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Painted Desert InnPhoto: TheCatalyst31, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Driving tour · Arizona

Route 66 in Arizona: Painted Desert to Oatman

A drive along the Mother Road's motels, towns and survivors

8 h7 stops322 mi

Start the drive

Stop 1 is free, no sign-up. All 7 for $4.99, refunded within 7 days if it isn't for you.

See the 7 stops

The 7 stops

  1. 1Start hereFree

    Painted Desert Inn

    The Inn That Was Ordered Torn Down

    Free sample · 2:54
    0:002:54

    You're standing at the Painted Desert Inn, on the rim of the Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park. Look at the building itself: thick, rounded adobe-colored walls and flat roofs, built to look like a pueblo. Then look past it, out over the badlands, banded in reds and purples. Travelers on Route 66 came a long way for exactly this view.

    The story starts in 1924, with a man named Herbert David Lore. Lore opened an inn here, at the edge of nowhere, and he built part of it out of the ground around him: petrified wood. People nicknamed it the Stone Tree House. Those logs had been trees about 225 million years ago, which may make it the only roadside stop in America with walls older than the dinosaurs.

    In the 1930s the National Park Service took over, and the inn got a second life courtesy of the New Deal. Park Service architect Lyle Bennett drew up a Pueblo Revival design, and from 1937 to 1940 young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt it by hand, folding part of Lore's old inn into the new one. Those were Depression-era jobs, and you're looking at what they made.

    After the war, the Fred Harvey Company, famous for its railroad and roadside hospitality across the Southwest, took it over. Their designer, Mary Jane Colter, reworked the interior, and she brought in a Hopi artist she'd worked with before at the Grand Canyon, Fred Kabotie. In 1947 and 1948 Kabotie painted murals of Hopi life on the walls inside. One shows a journey through this very desert to gather salt. It matters who told that story. This land was home to Ancestral Pueblo farmers for centuries before they joined communities on the Hopi Mesas and at Zuni, and their descendants still live there. Kabotie was painting his own people's ground.

    Harvey ran the inn from 1947 until it closed in 1963. Then came the turn. By the mid-1970s, demolition was on the table. The building was supposed to come down. Instead, the public pushed back. The inn went onto the National Register of Historic Places and reopened in 1976 as a Bicentennial travel center. In 1987 it became a National Historic Landmark, honored not just for its looks but for how New Deal money built it.

    Nobody has slept here since 1947. But it's a museum now, Kabotie's murals are still on the walls inside, and in summer there's even an ice cream parlor. That's the whole idea of this tour in one building: a place the highway era nearly threw away, kept alive because people refused to let it go.

    When you're ready, head southwest, mostly on I-40, about 28 miles and 40 minutes, to Holbrook. Your next room for the night, at least in spirit, is shaped like a tipi.

The whole drive

7 stories across Arizona

8 h · 7 stops · 322 mi

Starts at Painted Desert Inn and ends at Oatman.

  • Plays right here in your browser, or in the app
  • One purchase for your group, on up to 4 phones
  • Refunded within 7 days if it isn't for you

Plan your drive

    How long

    About 8 h for 322 mi with all 7 stories. Going inside the sites adds time.

    Start and finish

    Starts at Painted Desert Inn and ends at Oatman.

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    Questions people ask

    How long does it take to drive Route 66 in Arizona?

    This route is 322 miles from the Painted Desert Inn to Oatman, about 8 hours of driving with all seven stories. Most people split it over two days, with a night in Holbrook, Winslow, Williams or Kingman.

    What towns does Route 66 go through in Arizona?

    On this drive: Holbrook (the Wigwam Motel), Winslow (Standin' on the Corner Park), Seligman, Hackberry and Oatman, with stops at the Painted Desert Inn and Meteor Crater on the way.

    Is Oatman, Arizona worth visiting?

    For Route 66 fans, yes. Oatman is an old gold-mining town in the Black Mountains where wild burros wander the main street, and it's the last stop on this drive.

    Do the stops charge admission?

    Two do. The Painted Desert Inn is inside Petrified Forest National Park, which charges an entrance fee, and Meteor Crater is privately owned and sells tickets. The towns, the corner in Winslow and the Hackberry General Store cost nothing to see.

    What is the most famous stop on Route 66 in Arizona?

    Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, tied to the Eagles' song "Take It Easy", is the stop most people photograph. The park has a mural of the girl in a flatbed Ford.

    Do I need the app?

    No. After you unlock, the tour plays right here in your browser: keep the screen on and tap each stop. The free Stories app adds GPS auto-play, so each story starts by itself when you arrive, with your phone in your pocket, and works offline.

    How many people can listen?

    One purchase covers your group on up to 4 phones. Share the link from your receipt, or everyone can sign in to the app with the same email.

    Does it work offline?

    In the app, yes: download the tour on Wi-Fi before you go. In the browser you need a signal, which is fine on most routes; open the tour once before you leave.

    When can I start?

    Any time. Start whenever you like and drive at your own pace; the stories wait for you.

    Can I give this tour as a gift?

    Yes. Tap "Give it as a gift", type their email and a note, and pick the day it arrives (Christmas morning works). They open it in their phone's browser; you get the receipt.

    Can I get a refund?

    Yes. If the tour did not work for you, email support@getstories.app within 7 days and we will refund it.

    Who made this tour?

    Stories writes each tour from public sources, checks every claim against them, and narrates it with a synthetic voice. The sources are listed at the end of this page; if you spot a mistake, tell us at support@getstories.app.

    About this tour and its sources

    You're standing at the Painted Desert Inn, looking out over a land that seems freshly painted. Look past the building at the bands of red, pink and grey stretching toward the horizon. The Hopi have a connection to this country that runs far deeper than any highway, and the road you're about to follow runs through that history as much as through scenery.

    Route 66 was known as the Mother Road. Then Interstate 40 came. It bypassed downtown Holbrook, and the Wigwam Village motel there closed in 1974. It came a few miles south of Seligman in 1978, and traffic through town virtually disappeared that day. Hackberry got no off-ramp at all. So here's the question this tour keeps asking. When a road stops mattering to the map, who decides it still matters? You'll meet a barber who founded an association, a man in an orange Volkswagen Microbus who reopened a grocery, a mining engineer who spent 27 years drilling for a meteorite, and a song about a corner in Winslow. The tour ends among the burros that roam the streets of Oatman, who have a firmer claim on the road than you do.

    Your first story is right here. Herbert David Lore opened an inn on this spot in 1924. Its walls were nicknamed the Stone Tree House, because petrified wood was built into them. Later the inn closed, was slated for demolition, and was saved. Here's how.

    Written from public sources, every claim checked against them, narrated by a synthetic voice. Last checked October 2026.

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