Route 66 Turns 100: A Family Road Trip Plan for the Centennial

In the spring of 1926, two highway officials were stuck on a numbers problem. A new national highway from Chicago to Los Angeles needed a number, and the one they wanted was taken. According to the Federal Highway Administration's history of the US numbering system, Oklahoma's chief highway engineer noticed that "66" had not been assigned to any route. Cyrus Avery of Oklahoma and B. H. Piepmeier of Missouri promptly sent a telegram to the federal roads chief saying they preferred sixty-six. On November 11, 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted the US numbered highway system, and Route 66 was officially on the map.

That makes November 11, 2026, the road's 100th birthday. Congress even created a federal Route 66 Centennial Commission in 2020 to plan for it. If your family has ever wanted to "get your kicks," this fall is a fun time to do it. Below is a short history of the road and the family road trip, followed by a practical plan for driving a piece of it with kids.

A road built from other roads

Route 66 was never one brand-new highway. The National Park Service describes it as a cobbling together of existing local, state and national roads, stretching about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles through eight states. It was not completely paved until 12 years after it got its number. Thousands of young men in New Deal work programs helped finish the job, and the whole highway had pavement by 1938.

The road quickly became a story as much as a route. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s it was the main path for farm families heading to California, a migration the FHWA notes was immortalized in John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. During World War II it moved troops and supplies.

Then came the family vacation

After the war, Americans bought cars at a remarkable pace. The NPS overview of Route 66 notes that 52.1 million cars were registered in 1955, compared with 25.8 million at the end of the war. With more cars and more leisure time, families headed west on Route 66 to the Grand Canyon, Disneyland and the beaches of Southern California. The FHWA calls it the main highway for vacationers heading to Los Angeles in the 1950s, lined with mom-and-pop restaurants, motels and gas stations.

The family car of that era was often a station wagon. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History keeps a 1955 Ford Country Squire that belonged to a Southern California family with five children. The museum describes how its cargo area held picnic baskets, rafts, beach towels, hula hoops and the family dog, and how, on vacation trips to national parks, it served as a playpen.

Roadside businesses competed hard for those families. In Holbrook, Arizona, Chester Lewis opened the Wigwam Village Motel #6 in 1950: fifteen freestanding concrete teepees arranged around an office, each one a separate sleeping room. The National Park Service says it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

The interstate era

Route 66's popularity also set up its decline. On June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which, as the National Archives explains, expanded the planned interstate system to 41,000 miles. Over the next three decades, five interstates (I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10) replaced US 66 piece by piece. According to the NPS, the last section was bypassed by I-40 in 1984, and the highway was officially decommissioned in 1985.

The road did not disappear, though. Long stretches survive as "Historic Route 66," and the NPS says more than 250 buildings, bridges, road alignments and other sites along it are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NPS Travel Route 66). That is great news for families: you can drive a piece of it in a weekend.

Pick a piece, not the whole road

Driving all of Route 66 is a big project. With kids, a short segment with a few great stops beats a marathon. Here are two that work well, with directions links you can open on your phone.

Segment 1: Northern Arizona (Petrified Forest to Kingman)

Arizona has some of the most famous surviving stretches, and the stops are spaced for short kid-sized drives.

1. Petrified Forest National Park. The NPS says it is the only national park that contains a segment of Route 66. At the Route 66 pullout, telephone poles and a raised roadbed mark the old alignment, next to a vintage Studebaker. The park's main road is 28 miles long and takes about an hour to drive end to end, according to its trip itineraries page, so it is a perfect morning. Directions
2. Wigwam Village Motel #6, Holbrook. Even if you don't stay the night, kids love seeing the teepee rooms. Directions
3. Meteor Crater. A privately run attraction just off I-40 at Exit 233, about 20 minutes west of Winslow according to its visitor guide. Standing on the rim of a crater roughly 50,000 years old tends to impress even teenagers. Directions
4. Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff. The observatory calls itself the home of Pluto's discovery (plan your visit), and its program list currently includes a centennial talk about what Route 66 has to do with astronomy (Lowell Observatory). Directions
5. Williams. The historic Grand Canyon Railway departs daily from Williams to the Grand Canyon, which makes a good "day off from driving." Directions
6. Hackberry and Kingman. The Hackberry General Store on Route 66 appears in the FHWA's Route 66 fact sheet. In Kingman, the Arizona Route 66 Museum at 120 W Andy Devine Ave lists hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week (last entry 4:30), and has interactive exhibits. Directions

Segment 2: Oklahoma (Arcadia to Clinton)

Oklahoma claims a special role in the road's story, since Cyrus Avery, the Tulsa official in that 1926 telegram, pushed hard for the route.

1. Arcadia Round Barn. Built in 1898, it calls itself the only round barn on Route 66. Its website says admission is free and that it sits six miles east of I-35 on Route 66. Because volunteers run it, the barn asks visitors to call ahead to confirm hours in extreme temperatures. Directions
2. Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Clinton. Run by the Oklahoma Historical Society, it walks visitors through the road's history, from the Dust Bowl to a 1950s diner where kids can sit at the counter or in a booth. Directions

Centennial events this fall

The Route 66 Centennial Commission keeps a calendar of events by state. A few family-friendly ones listed as of early October 2026:

• Kingman Route 66 Fest, Kingman, Arizona, October 16–17, 2026, free, with live music and Route 66 displays (Arizona calendar).
• Round Barn Round-Up, Arcadia Round Barn, Oklahoma, October 17, 2026, free, a music and arts festival with a fiddle contest (Oklahoma calendar).
• Statewide Conference and Centennial Celebration, Springfield, Illinois, on the birthday itself, November 11, 2026, a ticketed event hosted by the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway (Illinois calendar).

Event details change, so confirm with the organizer before you build a trip around one.

Pacing a Route 66 trip with kids

The old road was built for a slower kind of travel, and that is its gift to families. A few ideas that keep everyone happy:

• Plan around two or three stops a day. It is tempting to see everything, but a crater in the morning and a museum after lunch is a full, happy day for young kids.
• Use the stops as your car seat breaks. Every attraction above has room to walk, stretch and run around. Plan your driving in short hops between them instead of long pushes.
• Drive the old road when you can, the interstate when you must. The historic alignment is slower and more interesting. When the kids are done, the parallel interstate gets you to dinner.
• Front-load the best stop. Kids are freshest in the morning. Put the hike or the crater first and the gift shop last.
• Book quirky lodging ahead. Small historic motels have a limited number of rooms, and centennial year is busy.

Car games for the Mother Road

These are classics for a reason, with a Route 66 twist:

• Shield spotting. First person to spot a Route 66 shield sign earns a point. Painted on the pavement counts double.
• The license plate game. Track every state you see. A centennial year brings visitors from all over.
• Decade detective. Look at a building, sign or car and guess which decade it is from. Older kids can check their guesses at the next museum.
• Design-a-motel. Inspired by the Wigwam, everyone invents a themed motel and draws its sign. Vote at dinner.
• Road-trip time capsule. Have each child pick one postcard, ticket stub or rock-shop find per day. The Library of Congress even suggests families make their own Route 66-style signs and maps as a project.

Before you go

• Check hours and any closures for every stop the week you travel
• Download offline maps; parts of the desert have spotty signal
• Pack water, snacks and sun protection for every outdoor stop
• Confirm event dates on the Route 66 Centennial calendar
• Reserve lodging early, especially near November 11

A hundred years ago, Route 66 was a patchwork of dirt and gravel that took real grit to drive. Today it is a museum you can roll through with the windows down, and the centennial is a once-in-a-lifetime excuse to go. Keeping your stops, directions links and motel confirmations in one shared trip plan, like a Vacation Hub itinerary, means everyone in the car knows what comes next.

Happy 100th, Mother Road.