Taking a Ride on Route 66 Through the Black Mountains in Arizona

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

I cannot believe it is November already. Time keeps flying by.  We went into Quartzsite for Mass, All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation for us Catholics, and noticed Patsy and Bill pulling into the RV Park they will be staying at. So a couple of hours later, we went to breakfast and made a couple of other stops, on our way home we stopped by to say hello. So nice to see them and Gibbs again. We had last seen them at Quail Ridge in Huachuca City back in April. I am thinking we will enjoy a couple of Happy Hours and possibly a visit to Silly Al's while we are here.

One of two hummingbirds we have had at our feeder.
I felt like this one was looking right at me when I took the picture.

The first hummingbird that showed up was green. It keeps trying to come back but this one, with the reddish neck, is very aggressive and does not let it get near the feeder.

The sun going down on what was a good day.

Back to moving the Blog forward to the present.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

So even though we have done this ride a couple of times in the past it had been a couple of years and we decided it would be fun to do again. Sadly Route 66 along here is deteriorating along the edges but the views are as beautiful as ever. 

U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).

In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the highway symbolizes escape, loss, and the hope of a new beginning; Steinbeck dubbed it the Mother Road. Other designations and nicknames include the Will Rogers Highway and the Main Street of America.

I just liked the looks of all the mailboxes.

We are headed west.

I found this description of Route 66, the Oatman Highway, online and we would say it is an accurate description of this road.

Tucked away on the northwestern corner of Arizona, to the south of Kingman, the road is very narrow and makes a number of hairpin turns. It features some steep climbs. Near the summit, the road hugs the mountainside,with no shoulders and few guardrails. If you are fearful of heights this is the last place on earth you’ll want to be.

Looking for information about Cool Springs I found this page, a brief and interesting history of Cool Springs. Its beginnings and its rebirth to what it is today. If you are interested click here and the page should open in a new window.

We have stopped here in the past but not today. 

Just out for a ride in his cute red car.

We saw the sign but until Oatman we never saw the burros.

Looking back where we came from.

Stopping for the pictures.

Looking down where we are going.
That is a parking area in the middle right and you
can see a sliver of the road in the bottom right.

We are down below the pass and continuing our journey.

Between Cool Springs and Oatman, old Route 66 twists and turns past recently reactivated gold mine workings while climbing up and over the angular Black Mountains. (This was the only information I could find about this place.)

There is no information on the building or fences
 as to what this is or the company.
The signs on the fence only say private property keep out.

Oatman ahead.

Oatman is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, Arizona, United States, located at an elevation of 2,710 feet (830 m). It began as a small mining camp when two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915, though the vicinity had already been settled for a number of years. Oatman's population grew to more than 3,500 in the course of a year. As of the 2020 census, its population was 102.

The name Oatman was chosen in honor of Olive Oatman, a young Illinois girl who was captured and enslaved by Indians, probably from the Tolkepayas tribe, during her pioneer family's massacre while on their journey westward in 1851. She was later sold or traded to the Mohave people, who adopted her and tattooed her face in the custom of the tribe. She was released in 1856 at Fort Yuma.

The town was used as the location for several movies such as How The West Was Won, Foxfire and Edge of Eternity.

When doing some research about Oatman I found this interesting tidbit. I wonder which story is true. I would like to believe the one on the wall at the Oatman Hotel.

In 1921, a fire burned down many of Oatman's smaller buildings, but spared the Oatman Hotel built in 1902. It remains the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County and is a Mohave County historical landmark. One of the hotel's major attractions is a room designated as the suite where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard supposedly spent their honeymoon after their 1939 wedding in Kingman, Arizona. In actuality, Gable and Lombard returned directly to Los Angeles after their wedding for a press conference the next morning and did not take a honeymoon until much later in Baja California.

As we were leaving these guys claimed the road.

These burros are direct descendants from the Gold Miners that brought them to the area as pack animals. Then the coming of World War II when the gold mines surrounding Oatman and Gold Roads, Arizona were shut down the burros were set free to roam the hills.

While there is the few Burros that do come to town regularly the hills surrounding Oatman, Arizona there resides many wild burros and different herds of them.

We saw these last two burros before we turned off of Route 66
and continued towards Mohave Valley then Bullhead City.

We did stop in Bullhead City for lunch and I made a quick trip in to Kohls but did not spend any money. We then headed back to Kingman on AZ-68. I am not sure why but I never took one picture while we were in Bullhead City.

Heading East on AZ-68

Union Pass Elevation 3571

Golden Valley in the distance.

We are almost to the sign for Kingman.

We had a nice day and walk in Oatman despite the 91 degree heat. While I was looking for information about Oatman and Cool Springs I came across a couple of places along the route worth stopping to explore. So I am guessing this ride could again be in our future. 

 We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.