Route 66 in Oklahoma: Our Photos and Highlights

Oklahoma has more driveable miles of Route 66 than any other state. Over 400 miles of the Mother Road cut across the state from the northeast corner near Commerce all the way to the Texas border at Texola, and there’s something worth stopping for in practically every town along the way. Drive-in movie theatres, giant blue whales, totem pole parks, Route 66 museums, painted barns, classic diners, and enough neon motel signs to light up the prairie.

We drove the full Oklahoma stretch as part of our Route 66 road trip from California to Chicago, and Oklahoma was one of the states where the old road really felt alive. People are proud of Route 66 here. Businesses fly the Route 66 flag, towns maintain their stretches of original road, and the whole state takes the Mother Road seriously.

Route 66 enters Oklahoma from Kansas in the northeast corner, near Commerce and Miami. From there it runs southwest through Tulsa (about 90 miles from the state line), then on to Oklahoma City (another 100 miles). West of OKC, the route continues through Clinton and Elk City before reaching Texola at the Texas border, roughly 150 miles further on. About 400 miles in total, and you’ll want at least two full days to do it properly.

I also have many of these photos available for purchase in my online Route 66 photo gallery if you’d like a memory of the Mother Road for your wall.

 

Route 66 Oklahoma Highlights: Commerce to Texola

Here are our highlights from driving Route 66 through Oklahoma, ordered roughly northeast to southwest as you’d encounter them coming in from Kansas and heading towards Texas.

 

Mickey Mantle Statue, Commerce

Commerce is one of the first Oklahoma towns you hit coming in from Kansas, and it’s the hometown of baseball legend Mickey Mantle. I’ll freely admit I know very little about baseball (or any sports, really), but the town is clearly proud of him. There’s a statue at the high school baseball field, right off the old Route 66 alignment.

 

Route 66 Gas Stations, Commerce

Plenty of old Route 66 businesses still survive along the Oklahoma stretch, repurposed and reinvented but keeping their original character.

 

Old Gas Pump, Afton

Oklahoma has its fair share of old-style gas pumps, like this one in Afton. Between Commerce and Tulsa you’ll pass through some of the earliest paved stretches of Route 66, including sections of the original “Sidewalk Highway,” a single-lane strip of road from 1926 that was all Oklahoma could afford to build at the time.

 

Route 66 Direction Sign, Afton

A sign in Afton showing you how far you’ve come and how far you have to go to various highlights along Route 66. Useful for planning your next stop. Or for mild existential reflection on how far Chicago still is.

 

Totem Pole Park, Foyil

In Foyil, there’s a park filled with enormous concrete totem poles built by folk artist Ed Galloway between 1937 and 1961. The largest stands over 90 feet tall. It’s the kind of place that could only exist on Route 66.

 

Blue Whale, Catoosa

Just outside Catoosa is the famous Blue Whale, probably the single most photographed roadside attraction on all of Route 66. The 80-foot concrete whale was built in the early 1970s by zoologist Hugh Davis as an anniversary gift for his wife (as you do). It became a local swimming hole and has been drawing visitors ever since.

The Blue Whale site is getting a major upgrade for the Route 66 Centennial, with a new visitor centre, playground, neon signs, and fire pits funded by a $1.8 million state grant. The City of Catoosa purchased the property in 2021, and the new facilities are set to open in 2026. It’s going to be more than just a photo stop.

 

Meramec Caverns Barn Sign

The Meramec Caverns are actually in Missouri (we covered them in our Missouri photo essay), but the painted barn advertisements for the caverns once stretched across multiple states. This one is between Warwick and Chandler in Oklahoma. Not many of the original barns survive, so spotting one feels like finding a piece of Route 66 archaeology.

 

Route 66 Mother Road Tribute, Tulsa

Tulsa has this lovely tribute to Route 66: a large sculpture of a car and its occupants tackling the Mother Road. Some of the passengers seem less impressed than others, which feels about right for any road trip of this length.

 

Tulsa Route 66 Sign

Tulsa is famous for its oil industry, and Route 66 runs right through the city. This sign pretty much sums up both of those things. Tulsa has been investing heavily in its Route 66 heritage, with restored neon signs along the old 11th Street alignment and new attractions opening for the centennial year.

 

Desert Hills Motel, Tulsa

There’s no shortage of classic motels with beautiful neon signage along Route 66 in Oklahoma. Check out our guide to classic Route 66 era hotels and motels for options on where to stay along the route.

 

Old Route 66 Bridge, Tulsa

Not all parts of Route 66 survived the march of progress. This old road bridge near Tulsa was replaced by a more modern version built for today’s traffic volumes. The original structure is still standing though, and makes for a good photo.

 

Rock Creek Bridge, Sapulpa

No longer open to traffic, Rock Creek Bridge outside Sapulpa is another piece of Route 66’s original infrastructure slowly returning to the landscape. Sapulpa is also home to the Tee Pee Drive-In, a 1950s-era drive-in theatre that reopened in 2023 after years of fire and tornado damage.

 

Depew

And then there are the towns that time forgot. Depew feels like it stopped around 1960 and nobody told it to restart.

 

Route 66 Interpretive Center, Chandler

Chandler is worth a stop for a couple of reasons. The Route 66 Interpretive Center is housed in a 1930s WPA-built armory and does a good job of telling the highway’s story through interactive exhibits and film. It’s run by the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and feels less like a dusty museum and more like something put together by people who actually care about the road.

 

McJerry’s Route 66 Gallery, Chandler

Also in Chandler is McJerry’s Route 66 Gallery, the studio of Jerry McClanahan. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he wrote the EZ66 Guide for Travelers, which is the book we used to follow the entire route.

Jerry is also a talented artist, and the gallery is full of his Route 66-themed paintings and prints. As you can see from the second photo, we got to meet him when we visited, which was a highlight of the whole trip.

 

Round Barn, Arcadia

Built in 1898, this is the only round wooden barn still standing in Oklahoma. It predates Route 66 by nearly three decades. The roof collapsed in 1988 but volunteers restored the whole thing, and today it houses Route 66 memorabilia and a gift shop. Find it in Arcadia, just northeast of Oklahoma City.

 

POPS, Arcadia

Also in Arcadia, POPS is a modern (well, modern by Route 66 standards) Route 66 attraction done right. The restaurant opened in 2007 and sells over 400 varieties of soda pop, with walls decorated in bottles. Out front stands a 66-foot tall, four-ton model of a soda bottle, complete with drinking straw. Because no Route 66 attraction is complete without a giant something. Nice to see a newer business investing in the Route 66 spirit.

 

Route 66 Murals, Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City has plenty of Route 66-themed murals along the old alignment. Keep your camera handy as you drive through.

 

Ann’s Chicken Fry House, Oklahoma City

Ann’s Chicken Fry House was a Route 66 institution on Oklahoma City’s NW 39th Street, famous for its chicken fried steak and fried peaches. It had been serving travellers since the 1970s, but sadly closed permanently in January 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19. The building, a converted 1948 gas station with its iconic pink Cadillac out front, is one of those losses that hit the Route 66 community hard.

 

Milk Bottle Building, Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City has some classic Route 66 buildings, and this is one of the best known. The Milk Bottle Building dates from 1930 and has operated as various businesses over the decades. The giant milk bottle on the roof is the real star, originally advertising Braum’s Ice Cream. It wasn’t open when we drove through, but the building itself is worth a photo stop.

 

Winchester Drive-In, Oklahoma City

A road trip involves a car, and since you have a car, why not take advantage of a classic drive-in movie experience? We had ours in Oklahoma City at the Winchester Drive-In, which has been running since 1968. It’s open Friday and Saturday nights, and you get a double feature for the price of a single ticket. The sound comes through your car radio, the concession stand does proper food (the fries are excellent), and the whole thing feels like stepping back 50 years. Cash only at the box office, but there’s an ATM inside.

 

Lake Overholser Bridge, Oklahoma City

There are classic road bridges all along Route 66, and this is Lake Overholser Bridge on the way into Oklahoma City from the west. Route 66 was also known as the Will Rogers Highway (after the Oklahoma-born entertainer), and you’ll see that name on signs along the western half of the state.

 

Giant Flour Mill, Yukon

Yukon is proud of its flour mill, and makes it plain. The “Yukon’s Best” sign is one of those Route 66 photo stops that takes about 30 seconds but sticks in the memory.

 

Robert’s Grill, El Reno

El Reno is the onion burger capital of Oklahoma (possibly the world, but El Reno isn’t modest about these things). The town has three famous burger joints within a few blocks of each other, all on Route 66. Robert’s Grill has been going since 1926, the same year as the highway, and has 14 stools at the counter and a grill you can watch from your seat. The cook smashes a ball of beef into a pile of thinly shaved onions on a hot griddle, flattening them together until the onions caramelise into the meat. The result is messy, cheap, and absurdly good. If you eat one thing on Route 66 in Oklahoma, make it an El Reno onion burger.

 

Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Clinton

The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton is one of the best Route 66 museums on the entire route. The exhibits trace the highway’s story through immersive stage sets, from its early days as a Dust Bowl lifeline through the golden age of motels and diners and into its revival as a symbol of American nostalgia. If you only visit one Route 66 museum in Oklahoma, make it this one.

 

National Route 66 Museum, Elk City

About 20 miles west of Clinton, Elk City has its own Route 66 museum (the National Route 66 & Transportation Museum Complex), which naturally features a barbed wire collection. Because of course it does.

And a giant sign. Elk City doesn’t do things by halves.

 

Route 66 Road Marker

The Route 66 marker appears along the route from time to time, to help you find your way. Oklahoma does a decent job of signing the old alignment, but a good guidebook is still essential for staying on the original road.

 

Texola

Texola is the last town in Oklahoma before you cross into Texas, and it has that end-of-the-line feeling. Not much is open here, but the abandoned buildings and the Will Rogers Highway signs make it a fitting final Oklahoma stop. The state line is just a couple of miles further on.

 

Tips for Planning Your Route 66 Oklahoma Trip

If you’re planning to drive Route 66 through Oklahoma, here are some resources to help.

For the full route, Jess has put together a comprehensive guide to planning a Route 66 trip, plus an incredibly detailed day-by-day two week Route 66 itinerary covering all the sights, route tips, lodging, and places to eat. For accommodation options, see our guide to the best motels and hotels on Route 66. We also have a 1 week Route 66 itinerary for those with less time.

We’d also recommend picking up a copy of the EZ66 Guide for Travelers by Jerry McClanahan. It’s now in its 6th edition and is the best way to follow the original Route 66 alignment as closely as possible. We used it the whole way and even met the author.

You’ll need a car for Route 66, and if you need to rent one, we recommend checking Discover Cars, which compares prices across all the major rental companies. If you’re new to driving in the US, have a look at my tips for driving in the US. And for budget planning, we’ve got a guide to travel costs in the USA.

For photos from the rest of our trip, check out our photo highlights from each state: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois.

 

Route 66 Centennial 2026

Route 66 turns 100 in 2026. The highway was officially designated on November 11, 1926, and celebrations are happening all year across all eight states.

Oklahoma is going big for the centennial. Tulsa is hosting the Route 66 Capital Cruise on May 30, aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the largest classic car parade. There’s a Route 66 Balloon and Kite Festival in Arcadia, motor rallies, neon sign relighting events, and centennial exhibits at museums across the state. The Blue Whale of Catoosa’s new visitor centre is also opening during the centennial year.

If you’ve been thinking about driving Route 66, the centennial year is a particularly good time. More events, more energy, and more businesses along the route open and ready for visitors. Check the Route 66 Centennial website for the full events calendar.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is Route 66 in Oklahoma?

Route 66 runs for over 400 miles through Oklahoma, making it the longest driveable stretch of any state on the route. It enters from Kansas in the northeast and exits at Texola on the Texas border in the west.

You could drive it in a day if you pushed, but you’d miss most of the good stuff. I’d suggest at least two days, with stops in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

What are the must-see stops on Route 66 in Oklahoma?

The Blue Whale of Catoosa, POPS in Arcadia, the Round Barn in Arcadia, the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, and Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park in Foyil are the big ones. The Winchester Drive-In in Oklahoma City is worth a stop if you’re there on a Friday or Saturday night. Tulsa’s Route 66 district along 11th Street is also worth exploring.

Is Route 66 in Oklahoma driveable?

Yes, and Oklahoma has more driveable miles of the original route than any other state. A good guidebook like the EZ66 Guide for Travelers is essential for staying on the original alignment, as the route has had multiple alignments over the years. A standard rental car is fine for the road surface.

Where should I stay on Route 66 in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma City and Tulsa both have a full range of hotels. For something with more Route 66 character, look for the classic motels along the route. Check our guide to Route 66 era hotels and motels for options.

What is the Route 66 Centennial?

Route 66 was officially designated on November 11, 1926, making 2026 its 100th anniversary. Oklahoma is hosting major centennial events throughout the year, including the Route 66 Capital Cruise in Tulsa (aiming for the Guinness record for largest classic car parade), balloon festivals, museum exhibits, and neon sign relighting ceremonies. The Route 66 Centennial website has the full calendar.