Route 66 Hemi Centennial

Welcome to Albuquerque for your Route 66 Hemi tour! On arrival at Albuquerque Airport, take the complimentary shuttle to your hotel where you can relax and make use of the hotel’s facilities. Perhaps take a taxi to Old Town for dinner and some shopping.

Our guide will meet you after breakfast and take you to collect your motorcycle. Hit the road with a fun ride up to Santa Fe, where the rest of the group are enjoying a day of rest and relaxation in one of the oldest (and highest, at over 2250 m) state capitals in the USA. In the afternoon, explore Santa Fe’s numerous art galleries, speciality shops and museums, all within easy walking distance of our hotel. Roam around the beautiful downtown plaza taking in its unique combination of Native American and Spanish colonial architecture. There’s also a beautiful ride up to Taos, a small town known for its native American pueblos and surrounding artist’s colonies, inhabited by the likes of painter Georgia O’Keefe and photographer Ansel Adams. Ride up along the Rio Grande river valley, and back down through the twisty mountain roads to Santa Fe.

It’s time to get back on the road and out into the deserts of the southwest, to our first stop for lunch in Albuquerque Old Town. Then we head on through the splendour of New Mexico’s natural beauty, ending the day in the old railroad town and Native American stronghold of Gallup and our historic El Rancho hotel.

We start this morning over a mile above sea level and ride on the interstate to our first stop. It may be a bit chilly to start but it should soon warm up. At the Petrified Forest & Painted Desert National Park you can observe a unique and stunning landscape, comprised of layers upon layers of colorful volcanic ash, separated and capped by layers of ancient sandstone. We’ll take time in the park to look around and ride the 28 miles through this amazing landscape, before making our way to our next stop. Now riding through wide-open landscape, with only sagebrush and high chaparral grasses and cactus to Holbrook, we will do a brief picture stop at the Route 66 icon, the Wigwam Motel. We stop for lunch at the El Falcone Restaurant in Winslow, Arizona. Afterwards, downtown, you’ll have the opportunity to be “Standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona”……….remember the Eagles song “Take it easy”?

From Winslow, we ride on to our next “out-of-this-world” destination, Meteor Crater Arizona! And then, we  continue, riding westward to Flagstaff, AZ where we will spend the night. We are nearby and tomorrow we visit the Grand Canyon!

Today we will visit the Grand Canyon, one of the 7 wonders of the world! We’ll head North, on our way stopping for food for a picnic lunch and entering the National Park at the East entrance where there is just over a mile to get to the best viewpoint of the canyon. From Desert View and the “Watchtower”, you’ll get an opportunity to ride on your own along the one road that goes along the edge of the canyon. You can stop at any of the various viewpoints along the way for more sightseeing, and to find a great place to enjoy your picnic lunch. We’ll rendezvous in a few hours at a spot in the small town just outside of the southern park entrance. It’s just over 27 miles to our rendezvous point, where we’ll meet before moving on.

From here we get on the bikes and head South to the town of Williams. You’ll have time here for dinner and to explore. We should get into town and to our hotel in enough time to get cleaned up, go get some dinner and explore the town a bit. Enjoy a stroll along the historic main street where antique street lamps decorate the sidewalks. Historic Route 66, which runs through Williams, was in former times the “Main Street of America”. It was only in 1984 that Interstate 40 was built, leading traffic around the town.

We start the day by riding to the small town of Seligman for breakfast and give ourselves some time for shopping at its many Route 66 shops. Then we’re off to Hackberry and then Kingman, the self-styled ‘Capital of Route 66’. Next comes what Americans like to call the ‘curviest’ part of the Route, the Oatman Highway, a twisting ride over the Black Mountains. We stop in Oatman to see one of the few remaining old west gold mining towns and its burros, left behind when the miners abandoned the mines.  And then we reach the Colorado River, California and Needles, our next historic Route 66 town.

We start the day by riding over the Spirit Mountains into the dramatic, desolate and hot Mojave Desert, stopping in Amboy, located in the middle of nowhere, to check out iconic Roy’s Motel and Café. We continue to our lunch stop in Barstow and then on to Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch. After a hot day riding through the desert our hotel’s refreshing pool beckons us to take a cool dip and relax.

The big adventure comes to an end today with our ride to Los Angeles. Much of the road has been lost, but the end of the Mother Road, Santa Monica Pier, is worth the wait. Park up the bike and dip your toes in the Pacific Ocean, this really is journey’s end! We take our time going to the end marker plaque, and then have a nice lunch on the pier. Afterwards you’ll have some time to look around. Then it just remains for us to return the motorcycles in the afternoon and enjoy our Farewell Party this evening.

Sadly, it’s time to pack our bags and head home, filled with the experiences and memories. We hope to see you back for another great tour. This is end of the road – for now!