Rare and relaxing

The headline called this the waterfront or seashore scenic byway, or something like that, in Washington and Oregon.

So that would make it the Pacific coast highway.
Having been there before, I believe the picture is of the Oregon coast.
Oregon coast drive is more scenic than the Washington coast.
But the whole PCH is a beautiful drive.

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Yes, I think Martin can contribute.
And I think Gerry, who did some of this in 2014.

My take is you first need to establish your preference between driving and seeing beautiful landscapes, or wanting to connect with history, landmarks and museums.

All of Route 66 is historic but, for the most part, it’s not a great drive.
It’s flat, dry and not much to see except when you pull into the towns and look for old buildings and museums.
Most of Route 66 no longer exists except in the old towns. It’s been replaced by Interstate 40, so you have to exit the Interstate and drive the Main streets in the towns to get a feel for Route 66 and the old buildings. Some towns have museums and car collections, but in between you’re driving open prairies. Flat horizon with little to see.

That was my experience when I did from mid Arizona to Oklahoma-Arkansas border of Route 66. It’s a bucket list drive but it’s not the most scenic or involving drive.
I did it west to east and the reason I did only the section I did is because, in California I wanted to go to Las Vegas, which is north of Route 66.
When I got to the east, I wanted to go to Nashville, so I left Route 66 in Arkansas instead of heading north toward Illinois.

Martin and Gerry can contribute here, but I believe the most scenic part of route 66 is in the Mountains in California and Arizona. Basically the part I missed to go to Vegas.

If you want history then Route 66 has plenty of that.
But if you want scenic and involving drive, then Pacific Coast Highway or any drive in the western mountains is more fun and involving than Route 66.
Or drives in Appalachians in east more scenic and fun to drive than Route 66.

So, if you want to do 66, fly to LA and you can pretty much do the whole route in a week, and return from St-Louis or Chicago.

But if you want scenic and involved drive in the west, fly to Victoria, Seattle or Portland, from where you can do the PCH down to California and a shorter stretch of 66 over the Mountains to Arizona and return from Phoenix or Albuquerque.
Phoenix would be a detour south of 66, whereas Albuquerque is right on the route.
To decide which city to fly to, look at map, decide how far you want to go each day and plot your daily progress to give you number of days.
Victoria is nice because drive would start on a morning ferry to Washington coast and bypass Seattle traffic. Ferry is Black ball ferry.
Portland would put you roughly 2 days closer to California.
Recent fires in LA can change route north of LA. At some point you may want to leave the coast and head inland to avoid Malibu and fire ravaged areas to get to Route 66 and Arizona.
You would have great drive on Oregon coast and see redwood trees in northern California. Even pass near Laguna Seca if you want to stop by and see that. You would go through Big Sur before getting to LA.
 
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Thanks for the info, I would like see some of the historic sites of route 66
but nice to have some cool drives and other cool attractions as well.
Mountain drives are always cool, not so sure about in March .

2 things to keep in mind, doing this 2-3rd week of March
not interesting in going anywhere I need winter cloths.
and we are not driving 10-12 hours a day.
this is a not rush, enjoy some new roads and sites sorta Ideal.

for the record, they recommend 3 weeks to do complete route 66,
its almost 2500 miles, sure could do much quicker, but only dirivng or we stopping
and looking at anything?

Love to do the Pacific coast hwy, just not sure March is right month for that
it is on my Bucket list for sure.
 
Yah, no…
Didn’t realize March was the time.

You have to decide how much you want to drive each day.
500 miles a day, 2500 done in 5 days.

Get a Rand McNally and plot it out.
Start from city with airport and end with city with airport.

You could do PCH in March.
Should not be any freezing temps along coast.

Probably more chance of seeing freezing temps in mountains on 66 in March.
Likely snow in Sierra Nevadas in California and mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona, on the 66 that time of year.

So maybe start in Albuquerque to St-Louis, or do like I did, leave 66 at Arkansas border and go to Nashville to fly back.

Albuquerque to St-Louis gives you New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri of the 66.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico, auto museum.

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Tucumcari, New Mexico, Blue Swallow motel.

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Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac ranch.

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Elk City, Oklahoma, Route 66 museum.

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Got to make choices in March.

You can cover lots of ground in NM, Texas and Oklahoma.
Just prairies between towns. Not much to see and not much to do.

For scenic drive, PCH would be better.
 
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A sampling of shots taken along the PCH.

First photo is Cannon beach, Oregon, working progressively down the coast to Santa Monica.

And I missed Big Sur because the Pfeiffer Canyon bridge was washed out when I went through.

If you want to drive slow. Stop in little towns and only cover a couple hundred miles a day, just do Portland to LA of the PCH.

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67 AGAIN said:
Yah, no…
Didn’t realize March was the time.

You have to decide how much you want to drive each day.
500 miles a day, 2500 done in 5 days.

Get a Rand McNally and plot it out.
Start from city with airport and end with city with airport.

You could do PCH in March.
Should not be any freezing temps along coast.

Probably more chance of seeing freezing temps in mountains on 66 in March.
Likely snow in Sierra Nevadas in California and mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona, on the 66 that time of year.

So maybe start in Albuquerque to St-Louis, or do like I did, leave 66 at Arkansas border and go to Nashville to fly back.

Albuquerque to St-Louis gives you New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri of the 66.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico, auto museum.

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Tucumcari, New Mexico, Blue Swallow motel.

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Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac ranch.

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Elk City, Oklahoma, Route 66 museum.

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Got to make choices in March.

You can cover lots of ground in NM, Texas and Oklahoma.
Just prairies between towns. Not much to see and not much to do.

For scenic drive, PCH would be better.
Click to expand...

A lot of familiar photos their Marc, and we stayed at the Blue Swallow, great place.
Will have a think and provide some thoughts shortly.
 
One immediate thought is a lot of places will be closed, they tend to close from Xmas until April or May. Some places open year round.
And it’s worth keeping in mind that even some of the southerly places on the route have had snow recently.

Ideally you would do it a bit later, maybe May. But if that’s not an option…….
 
One cool drive is from Kingman to Oatman, the Sidewinder, which includes the Cool Springs gas station. This is original Route 66 btw.

“This route begins in Kingman and travels South to historic Oatman where you can watch a wild west re-enactment or feed the wild burros. Along this stretch, just past Cool Springs is a famous stretch of road called the "Arizona Sidewinder" that boasts 191 Curves in 8 Miles!“
 
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67 AGAIN said:
A sampling of shots taken along the PCH.

First photo is Cannon beach, Oregon, working progressively down the coast to Santa Monica.

And I missed Big Sur because the Pfeiffer Canyon bridge was washed out when I went through.

If you want to drive slow. Stop in little towns and only cover a couple hundred miles a day, just do Portland to LA of the PCH.

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Click to expand...
Nice pictures Marc
 
I did check, according to the temps Average high is 78 and average low is 58
can it snow, yes at night likely gone fast. so jacket or sweater at night,
shorts and t's during the day, I expect it be around 16,17,18 th leaving for a week

Idea, maybe not but for most part should be decent. Its a vacation with wife, in hopefully a rental Mustang
So not being in a rush is part of the plan. enjoying where were going, what we see and
likely later than I would like starts, IE 9-9:30 driving till 4:30 to 6 with stops and lunch along the way.

I was actually thinking Phoenix Starting point, fly in and decent size city to fly out of
bad enough leaving here and having to go Toronto or Montreal to get there and home
trying not to spend 3 days flying.
 
Ohtobbad said:
I did check, according to the temps Average high is 78 and average low is 58
can it snow, yes at night likely gone fast. so jacket or sweater at night,
shorts and t's during the day, I expect it be around 16,17,18 th leaving for a week

Idea, maybe not but for most part should be decent. Its a vacation with wife, in hopefully a rental Mustang
So not being in a rush is part of the plan. enjoying where were going, what we see and
likely later than I would like starts, IE 9-9:30 driving till 4:30 to 6 with stops and lunch along the way.

I was actually thinking Phoenix Starting point, fly in and decent size city to fly out of
bad enough leaving here and having to go Toronto or Montreal to get there and home
trying not to spend 3 days flying.
Click to expand...
Phoenix would work, and that gives you good access to that area of Route 66 suggested.
 
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