“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
JACK KEROUAC
The New Mexico Route 66 Association is dedicated to the education, promotion, and preservation of the New Mexico Historic Route 66 Scenic Byway and the economic revitalization along its 604-mile stretch throughout the state since 1989.
A 501(c)3 non-profit professional organization, our members consist of passionate individuals and businesses who want to help support the culture and communities along the longest urban stretch of the Mother Road.
The association has been recognized with the following honors:
A 501(c)3 non-profit professional organization, our members consist of passionate individuals and businesses who want to help support the culture and communities along the longest urban stretch of the Mother Road.
The association has been recognized with the following honors:
- 2024 National Trust for Historic Preservation Grant
- National Scenic Byways Best Practices Recognition
- 2003 Preservation Project of the Year: Route 66 New Mexico magazine
- 2004 New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award
About Route 66
Route 66 is a legendary highway stretching between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. Since 1926, America's most iconic highway has been a conduit for dreams and a road where adventures begin.
In the 1930's, it was the promise of a better life out west, via Route 66, that carried folks to new hopes and dreams. During World War II, it carried servicemen, ammunition, and supplies. After the war, it carried veterans and their families to new homes and fresh starts.
“Route 66, often called the Mother Road or Main Street of America, is more than a mere highway. It symbolizes hope, freedom, adventure, and the American Dream,” travel writer and photographer Sage Scott explains. “This iconic road, stretching 2,000 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, has inspired hope in refugees fleeing the Dust Bowl and captured the hearts of travelers from all walks of life. Its storied path through the heartland of America is a journey through time, culture, and landscapes that have defined a nation for nearly a century.”
“Traveling this famous road reveals many contrasts as each mile tells a story,” Sage continues. “You’ll see golden plains, snow-capped mountains, and barren desserts. The path will alternate between well maintained and all but abandoned. You’ll find modern amenities, restored gems, and dilapidated icons. From rustic diners to neon-lit motels, Route 66 embodies a unique slice of Americana. It’s a road that has inspired songs, movies, and books — each capturing the essence of this legendary route in its own way.
In the 1930's, it was the promise of a better life out west, via Route 66, that carried folks to new hopes and dreams. During World War II, it carried servicemen, ammunition, and supplies. After the war, it carried veterans and their families to new homes and fresh starts.
“Route 66, often called the Mother Road or Main Street of America, is more than a mere highway. It symbolizes hope, freedom, adventure, and the American Dream,” travel writer and photographer Sage Scott explains. “This iconic road, stretching 2,000 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, has inspired hope in refugees fleeing the Dust Bowl and captured the hearts of travelers from all walks of life. Its storied path through the heartland of America is a journey through time, culture, and landscapes that have defined a nation for nearly a century.”
“Traveling this famous road reveals many contrasts as each mile tells a story,” Sage continues. “You’ll see golden plains, snow-capped mountains, and barren desserts. The path will alternate between well maintained and all but abandoned. You’ll find modern amenities, restored gems, and dilapidated icons. From rustic diners to neon-lit motels, Route 66 embodies a unique slice of Americana. It’s a road that has inspired songs, movies, and books — each capturing the essence of this legendary route in its own way.
Route 66 through New Mexico
BY TOM SNYDER, FROM THE ROUTE 66 TRAVELER’S GUIDE AND ROADSIDE COMPANION
New Mexico is descended from the sky. Other places along old Route 66 have been formed from rivers, mountains, and plains. Other states have been forged by iron-willed men meeting in urgency behind closed doors to make a truce, a com-promise, a set of defensible boundaries. But New Mexico has no door on its history, no roof on its being. The first allegiance of most people here is to the land and to the generous sky above. Boundaries here seem best determined where these two-earth and sky—meet.
In the New Mexican view, cities are to be used as gathering points-for art as much as commerce-and not for population centers or power bases. Santa Fe is older than any city of Colonial America, and has been a capital for more than three hundred years, yet its population barely tops 75,000. The oldest public building in the United States is here in Santa Fe. Yet even with such a head start, the city refuses to have a proper airport. Newcomers rarely understand this until they have lived here for a while. Then they realize why there is no major airline operation in Santa Fe... It would interfere with the sky.
In New Mexico, travelers along old Route 66 begin to notice something different in the sky above about the time they reach Tucumcari. The color—a deeper, more translucent lens of cobalt blue—can take even experienced color photographers by surprise. No wonder the painters, and after them the writers, began migrating here well before Route 66 first made its way across the state. Driving through New Mexico’s high country in crackling bright sunshine, or rolling through one of the long valleys with billowing rain clouds so close overhead they seem almost touchable, everything here seems to put you at stage center. You always seem to be right in the middle of the performance.
It’s easy for a traveler to get religion—any kind— in a place like New Mexico, where earth and sky and wind and water greet one another in such unexpected ways. All the simple distinctions of mind, former notions about what is and what isn’t, begin to blur.
Following old Route 66 at a slower pace through the eastern hills, across the Continental Divide and into serious mesa country, perceptions change. It’s easier here, as an observer, to become part of all that is being observed, to feel a sense of connection with everything around. As a traveler, it is easier to slip loose from the sense of detachment and not-belonging that often seems to be a part of any great crossing.
This enchanted land asks little of you as a traveler, except one thing. It asks that you allow yourself to become enchanted, too.
In the New Mexican view, cities are to be used as gathering points-for art as much as commerce-and not for population centers or power bases. Santa Fe is older than any city of Colonial America, and has been a capital for more than three hundred years, yet its population barely tops 75,000. The oldest public building in the United States is here in Santa Fe. Yet even with such a head start, the city refuses to have a proper airport. Newcomers rarely understand this until they have lived here for a while. Then they realize why there is no major airline operation in Santa Fe... It would interfere with the sky.
In New Mexico, travelers along old Route 66 begin to notice something different in the sky above about the time they reach Tucumcari. The color—a deeper, more translucent lens of cobalt blue—can take even experienced color photographers by surprise. No wonder the painters, and after them the writers, began migrating here well before Route 66 first made its way across the state. Driving through New Mexico’s high country in crackling bright sunshine, or rolling through one of the long valleys with billowing rain clouds so close overhead they seem almost touchable, everything here seems to put you at stage center. You always seem to be right in the middle of the performance.
It’s easy for a traveler to get religion—any kind— in a place like New Mexico, where earth and sky and wind and water greet one another in such unexpected ways. All the simple distinctions of mind, former notions about what is and what isn’t, begin to blur.
Following old Route 66 at a slower pace through the eastern hills, across the Continental Divide and into serious mesa country, perceptions change. It’s easier here, as an observer, to become part of all that is being observed, to feel a sense of connection with everything around. As a traveler, it is easier to slip loose from the sense of detachment and not-belonging that often seems to be a part of any great crossing.
This enchanted land asks little of you as a traveler, except one thing. It asks that you allow yourself to become enchanted, too.
