Route 66 Backroads

The Backroads of Route 66 explores the landmarks, natural wonders, and historical gems left to be explored off the beaten path of America’s most famous byway.

Get off the beaten path and explore the hidden-gem destinations within a few hours of the Mother Road! Includes numerous photos and illustrations. Known as the Main Street of America and the Mother Road, US Route 66 is the nation’s best-known highway. This lavishly illustrated book steers you from Chicago to Los Angeles, traveling through the lowlands of the American Plains and the high plateaus of New Mexico and Arizona, from the Great Lakes to the mighty Pacific Ocean, and through major metropolises and remote country towns. Best of all, it lets you branch away from the Mother Road and encounter gems hidden beyond today’s standard motels and tourist traps—the quaint frontier communities that date back to the nation’s westward expansion; the legacy of ancient native cultures; and the awe-inspiring natural wonders that have graced these lands since time immemorial. State parks, wildlife refuges, museums, historic sites, literary landmarks, and much more are there to be explored within a few hours’ drive from the path of Route 66. The fifty trips included here offer new travel opportunities for the thousands of road-trippers who follow this legendary route, looking for something more. “The road and this book recall a time before franchise restaurants and chain motels choked America’s highways . . . the guide consists of 50 driving tours, which include plenty of side trips.” —Arizona Republic

An encyclopedia with a twist, The Route 66 Encyclopedia presents alphabetical entries on Route 66 history, landmarks, personalities, and culture, from Bobby Troup’s anthem “Route 66� to The Grapes of Wrath to the Wigwam Motel, illustrated with over 1,000 old and new, color and black-and-white photos and memorabilia.You'll learn about Jack Rittenhouse and Will Rogers as well as the contributions of lesser-known figures like Arthur Nelson and Angel Delgadillo. With references to the old (including the history of the U Drop Inn Café in Texas) and new (including a section about the recent Cars movie), The Route 66 Encyclopedia provides a sweeping look at a highway that has become more than just a road. These pages cover the history of Route 66 and the people who played a role in its transformation from highway to icon between 1926 and the present, but like the highway itself, this work does not fit within the traditional confines of generalities or terminology. Yes, this is an encyclopedia, a reference book for all things Route 66. However, it is also a time capsule, a travel guide, a history book, a memorial, a testimonial, and a chronicle of almost a century of societal evolution.

Explore the wide open spaces of Arizona with this guide to roads less traveled and awe-inspiring sights less seen. Backroads of Arizona guides you into the heart of Arizona's sun-shiny beauty and fascinating history. In this thoroughly updated edition, you'll find twenty-five driving tours and adventures that take you off the beaten path to stunning landscapes and breathtakingly beautiful vistas. Marvel at the multicolored hues of the Painted Desert and the jaw-dropping majesty of the snowcapped San Francisco Peaks. Wander into a sky-high forest of regal ponderosa pines and quaking aspens near Flagstaff, scan the deep blue waters of Lake Havasu on the western border, and feel dwarfed by the incredible Grand Canyon. With scenic drives in all corners of the state, Backroads of Arizona offers insight into Arizona's rich history, from the Spanish conquistadors seeking the legendary cities of gold to the Wild West shootout at Tombstone's OK Corral. Thanks to the maps and directions to the Grand Canyon State's unique scenic, historic, and cultural attractions, you can explore prehistoric cliff dwellings, hike to see a mountainside of cacti in bloom, or get your kicks on Route 66. This second edition includes new routes along timeless roads, with fresh images and pithy stories of what can be found along the way. Discover something off the beaten path, and make memories you'll never forget.

This guide to road-tripping along Route 66 presents the highway's very best stops--and it's the only guidebook with a fully integrated app.

Backroads of the Great American West describes and details with full-color photos and maps the most scenic routes in the Rocky Mountains, Texas, Desert Southwest, California, and Pacific Northwest.

DIVAs a longstanding cultural icon and beloved vacation destination, U.S. Route 66’s legendary notoriety continues unabated. In fact, thanks to a corps of preservationists dedicated to keeping nostalgia for the road alive, interest in America’s Main Street is actually growing. But modern 66 enthusiasts aren’t the first to spread the word about the Mother Road—in fact, Route 66 has a rich, decades-long history of advertising behind it./divDIV/divDIVIt’s been more than half a century since Route 66 functioned as a major cross-country thoroughfare, but following its displacement by the U.S. Interstate system in the 1950s, advertising ephemera used to promote Route 66 motels, diners, souvenir shops, and the road itself became highly sought-after collectibles. In Route 66 Treasures, author Jim Hinckley’s unique new look at the road examines it through the lens of those promotional and advertising efforts, going so far as to include 15 pieces of fabulous removable facsimile memorabilia—as among them diner menus, cocktail napkins, paper coasters, window decals, postcards, brochures, and more—each enclosed in its own vellum envelope. Hinckley’s chronological history provides a richly illustrated and thoughtful review of Route 66 promotion through the decades in each of the eight states through which it travels./divDIVAn utterly new look at the Mother Road, Route 66 Treasures offers a rare collectible archive for the growing hordes of 66 enthusiasts./div

Here We Are . . . on Route 66 explores America’s fabled “Mother Road,” following Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica and offering an expert look back at vanished attractions—and sites still drawing thousands each year.

The face of Arizona has changed dramatically over the centuries-but for those who know where to look, the coyote still howls, waterfalls still tumble into deep red rock canyons, and some of nature's finest handiwork is still to be seen along the backroads and byways of the state. For the open-road adventurer or the armchair tourist, Backroads of Arizona is the ideal guide to the state where antelope still roam, cowboys still ride the range, and mail is still delivered by mule train. Jim Hinckley's informative text and Kerrick James' brilliant color photography reveal the Grand Canyon State as more than just desert and towering saguaros: It is a powerful land of compelling variety where a mere sixty-mile drive can transport you from scorching sands to dense evergreen stands where deer and elk roam. Continuing on Voyageur Press' successful travel series, Backroads of Arizona takes you on more than twenty trips to the state's most notable and underappreciated sites. The book covers Arizona's plethora of awe-inspiring natural areas and national parks as well as its many historic sites, including Native American Pueblos and ancient ruins, ghost towns and vestiges of the Old West, and more. It is a fitting celebration of one of the most scenic states in the country.