• Needles
• Goffs
• Fenner
• Essex
• Chambless
• Amboy
• Ludlow
• Newberry Springs
• Barstow

• Helendale
• Oro Grande
• Victorville
• Cajon Pass
• San Bernardino
• Rancho Cucamonga
• Glendora
• Arcadia
• Pasadena
• Santa Monica

Historic Route 66 California Gateway Site

Click to read more about Route 66 in Needles

Located approximately two miles west of the Colorado River off Interstate 40, this day use and picnic area memorializes the entryway of Historic Route 66 into California.

The site contains covered picnic tables, an information kiosk, visitor log book, desert plants and trees, and a wind gauge. It is operated by the the Bureau of Land Management.

Needles El Garces Train Station in Needles

The building was formerly a grand Harvey House Hotel, restaurant and Santa Fe train station. The hotel and restaurant were open from 1908 to 1949. The train station closed in 1988.

Goffs, California

Goffs, an unincorporated community about 40 miles west of Needles in San Bernardino County, is a nearly empty one-time railroad town at the route's high point in the Mojave Desert. Goffs was a stop on Historic U.S. Route 66, and jogged around the White Cottage Restaurant. In 1931 a more direct Route 66 alignment opened between Needles and Essex.

A historic schoolhouse, built in 1914 and almost totally deteriorated by the early 1980s, has since been renovated to its original plans by the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association (MDHCA). The Goffs Schoolhouse is a one-room mission style desert school built by the County of San Bernardino to serve the growing population of the area. Through many of the 23 years it served as a school, dances were held in the building and it functioned as a branch of the county library and community center. The schoolhouse and grounds now house a museum primarily specializing in the area's mining history. Remnants of Goffs's mining days still dot the town.

The Dennis G. Casebier Library houses the Mojave Desert Archives. It is a replica of the historic Goffs Santa Fe Railway Depot (1902-1956).

Goffs today is accessible off Interstate 40 at U.S. Highway 95 north. A left turn onto Goffs Road, the pre-1931 alignment of US 66, becomes a desolate forty-mile stretch that served as home to several towns that have mostly vanished, including Bannock, Ibis, and Homer. Continuing west on Goffs Road brings motorists back to I-40 northeast of the town of Essex. It is located adjacent to the Mojave National Preserve.

Website of the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association and MDHCA on Facebook

Mojave National Preserve

The Mojave Preserve features a diverse mosaic of ecological habitats and a 10,000 year history of human connection with the desert. The park features a variety of wildlife, including mountain lions, coyotes, snakes and bats. Found in the park are Joshua Trees, lava beds, and sand dunes. The National Park Service (NPS) operates the Kelso Visitor Center and the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor Center.

For more information, visit the website of the Mojave National Preserve at NPS

Earlier days in Siberia, California ... seen here is a Texaco service station and post office between Ludlow and Bagdad

Barstow, California

Barstow is located in the high western Mojave Desert. Several major highways including Interstate 15, Interstate 40, California State Route 58, and U.S. Route 66 converge in the city.

Route 66 Mother Road Museum

For those interested in the history of the old road, a visit to the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow is a popular stop.

Closed since the summer of 2024, the Museum has announced that it will be reopening on March 22, 2025. The festivities will include food trucks, live entertainment, motorcycle clubs and much more! It is located at at 681 N. First Street.

Website of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow

Elmer Long's Bottle Tree Ranch

The Bottle Tree Ranch created by Elmer Long is a forest of colorful bottle trees hanging from large metal vertical pipes. It also features a variety of random collectibles such as windmills made of bicycle wheels, old signs, jeeps, typewriters, bed springs, car parts, and other assorted items. Many of the bottles were originally collected by Elmer's father. As time progressed, Elmer himself started collecting bottles and other old relics he found in the neighboring California deserts.

The "Ranch" is located at 24266 National Trails Hwy, Oro Grande, CA 92368. Read more about the Bottle Tree Ranch

Oro Grande, California

Oro Grande (Spanish for "Large Gold") is located in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, between Barstow and Victorville, on old Historic Route 66 and the National Trails Highway.

Visitors to the area enjoy stops at Elmer Long's Bottle Tree Ranch, the Iron Hog Saloon and other attractions. Oro Grande features a number of Route 66 murals, such as those shown below!

California Route 66 Museum

The California Route 66 Museum is an interactive museum with over 4500sf of floor space. It offers many photo ops for visitors in settings such as a 50s diner and a VW Love Bus.

Located at 16825 South D Street in Victorville. Learn more at the website of the California Route 66 Museum

Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe

Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe is a Route 66 icon that has been serving up meals to locals and hungry travelers on the Mother Road since 1947. The building was built by Bob and Kate Holland from cinder blocks manufactured at the old Fiber Tile Plant. Emma Jean worked at the cafe as a waitress, and her husband bought the cafe and named it after her.

The cafe remains a family-owned institution, and because of its nostalgic Mid-Century ambiance, it has been featured in a number of movies and TV shows.

Emma Jean's is located at 17143 N D Street, Victorville, CA 92394 - Phone 760.243.9938

Cajon Pass

Earlier days of Route 66 through Cajon Pass ... the highest point on CA Route 66

The pass is located south of Victorville between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. Rising to 3,777 feet, it is known for high wind, turbulence and fog. Today, Interstate I-15 parallels parts of the original Route 66.

Read about the famous rest stop on the National Old Trails Road ... Camp Cajon on Facebook

Wigwam Motel

In 1933 Frank Redford started developing the Wigwam “Villages” by designing teepee shaped motel units. Driving down Route 66, this San Bernardino motel immediately grabs your attention with its one of a kind roadside architecture.

The San Bernardino motel was opened in 1949, at 2728 E. Foothill Boulevard. This was the last of seven Wigwam Motels built across the country; only three survive today, this one, another in Kentucky and the third on Route 66 in Holbrook.

Read more about the Wigwam Motel

The Original McDonald's

Not far from Route 66 in San Bernardino is the site of the original restaurant of fast-food giant McDonald's.  A local fast-food franchise company now owns this site and has turned it into a museum, at 1398 North E Street, featureing an array of memorabilia, menus, toys and other McDonald's artifacts.

Rancho Cucamonga

The Cucamonga Service Station is a historic gas and automobile service station located in Rancho Cucamonga. Built in 1915, the Station continued to serve motorists when this highway became part of U.S. Route 66 in 1926 until it closed about 1972. Today the station serves as a museum, at 9670 Foothill Boulevard. Read more at the Cucamonga Service Station website

Also in Rancho Cucamonga is an original segment of the Mother Road, located in Route 66 Trailhead Park, Foothill @ Highridge Wb Fs, 8476 Foothill Blvd.

California Street Bridge

With majestic arches rising 150 feet above the deeply cut Arroyo Seco, the Colorado Street Bridge was proclaimed the highest concrete bridge in the world upon completion in 1913. The bridge connected Pasadena to Los Angeles; traffic on the bridge was heavy and it became inadequate as early as the 1930s. The bridge remained part of Route 66 until the 1940 completion of the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

Chicken Boy in Los Angeles

The 22-foot high, fiberglass Chicken Boy, is part man, part chicken, and holds a yellow bucket of chicken. Chicken Boy was originally located on the roof of the Chicken Boy restaurant on Broadway in Los Angeles. After a time in storage, it was relocated to its current site atop the Future Studio Gallery, 5558 North Figueroa Avenue, part of Historic Route 66, in the Highland Park area. It is commonly called the "Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles".

Santa Monica, California

The original terminus of U.S. Route 66 was at 7th and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. However, over the years, and decades, Route 66 has had several “official” and “unofficial" ending points. The route was later extended to the intersection of Lincoln and Olympic boulevards in Santa Monica, about one mile from the Pacific Ocean. This is often called the official ending point of Route 66.

Map showing the "official" and "unofficial" ending points of Route 66 in Santa Monica, California
(click image to open in Google Maps)

Since this locale can be disappointing after the long journey from Chicago, the Route 66 Alliance partnered with the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation in 2009 to mount an unofficial “End of the Trail” sign on the pier.

The End of the Trail in Santa Monica (Staff Photo)