Route 66 Roadside Attraction:
Needles El Garces Train Station in California

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.

Click to read more about Route 66 in Needles

Historic Route 66 California Gateway Site

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.

Operated by the Needles Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management.

Goffs, California

Goffs, an unincorporated community about 40 miles west of Needles in San Bernardino County, California, 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 local 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). This climate-controlled repository was built in 2008 with funding from a California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant and donations from the membership of the MDHCA.

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.

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

Roy's Motel and Cafe

Roy's Motel and Café is a historic site on U.S. Route 66 in the Mojave Desert town of Amboy in San Bernardino County, California. It functions as a 24-hour gas station, gift shop, and famous tourist attraction, due to its 1950s Googie-Style neon sign that can be seen for miles approaching the town.

For more information, visit the Roy's website

Route 66 Roadside Attraction in Amboy
"Founded in 1858, Amboy provided a vital rest stop for weary sun-drenched travelers seeking a better life in California"

Time for a stop on a hot day of bike riding ... at Roy's Motel and Cafe in Amboy

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

Several major highways including Interstate 15, Interstate 40, California State Route 58, and U.S. Route 66 converge in Barstow.

Route 66 Mother Road Museum

For those interested in the history of the old road, we recommend a visit to the Route 66 Mother Road Museum at 681 N. First Street in Barstow.

Website of the Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum

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 at the Bottle Tree Ranch website

California Route 66 Museum

The California Route 66 Museum is devoted to the representation of U.S. Highway 66 in both historic and contemporary exhibition. It is an interactive museum with over 4500 Sq. Ft. of floor space. The museum offers many photo opportunities for visitors to share memories in such settings as a 50’s diner and the VW Love Bus complete with hippie wigs and sunglasses for that perfect shot.

Located at 16825 South D Street in Victorville, California

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

Read more at the Emma Jean's Website

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.

This was the last of seven Wigwam Motels built across the country; only three survive today, this one, another in Kentucky and the third in Holbrook.

The San Bernardino motel was opened in 1949, at 2728 E. Foothill Boulevard.

Website of 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. The museum features an array of memorabilia, menus, toys and other McDonald's artifacts. Also, there is a mural of Richard and Maurice McDonald (below).

The address is 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino. Admission is free.

Rancho Cucamonga

The Cucamonga Service Station is a historic gas and automobile service station located in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Located on Historic Route 66, it was built in 1915 and today serves as a museum. The official address is 9670 Foothill Blvd, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730.

Route 66 overpass in Ranch Cucamonga

California Street Bridge

With its 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, and traffic on the new bridge was heavy. Only two lanes wide, the bridge was considered 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.

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 referred to as 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)

The End of the Trail ... Santa Monica, California (Staff Photo)

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