Southwest Road Trip Part 1 Los Angeles to Oatman to Williams, AZ - gateway to the Grand Canyon

Well, it’s covid time and Thanksgiving break and we have our house rented out and we can’t stay with our families, sooooo, we did what we know best, we hit the road in our eurovan. We did a similar southwest tour 4 years ago when the kids were just 4 years old. And while we often have an aversion of going to the same place twice, we thought this trek is one that you could actually repeat many times over and always have a new experience. Our last southwest trek we flew and this one was driving from LA so it took us on a different path which fortunately let us include Grand Canyon, a place none of us have been to yet!

We usually have a 3-4 hour max driving rule, but in order to really make some headway, we did a straight shot to needles, AZ on that first day. We blasted through Land of Stories audiobook, written by Chris Colfer, also known as Kurt from the show Glee. A modern take on classic fairytales ended up being the perfect road trip series as it contains 6 books! I will mention this in every raod trip post no doubt, audiobooks are easy to get for free when you link your library card with the apps Libby or Overdrive directly onto your phone. Connect to your car speaker and voila, you have entertained kids for hours. (we have yet to figure out a way to get the kids to listen to their own audiobooks so it’s not on the main speakers of the car. Peter and I usually just zone out and get into our own heads and watch the scenery pass or sometimes we all get involved in the audiobook. Since my kids don’t have their own phones, it becomes a family affair. If you have any other solutions, i’m all ears, leave a comment below.)

Our first pit stop was to get gas along this beautiful setting. And already the Route 66 tourist attractions have begun.with Ludlow Cafe. We didn’t stop to eat here, but the mining paraphernalia was fun eye candy and a precursor of what was to come on this trip.

5 hours later, we ended up in Needles, CA with just enough time to jump on some beds and walk to dinner. The giggling Cactus has such a great name, and I was determined to engorge myself with it’s food so I too could embody a giggling cactus, but alas, it was closed. Fortunately, our hotel was located in walking distance to two options so we continued no our way to the “historic WagonWheel Restaurant, “ where you can get a skillet scramble that comes in a plastic skillet, ha! And thus began the route 66 hype. Covid friendly options to bring your dog and eat outside under their heaters. When you’re able to go inside, this cafe takes you back in time with big leather booths and iron chandeliers. If you stop in Needles, this may actually be the only gig in town. Thankfully, for us it was walking distance from our hotel.

Day 2

Needles, CA to Oatman to Williams, AZ

Instead of taking the new Highway 40, go north an easy 30 min. drive away from Needles and you’ll hit the town of Oatman. A town that hit it big in the mining days when two men found $10 million dollars worth of gold in 1915 swiftly upping this towns population by 3500 in 1 year. But the town itself gets it’s name in homage to Olive Oatman. As lore goes, she was kidnapped at age 13 by the Yavapai native american tribe when her family broke off from the rest of the pack and traveled solo in their covered wagon heading west in 1851. Her parents were killed and only she and her sister were spared (her brother escaped). She and her sister were then traded to the Mojave tribe who adopted them, complete with their custom of tattoing their chins so they could be identified in the afterlife. Eventually, Olive’s sister died from starvation, but her brother who escaped came to find her in this tribe and she was released to him in Oatman. There have been a number of books written about Olive and her sister’s experiences, if you’re interested HERE. There is a bunch of rich history in this western town such as the rise and fall of the mining industry, a great fire that nearly destroyed the entire town and the supposed honeymoon location of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard (which later was refuted). The drive into Oatman had spectacular scenery.

Oatman, AZ

Land of the Burros

Surrounded by Bureau of Land Management land, this town would have been lost forever had it not been that it was on the historic route 66. However, in 1953, route 66 was rerouted and destroyed many of the small towns on that old route. Oatman would have suffered the fates as many of the towns on Route 66 had it not been for tourism nostalgia keeping it alive and maybe the one thing that sets it apart from other ghost towns along this route, the wild burros. These burros were brought here in the 1800’s to help with the mining. When all the mines closed down, the burros were left behind. Now they roam wild in the area and come into town every day to get food from tourists. Warning, donkeys and dogs DO NOT MIX! Donkeys will literally kill your dog, so hold your pup close or in your arms or those burros will take your pup down.

There’s plenty of funky little shops to go into and old time museums, you can even go into this old mine for free. The town is really trying to keep itself alive and tourism is about all they have at the moment. So, do them a favor and give this town a stop and stroll, worth the leg stretch and especially fun for the kids to see all the burros roaming town, walk into an old mine and browse the many crystal and mineral shops..

If you’re a real Route 66 fanatic, continue taking the slow and meandering highway through the hills once it crosses route 40. We were able to take in the beauty in between Oatman and Walnut Creek and opted to make it to our destination quicker by taking the main highway. It’s easy to see how how the little towns along Route 66 were really starved once this new highway came in. It’s fast and gets you from point A to point B very quickly with little to see or do in between. But again, if you have the time, go the old route and if you’re a Disney Cars movie fan, you must stop in Seligman, it’s known as the “birthplace of Route 66” and was the inspiration for the backdrop of the entire movie.

On to Williams, AZ

gateway to the grand canyon

Since we book everything last minute, there were no options left in the Grand Canyon to stay. We opted for the town of Williams, about an hour south from the Grand Canyon entrance and therefore aptly known as “The Gateway to the Grand Canyon”. The kids actually loved this town, with it’s old charm and festive Christmas vibe (even though it wasn’t even Thanksgiving yet). We fully supported the early onset as, didn’t we all deserve some holiday cheer after this heavy blanket of covid we’ve all been under?

Before we made the trek up to the Grand Canyon, we all needed to eat! The Historic Brewing Barrel and Bottle House was just the ticket as they had a large outdoor deck on the roof to chow on big fries, pulled pork sandwiches and of course tall pints of beer. For a list of all the restaurants and activities in Williams, including their zip line and train you can take into the Grand Canyon click HERE.

Continue on the the next blog post to read all about The Grand Canyon