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Route 66 exemplifies what photographer Rachael Wright calls “the enduring mythology of the American dream.” She moved to the U.S. from England about 15 years ago, but the highway’s vast and varied scenery across its 2,448 miles and eight states––particularly the neon and mid-century modern relics celebrated in pop culture––have intrigued her since childhood.
As an adult, Wright also became fascinated with the road’s complex history. In 1926, as the U.S. was launching its first federal highway system, government officials cobbled local, state, and national roads together to create Route 66. Writer John Steinbeck called it the “Mother Road” during the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s as poverty-stricken Americans used it to head west in search of jobs. Since then, Wright says, it has lived many lives: a military road during World War II, and by the 1950s, a popular east-west path for leisure travelers.
Wright’s first trip along Route 66 was in 2016. She drove from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Monument Valley on the border of Arizona and Utah. Wright was in a transitional period with work and feeling unmoored; the journey gave her a sense of purpose, even if her actual plans were loose. “Sitting in the driver’s seat is a metaphor,” she says. “You’re deciding where you’re going and what you’re going to see.”
A year later, Wright drove the California-to-Arizona leg with her mom, who shares her affinity for classic cars and vintage signage. Wright noticed that some of the roadside attractices she had admired on her last trip (an old laundromat here, a color tv hotel sign there) had either fallen into disrepair or disappeared altogether. “I wanted to see more of [Route 66] before we lost it,” says Wright, whose photography often grapples with themes of impermanence.
In 1985, Route 66 was decommissioned, replaced over the years with five multilane interstate highways. Today, it’s still possible to drive across big sections of the Mother Road, but it is no longer one continuous route. That said, passionate preservationists at the Road Ahead, a group of organizations that support the thoroughfare’s revitalization, are working to save and maintain its buildings, landscapes, and communities.
“I love to think about the people who’ve traveled this route before me and their reasons for doing so,” says Wright, who is considering the trip for 2026—the 100th anniversary of its founding. “Route 66 is so much more than a road,” she says. “It’s a great American story.”
Route 66 signage in New Mexico.
Photo by Rachael Wright
Plains Indian dancers take center stage at the Oklahoma State Fair.
Photo by Rachael Wright
The Googie-style architecture of the lobby at Roy’s Motel & Café is more “time capsule and museum exhibit” than a functioning reception area for guests, Wright says.
Photo by Rachael Wright
Holbrook, Arizona, is known for one of America’s odder attractions: 14 concrete dinosaur statues, which visitors can spot while en route to Petrified Forest National Park.
Photo by Rachael Wright
The culinary delights along Route 66 come in eccentric buildings, like this Sno Cap ice cream shop in Seligman, Arizona.
Photo by Rachael Wright
A neon sign in Tucumari, New Mexico.
Photo by Rachael Wright
Short moments of joy captured at the Oklahoma State Fair, one of the many recurring events along Route 66.
Photo by Rachael Wright
On the Santa Monica Pier, at the terminus of Route 66, Wright captured what she considers one of the portfolio’s most tender and poignant moments: a man teaching his grandson how to bait a hook.
Photo by Rachael Wright
In 1938, Roy Crowl (along with his daughter, Betty) opened Roy’s Motel & Café in Amboy, California, 200 miles from Los Angeles. The family ended up in Amboy in 1924 when their car broke down, and they never left. In 2019, Wright attended the relighting ceremony of the neon sign. “I’m used to seeing things disappear on Route 66, so I thought it was worth the drive to see an icon come back to life,” she says. “It was kind of emotional to see it light up and how happy that made everyone.”
Photo by Rachael Wright
A framed print of photographer Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother hangs in the gas station gift shop at Roy’s Motel & Café in Amboy, California. “I didn’t notice it until my third or fourth visit, and I love that they have a subtle homage to the road’s history,” says Wright, referringto the Dust Bowl migrants who took the route out west in the 1930s.
Photo by Rachael Wright
Angel Delgadillo was 91 years old when Wright took his portrait. Now 97, he has lived on Route 66 all his life. His family still runs Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, a café in Seligman, Arizona. He advocated in the 1980s for sections of the neglected road to be named a historic highway. “People call him ‘the father of the Mother Road’ because he has always been championing it, trying to bring tourists back after I-40 made Route 66 almost nonexistent,” Wright says. “He’s the DNA of this place.”
Photo by Rachael Wright
How to plan a Route 66 road trip
The original Route 66 cut across eight states and numerous climates. Travelers driving its approximated entirety today will pass through cities, small towns, deserts, mountains, and grasslands between Illinois and California. May and June are the best months to tackle the drive, says photography Rachael Wright, for both the milder weather and the longer daylight hours. Expect increased interest in the route over the next couple of years, in the lead-up to its 2026 centennial. Here are some of the must-see stops along the way.
Where to Sleep
“Places like the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri, and the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumari, New Mexico, might not be around forever,” says Wright. She also has a soft spot for La Posada, a restored railroad hotel in Winslow, Arizona, and the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, a half hour east. For a more pampered experience, book a room at one of the luxury or boutique hotels along the route, including the Peninsula Chicago; the Barfield Hotel in Amarillo, Texas; Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico (an Auberge Resorts Collection property); and L’Auberge de Sedona in Arizona.
Where to Stop
Iconic roadside photo ops include: the Blue Whale, an explorable structure located next to a pond in Catoosa, Oklahoma; Giganticus Headicus, a 14-foot sculpture that pays homage to the statues of Rapa Nui, in Kingman, Arizona; and Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation with 10 graffiti-covered cars buried nose down in a wheatfield in the Texas Panhandle. Wright also likes the classic 66 Drive-In movie theater in Carthage, Missouri, and the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, which “just looks so cool at night.” Continue an hour west from Clinton to Erick, Oklahoma, to potentially meet one of the wildest characters on the Mother Road: Harley Russell, who runs Sandhills Curiosity Shop, a memorabilia-stuffed store where nothing is for sale. Don’t be surprised if Russell pulls out his guitar or offers a tour of what he deems his “redneck castle and sanitarium.”
Where to Detour
Not every place worth pit stopping is located directed on Route 66. Petrified Forest National Park, the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona, and the 50,000-year-old Meteor Crater in Winslow, Arizona, are among Wright’s best-loved diversions. Other highlights include the manicured gardens at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian; and the always-epic Grand Canyon.
Where to Eat
Wright is fond of the landmark Tower Station in Shamrock, Texas, built in 1936 and topped with a distinctive metal tulip. Within the Tower Station complex, the lovingly restored U-Drop Inn Café serves a mean root bear float. She also raves about the steak at Crush Wine Bar and Grill in Amarillo, Texas. For a pick-me-up, swing out to Pops 66 in Arcadia, Oklahoma. Part restaurant and gas station, part international soda supermarket, it stocks upward of 700 types of fizzy drinks.
