Route 66: Southwest Desert Drives

Driving Route 66 through New Mexico and Arizona with overnight stops in Santa Fe, Gallup, Flagstaff, and Williams (and a lot of pit stops in between)! If you missed reading about the first part of our Route 66 Road Trip, you can find that here.

Day 5: Amarillo, TX to Santa Fe, NM

We headed to New Mexico this day, but had a few more stops in Texas to make first! After checking out of the hotel, we grabbed coffee at Coffee Fixx on our way out of Amarillo. Before we could leave Texas, we had to stop to see what is probably one of the most classic Route 66 roadside attractions—Cadillac Ranch.  The Cadillac Ranch art installation is 10 Cadillacs from the 1940s through 1960s buried nose first in the desert. Over time they’ve been spray-painted by visitors. The boys thought it was so cool—we just had to keep them from touching the cans of spray paint!

After Cadillac Ranch, we drove further west to Vega, TX where we stopped for lunch at Rooster’s Mexican Restaurant. It was a great hole-in-the-wall Tex-Mex restaurant. We were so full afterward but still managed to make room for pie when we stopped at the Midpoint Café in Adrian, TX a little further down the Route. The cafe is exactly where it sounds like—the midpoint of Route 66—equidistant between Chicago, IL and Santa Monica, CA. And the street outside is marked accordingly.

Shortly after the midpoint, we crossed the state line into New Mexico. Our first stop in New Mexico was in Tucumcari to see the murals and shop at Tee Pee Curios—a store housed in a very large tepee! After that, our next stop was the Blue Hole Recreation Park in Santa Rosa, NM. Unfortunately for us, it was closed due to the pandemic, but we still got a good look at it. You would never think there’s water like this in the middle of the desert!

Santa Fe was the next stop on the route. We checked into La Fonda on the Plaza. Our room was great with a king-size bed for us and a sofa sleeper for the boys in a separate living area! It was nice to be in the heart of the Plaza so we could walk around and see some of the sights on our way to dinner. We ate dinner at The Shed, a family-owned Mexican restaurant. It was a bit of a wait, but we shopped around in the little stores nearby to pass the time.

Day 6: Santa Fe, NM to Gallup, NM

The next morning we headed to breakfast at The Pantry. It was another family owned place and has been operating since 1948! It was a perfect way to start our day. We originally planned to spend a couple of days in Santa Fe to break up the drive; however, we had to change plans. Due to the pandemic, all swimming pools in the state were closed. Considering it was July in New Mexico and we had two little boys, the lack of a pool was a deal breaker for us. So after walking around the Plaza area a little more, we grabbed coffee at Craft Coffee & Donuts and continued on our way.

After we being on the road for a little bit, we realized that we (not pointing fingers, Ande) had left Milo’s monkey “baby”, also known as a Wubbanub, in the hotel room. Milo was devastated, so a pit stop at the Buy Buy Baby in Albuquerque to get a replacement was a necessity; he picked out a fox “baby” since they didn’t have a monkey. While in Albuquerque, we also stopped to see the San Felipe de Neri Church, which has been around since the late 1700s!

Our next stop was in Grants, NM to see the Route 66 Neon Drive-Thru and Fire & Ice Park. We drove through the Neon sign and then went to the Fire & Ice Park for the boys to run around and play for a bit. While there, we also saw the Grants Kindness Rocks Project; we picked up our very own rock to take on our Route 66 journey.

After that we headed to Gallup, NM. In Gallup, we checked into the El Rancho Hotel. During its glory days, the hotel welcomed quite a few Hollywood movie star guests. In fact, all of the rooms I recall seeing were named after the hotel’s famous guests. We stayed in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Suite! The room, and really the entire hotel, is a time warp. Our arrival in Gallup was pretty late in the evening, so we had dinner at the hotel while I did laundry—because moms never get a vacation from the laundry!

Day 7: Gallup, NM to Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park to Flagstaff, AZ

The next morning we headed to our first National Park of the trip—The Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park. We drove through the entire park following the map we picked up at the entrance. It was a great morning—there were some breathtaking views and the boys got to stretch their legs and run in some wide open spaces! They were also very excited about seeing the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine in the parking lot!

While in the park, we followed the Park’s driving tour. Our stops included Newspaper Rock, a 1936 Studebaker, and, of course, petrified trees and desert scenes that look painted. Because you are not supposed to take anything from National Parks, we made a stop at the Rainbow Rock shop in Holbrook, AZ for the boys to pick out little souvenirs. They each picked out a rock to take home. Before leaving Holbrook, we also drove by the famous Wigwam Hotel.

Once we were on the road again, we made a short stop at the Jackrabbit Trading Post in Joseph City, AZ before heading to Winslow, AZ for a late lunch at the Turquoise Room at La Posada Hotel. And of course, we took our picture “standin’ on [the] corner in Winslow, AZ”.

After leaving Winslow, we were hoping to make our next stop the Meteor Crater, but it was getting late. Instead, we continued on to Flagstaff, AZ where we checked into the Little America Hotel. Ande took the boys swimming while I got organized. After a week on the road, our suitcases had become a bit of a disaster. The restaurant we wanted to try, Pizzicletta, wasn’t doing dine-in then, so we ordered carryout and had a Pizza Party Picnic in our hotel room. The boys loved it and the food was great!

Day 8: Flagstaff, AZ to Williams, AZ

We woke up early the next morning, July 4th, and headed to Williams, AZ for a detour to visit the Grand Canyon. Neither Ande nor I had been to the Grand Canyon before and we were excited to add another National Park to our trip, along with being in such a classic American place on the Fourth of July. Upon arriving in Williams, we checked into the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel just in time to see the Grand Canyon Railway’s pre-show and board the train that took us to the Grand Canyon South Rim.

Once we got to the top of the canyon, we hiked (ok, walked) several of the trails on top of the canyon, took a lot of pictures, especially with various trees the boys were climbing, and grabbed a patriotic lunch of hot dogs from one of the food trucks near the El Tovar hotel before taking the train back down to town.

We got back to town just in time to see the Fourth of July parade through downtown Williams. It had such a fun, small-town America feel. Our holiday was everything you would associate with a traditional Fourth of July! After the parade, we went swimming and had dinner at the hotel before watching fireworks from the hotel parking lot.

Day 9: Williams, AZ to Kingman, AZ

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant before heading to get some coffee! We found a cute little drive-thru coffee shop, Brewed Awakenings, and a nearby park for the kids to play a little before we started driving again. While at the park, Henry saw the Route 66 Zipline in the adjacent parking lot and wanted to go. He and Ande rode while Milo and I watched from below!

After leaving Williams, our next stop was in Seligman, AZ. We stopped at Delgadillo’s Snow-Cap Drive-In for lunch. Burgers and shakes were definitely recurring themes during our road trip, but we were not disappointed here!

After lunch, we drove about 20 miles down the Route to the Grand Canyon Caverns for a cave tour! The caverns are located 200 feet below ground—being a little claustrophobic, I tried not to think about it on our descent in the elevator! They have a restaurant in the cave and even a place you can rent to stay overnight. Not something I would do, but it was neat to see!

Kingman, AZ was our next—and last— stop in Arizona! We checked into the Best Western Plus King’s Inn & Suites. The room was clean and convenient since we could park right outside our room’s door, making it easy to unload the car (and load it back up the next morning!). After unloading, we headed to the pool and I (again) used the time to do some laundry before we heading to dinner at Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner. We drove by the El Trovatore Motel, a classic Route 66 stop, on our way back to the hotel.

Next up, the end of the Route— our time driving the California portion of Route 66!