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Jim Hinckley’s Destination Spotlight: Kingman Arizona & Telling People Where To Go

Booking a holiday with RouteTrip USA is your passport to exciting, memory making, worry free adventures in the U.S. or Canada. Our bespoke holidays can also be a unique and immersive experience.

Our holiday packages in the American west, or on Route 66, include some of the Grand Circle. They also include a visit to Kingman, Arizona, a charming community in western Arizona forever immortalized in a song about getting your kicks on Route 66.

The Grand Circle includes some of the most stunning and cinematic landscapes in the United States. It includes Monument Valley, and Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon as well as historic Native American sites such as Wupatki with towering pre-Columbian ruins framed by the snowcapped San Francisco peaks.

Kingman is located on Route 66 along the southern edge of the Grand Circle. If you are a fan of craft beer (there are three microbreweries downtown), the American cinema, western frontier history, Technicolor sunsets, sunrise walkabouts in deeply shadowed canyons, or Route 66 history, this dusty desert crossroads needs to be a destination.

Kingman has a connection with cinematic history including Easy Rider, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Universal Soldier. The town is also linked to automotive industry legends such as Louis Chevrolet and Edsel Ford, and aviation pioneers including Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.

The extensive urban trail systems that range from nearly wheelchair accessible to challenging are a portal to awe inspiring scenic wonders as well as to historic sites and desert oasis complete with small waterfalls. Some of the trails follow 19^th century wagon roads with ruts worn deep in the store in the shadow of towering cliffs.

Kingman is a town full of surprises. Phase one of the world’s only electric vehicle museum is in the Powerhouse Visitor Center that is also home to an acclaimed Route 66 museum. An internationally acclaimed distillery that specializes in agave rum is a few miles east on Route 66 at was once the WWII era Kingman Army Airfield. And a short drive of just twelve miles takes you from the desert to Hualapai Mountain Park with a picturesque lodge and miles of shade dappled trails through a forest of towering pines.

RouteTrip USA can ensure that you get the most from your visit to Kingman. After all, as with all our holiday packages, before we make recommendations for you, we test the pillows, taste the enchiladas, and make the partnerships that will enhance your trip.

Discovering the rich history of Kingman, and its surprising Hollywood connection, begins with the self-guided tour that starts at the historic 1907 railroad depot. Using QR codes audio narration by author Jim Hinckley brings the story of filming locations, historic sites, Route 66, and fascinating people to life.

Often billed as America’s storyteller, Hinckley is the author of books about Route 66, the American southwest and the American auto industry, and the developer of Jim Hinckley’s America. He is also one of our travel destination consultants, another reason that we are a leading bespoke holiday company. This is why we can also ensure that each trip is tailored to your specific interests.

Speaking of tailor-made trips, through special arrangement we can further enhance your stop in Kingman. We can arrange for Jim Hinckley to be your personal guide to historic or scenic locations in the immediate area.

Are you ready to book a holiday that makes memories that last a lifetime?

Jim Hinckley’s Destination Spotlight: Arizona – A wonderland for any season

The American southwest is an almost magical place where myth, legend, history, stories of larger-than-life characters, and awe-inspiring landscapes unfold on a holiday as a rich and colourful tapestry. Who isn’t familiar with Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral, the exploits of Buffalo Bill Cody, or the story of Olive Oatman?

But for every Jesse James or Billy the Kid, there are a dozen people like Tap Duncan, Jeff Davis Milton or Black Mary whose stories have been forgotten. Tombstone is a town with a name as recognizable as Detroit or New York City. But who remembers Fairbank, Rhyolite, or Dos Cabezas?

Aubry Valley and Route 66 west of Seligman, Arizona

A road trip through southern Arizona is an adventure of epic proportions. And it is also a journey through time, and a voyage of discovery.

Tucson, Arizona is a modern metropolis built around an ancient Spanish presidio. Within a few miles of the city’s congested heart is a vast wilderness and a forest of towering saguaro. Tucson. And yet the southernmost ski resort in the United States is less than an hours drive.

Within site of the city’s towering, modern skyline is the treasure of San Xavier del Bac known as the White Dove of The Desert. This National Historic Landmark and World Heritage Site that still serves the Tohono O’odham reservation was established as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797.

Nearby is the picturesque village of Tubac that is an artists colony filled with historic landmarks. Dating to 1725 this is the oldest European settlement in Arizona.

Tucson. Tombstone. Bisbee. Nogales. Sierra Vista. Douglas. Dos Cabezas. Hiking trails in a desert wilderness or urban exploration. Historic sites, scenic wonders above and below ground, five-star dining and quaint cafes, luxury resorts or historic hotels. You can easily fill a dozen holidays with memory making adventures in southern Arizona.

But the entire state is a holiday paradise in any season. At the recent Route 66 Info Fair in Needles, California, just across the river from Oatman, Arizona on iconic Route 66, the temperature was a delightful 23 degrees. And yet just 370 kilometers to the east at the Grand Canyon, it was snowing, and the ski resorts were doing a booming business.

And in the months of summer when temperatures in the Colorado River Valley soar to 50 degrees or more, a scenic drive of just 90 miles is all that is needed to escape the heat to the pine forested oasis in a sea of desert that is Hualapai Mountain Park.

A hiking trail in Hualapai Mountain Park

Are you ready for a memory making holiday in the Grand Canyon State? Contact RouteTrip USA. We will build a bespoke trip just for you. After all, we are the bespoke holiday specialists.

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Roadkill Cafe, Seligman AZ

The Roadkill Cafe, along Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona

You kill it, we grill it!

The Roadkill Cafe along old Route 66 in Seligman has a wonderful souvenir shop inside selling gifts such as t-shirts, sweaters and aprons with slogans such as “you kill it, we grill it!” and featuring menu items such as Flat Cat – served as a single or in a stack, Rigor Mortis Tortoise and Fender Tenders. Of course, in reality it is a normal family owned, reasonably priced restaurant along a decent length of usable Route 66. The first time we drove past the Roadkill Cafe, we were trying to get to the Grand Canyon before sunset so we only stopped for some photos, however it was on a must-visit list for the next occasion, and we’ve eaten there several times since.

Seligman, an old railroad town was founded in 1886 and is known for being the birthplace of Historic Route 66, mainly due to the efforts of the Seligman Chamber of Commerce and local business owners to get the section of road between Seligman and Kingman designated as Historic Route 66 back in 1987, not long after the last section of the Mother Road, in nearby Williams, Arizona was bypassed by interstate 40. This was well before other towns and cities along the entirety of Route 66 started making similar efforts. Perhaps this is one reason that Seligman still looks so authentic and feels like you’ve suddenly been transported back to the heyday of the Main Street of America.

Seligman, Arizona – feels like you’re in the wild west

Seligman is a small, unincorporated town with a wonderful wild west heritage. The Roadkill Cafe itself was once the OK Saloon, and the bar/gift shop area is the original building. The restaurant section is an extension that was once a patio to the bar, but eventually enclosed to make a larger building.

The jailhouse which dates from 1860 claims to have held criminals such as “Seligman Sam” and “three-finger Jack”. Apparently in 1866, four Indians escaped from the jail by tunnelling underground to the OK Saloon next door and made their getaway only to be shot dead four days later in a shoot out with law enforcers.

Radiator Springs, from the Disney Pixar film “Cars” was known to be loosely based on Seligman, and indeed as you take your road trip along Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway you’ll see various locations and people who inspired parts of this fun, animated movie.