arizona rte 66
 

We will be traveling cross country from LA back to nj the first week in December. The first day we will travel from la to Needles. I need advice for the next day. We will be starting the day in oatman and hopefully ending the day in Winslow, with stops in kingman, seligman and the meteor crater. How much time will we need for each of the small towns. My concern is whether we will be able to get to meteor crater with enough time to see it! I have done extensive research on the web to try to figure out how much time we need in each town but I have not gotten much info. Any advice? thanks Diane

I cannot remember anything too time-consuming in Kingman. Or anything that interesting.

Personally, I find Williams much nicer to walk around "downtown" for 1/2 to 1 hour to browse through some shops or take the obvious Rt66 pictures.

A quick 10 minute photo stop is Hackberry's "general store" - a few miles east of Kingman, directly on 66.

I enjoy Oatman but Kingman and Seligman are drive through towns.

If you start early enough from LA, you might make it to Oatman and stay in Kingman. After we go back to standard time, the sun will be setting about 5PM.
FYI: Seligman is pronounced se-LIG-man.
Are you planning on driving the National Trails Highway east of Ludlow through Amboy to get to Needles?
There are small Rt. 66 museums in Victorville (across from Amtrak station) and in Barstow (at the Amtrak station/former Harvey House).
Be sure to take a picture of the statue "standing on the corner" in Winslow AZ.

Having lived for a time in that part of the world, I'd suggest a stop in Flagstaff, the only town along Route 66 in AZ worth more than stopping for gas. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the obvious.

Flagstaff is a great place, an entertaining downtown, a couple of nice museums, the Riordan Mansion https://azstateparks.com/riordan-mansion/ and the Museum of Northern Arizona https://musnaz.org/ and good restaurants. You could spent a very nice afternoon & evening there, then go on to the meteor crater, about 40 miles beyond Flag, in the morning. Seeing a big dent in the ground doesn't take much time so you'd be well on your way that day.

Nothing worth spending time in Kingman or Seligman. Get to Oatman early morning, spend a little time checking out the town then continue to Flagstaff, stop for lunch downtown and wander around it's nice little downtown area a bit, then continue the short drive to Meteor Crater, you will have enough time to see the crater.

Second the suggestion for Flagstaff.

Go to Walnut Canyon National Monument, as well as Montezumas Castle and Coconino National Forest

Most of these individually don't need much time. If you want to take photos it can take more, I stopped longer than I expected at Hackberry and in Selgiman.

In Kingman there is the train station. Seligman has the entertaining Delgadillo's SnoCap where I would take the time to break for a drink and/or snack, the interactions inside are part of the fun. E.g. say "I'd like a shake" and the cashier sticks out her hand.

Williams is better at night when the neon is lit up.

What takes up the time is actually the detour into Oatman and needing to follow the speed limit through the Indian Reservations. Nothing worth seeing in Peach Springs btw.

Some other options would be to try to get to Oatman during the daylight the first day, and spend the first night in Kingman rather than Needles.

Also you could skip Hackberry, unless you are set on doing the entire stretch of Rt 66, Take 40 and just do quick detour into Seligman and/or Williams (personally I like Seligman better than Williams during the day if you just want to pick one).

I do like the museum in Flagstaff.

Kingman

Their display of pioneer artifact is very interesting. Famous western movie star Andy Devine (raspy voice) was born here. A section of that museum is dedicated to him. TIME 2 hours
https://www.mohavemuseum.org/

Near that museum is their historic old train locomotive park.
Absolutely informative how those old engines actually created western US. TIME: One hour
http://kingmanhistoricdistrict.com/p...park/index.htm

From Kingman, take Route 66 loop. Internet search that.

Winslow - Sanding On the Corner in honor of the Eagles Song. Must do that: Time 1/2 hour or just look at this YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz9U3uQaAtw

Winslow: La Posada ___ MUST SEE and have lunch/dinner in that historic restored train station. All the famous people stayed here as it was a major train station stop-over. Actually, if you do stay overnight (which you should) pick a room o

f a famous person and stay in that room to relive history.
Quote:
*To request our most popular room The Howard Hughes Room, make special requests regarding location, or to reserve a room that meets ADA requirements, please call the hotel reservation desk directly, 928-289-4366.

http://laposada.org/

Needles: I assume you are backpacking.... If going on Salt Creek hike, the All American Man is an incredible pictograph. Also many ruins primarily the southern one-half
https://rroberts.photoshelter.com/im...000dPf4RHsAUII

OF course, Chesler Park. Route to Beef Basin is probably closed now unless Bobby's Hole remains open. The finest ruin in the entire are is found there on road 199

Vaga.

I'm going to disgree somewhat with Vaga on the subject of La Posada in Winslow. I stayed a night there several years ago and while glad that someone had finally taken it on and not allowed it to be torn down, the direction it seemed to be going, the renovations were cheaply done. So no longer the grand place, by any means, it once was when it was built (designed by Colter who did some buildings at Grand Canyon among others) to fashionably house train passengers in the days when people did a grand tour of the west by train. It was never a train station.

You might stop for lunch and let yourself imagine what it once was. While it may have improved in 5 years, I still recall my dinner was not good.

Have never been to La Posada but always wanted to see it, big Colter Fan. I try to get her cottages in Grand Canyon when I can but it's getting more difficult.

MmePerdu - Curious - what year was 'several years ago'
I have not been IN that hotel for about seven years. At time it still retained Colters remarkable designs.

Yes, Ann was excellent designer. She fashioned this hotel after a 1769 hacienda of a Spanish Don. This was the last of the great Santa Fe railroad-Fred Harvey Hotels completed in 1930. The hotel cost over $1,000,000 (about $45 million today) plus landscaping. History tells that over 500,000 postcards were sold in a single year to tourists and passenger.


Vaga

Vega
Ann co(u)later is the far right political commenter. Mary Coulter was the architect

bailey, her last name WAS Colter.

If you're going to be smart, try to get it right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Colter

Mlgb

I did get it right. I used parentheses in the name Colter to acknowledge a different spelling of last name. I was telling Vega the name was Mary, not Ann as he had written. Maybe you are the one who should get it right before criticizing

No, you typed "Mary Coulter (sic) was the architect" HER name is Colter.

You did not get that right.

I made a mistake on her first name, but somehow the sun rose and set the following day

This is so silly

Vaga

P.S. Vega is a bright blue star in the constellation of Lyra