Been Good to Know You,” or “Blowin' Down This Long Dusty Road.”Of this road, a preserved memento of America-on-theMove, Woody himself might approve. In about the center of northern Arizona, administrators of the Kaibab National Forest have set aside a 22mile stretch of old U.S. 66 as a nostalgic auto tour — an escape in time and mood from nearby modern Interstate 40. It's one of the Forest Service's nationwide historical programs called “Windows on the Past.” Also, a short segment of this Great Depression-era motoring journey invites the visitor to park the car and unlimber leg and unleash imagination along what used to be the closest thing the country ever had to a national highway. Here Old66 ascended its highest divide above sea level to provide sweeping vistas of snowcapped peaks, rolling woodlands, and bucolic meadows. These elements endure along today's adventure down a long lonesome byway.

The Historic Route 66 Auto Tour extends 22 miles between Williams (OPPOSITE PAGE) and just west of Flagstaff. TERI CLEELAND/FOREST SERVICE (LEFT) A sign in tiny Peach Springs lets motorists on Route 66 know exactly where they are. TERRENCE MOORE Here is the stump of a granddaddy ponderosa pine, cleared to provide Model T drivers a safe view around a curve. There is a drainage culvert, handcrafted of stone. Here, a crazy quilt of pale concrete patched with ribbons of asphalt. There, an idyllic scene that graced a thousand postcards. Here, roadhouse ruins. There, a surviving gas station with antique pumps and quaint signs and folks as friendly as spaniel pups.

So distant in time yet only yesterday, America embraced U.S. 66 as the “Glory Road” the swiftest all-weather connection between midcontinent and the West Coast. Designated as such in 1926, Route 66 departed Chicago's Lake Michigan, leaped the Mississippi, skirted the Ozarks, lined out across the southern plains and high deserts, and eventually dissolved into the Pacific surf at Santa Monica.

In its 2,400 miles, Route 66 displaced the pioneer National Old Trails Highway, acquired a 100-percent paved surface by 1938, carried 65 percent of America's westbound traffic, and provided “the road of flight” for a half-million refugees from economic hardship and the agricultural Dust Bowl but here's the progression most will remember, from east to west:

Escape in Time and Spirit from Today's Superhighways

WHEN YOU GO

Getting there: Flagstaff is about smack center in the northern half of Arizona, at the crossing of north-south Interstate 17 and east-west Interstate 40. Nary a traffic light interrupts vehicular movement northward 148 miles (2 1/2 hours nonstop) from Phoenix on 1-17. Much of modern 1-40 lies atop Route 66 and its antecedents: wagon road, camel relay, Indian trade trail. Ten miles west of Flagstaff at Exit 185 north of the village of Bellemont is the eastern terminus of the Historic Route 66 Auto Tour.

What to see: Around Flagstaff and neighboring Williams sprawls the world's largest expanse of ponderosa-pine forest which also includes stands of fir, oak, spruce, juniper, and numerous deciduous tree species; big game, notably mule deer, antelope, and elk, is abundant. Spring and summer bring roadside wildflowers; autumn, a riot of color; winter, plenty of (sometimes too much) snow. Scenic delights run the gamut from pristine lakes to sculpted canyons to Arizona's tallest mountains, the San Francisco Peaks, which top out at 12,643 feet (Humphreys Peak).

Where to stay: Tourism comprises a major Flagstaff industry. Smaller Williams boasts of its own selection of old-time and brand-new motels and eateries. Forest Service campgrounds dot the area, as do commercial RV parks with utility hookups. Reservations recommended.

Additional information: For more information and free brochures, "Historic Route 66 Auto Tour" and "Historic Route 66 Mountain Bike Tour," write, call, or visit Forest Service, 800 S. Sixth St., Williams, AZ 86046; telephone (602) 635-2681. Also ready to help: Williams/Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, 820 W. Bill Williams Ave., Williams, AZ 86046; telephone (602) 635-4061; and Flagstaff Visitors Center, 101 W. Santa Fe Ave. (Route 66), Flagstaff, AZ 86001; telephone (602) 774-9541 or toll-free 1 (800) 842-7293. For facts about the Grand Canyon Railway steam trains, call toll-free 1 (800) 843-8724. General information about Northern Arizona and its myriad attractions can be had from Arizona Office of Tourism, 100 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007; telephone (602) 542-8687.

the home of the Grand Canyon Railway, running daily steam-powered excursions to the Canyon's South Rim. (See Arizona Highways, May '90) Today the mystique of 66 prospers in novels, photographic portfolios, diaries, commemorative celebrations. There flourish Route 66 clubs in England, Holland, Germany. Flagstaff once again has designated its principal street, Route 66. It is even possible, for $4.66 in person, or $6.60 by mail, to purchase legally a paperweight-size chunk of 66. (For details, write the Historic Williams Preservation Commission, 113 S. First St., Williams, AZ 86046.) But the fascination of the nation and the world for 66 goes beyond recreation. Somehow, even for those born long after Woody wrote his thousand songs of the common people, 66 presents its raw indelible metaphor: America's "Mother Road" bearing on her bosom masses of people fleeing to a new life.

Guthrie's biographer, John Greenway, explains that time "when the farms of a half dozen states blew away and the people with them; when, as Steinbeck tells us, some families sold all they owned to buy open trailers, which they dragged to the side of the highway, hoping for some Samaritan to pull them to California."

Other latter-day American minstrels have retraced Woody's way across the continent. There were his boy, Arlo, and Joan Baez and Willie Nelson, and social protester Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-changin" and "Blowin' in the Wind." But even their popular tunes never matched Woody's for their passion and pain.