Oklahoma to LA
 

Hi all,
we're 2 friends road-tripping Route 66 (must start & finish in LA) with 2 weeks in total.
With these constraints we're thinking of going halfway then looping back - instead of going to Chicago & then driving for 36hrs back to LA.
Please may i have your thoughts on this & if you have any suggestions for a route Oklahoma - Colorado - Utah that would be appreciated.
we are 2 Brits interested in all the varied scenery, culture, history and hopefully catch a bit of sport too.
This is my first post, so apologies for any errors. if there is an existing forum on this pls let me know!

Kansas has the shorest stretch of Route 66 of any of the states along the route, but there is something interesting almost every mile. Cafe on the Route (restaurant) and 4 Women on the Route (restored gas station with the mining boom truck which inspired the caracter "Tow Mater" in the movie Cars) are must stops!

http://www.kansastravel.org/route66.htm

I hope you can include New Mexico on your 66 tour as it seems to be a favorite with some of our friends who ride their Harley's. So many long stretches of gorgeous scenery.

My favorite stretch of Old Route 66 is from Topock, AZ to Kingman, AZ. Make sure you stop in Oatman! http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/oatman.html Kingman has a good Route 66 museum. The section from Kingman to Seligman is pretty good too.

Make a stop at Winslow, AZ so you can go stand on the corner that the Eagles made famous with the song "Take It Easy" http://www.standinonthecorner.com/


At Holbrook take a detour to Hwy 180 and drive though the Petrified Forest & Painted Desert before getting back on I-40. http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm

Old Route 66 goes right though Old Town Albuquerque which we loved walking around and having lunch outside.

With two weeks total, you don't have a lot of time. If you want to do some other site-seeing on the way back, I'd recommend not going all the way to Oklahoma City.

Ideas for the trip back might include Durango, Co Mesa Verde National Park, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, & Las Vegas, NV.

Utahtea

Route 66 doesn't go through either Colorado or Utah. That's the route you'd take to get to San Francisco rather than LA.

Not that it's not a good drive. My guess is you'd could go as far as New Mexico on Route 66 and then north, but it's a HUGE detour. You could make a short detour up to Santa Fe from Albuquerque and then head north from there, and then you'd probably want to go down to LA through Las Vegas rather than all the way down to Flagstaff.

If your starting in Oklahoma start out with Pop's 66 Diner in Arcadia Oklahoma.

I have stayed at the Route 66 Hostel on West Central Avenue in Albuquerque. OK place to stay for not much money.
Get off I-40 at Seligman Arizona and take 66 to Grand Canyon Caverns. Rejoin I40 just east of Kingman. About 30 miles west of Needles, take the Old National Trail Highway through Amboy (aka Radiator Springs). There is a Route 66 museum in Victorville across from the Amtrak station.

hi all, thanks v much for taking your time to help us out! we're now shifting our time spent to a more equal split between part of Route66 (CA-AZ-NM) and the loop back (mainly in southern Colorado, it looks awesome, sorry utahtea)

which now makes the Oklahoma and Kansas tags redundant!

Plenty to do in Southern Colorado! Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Durango, Telluride, Million Dollar Hwy 550 to Silverton & Ouray.