Route 66 Road Trip: West Albuquerque to Manuelito

EAT. Rub elbows with the locals at El Cafecito in Grants, where the same friendly owners have been dishing up authentic New Mexico fare and old-fashioned burgers with chile cheese fries for three decades. At Earl’s Family Restaurant, a favorite since 1947, the gigantic frybread-wrapped Navajo burger is a bestseller. Locals have been lining up at Jerry’s Cafe since 1976. The humongous breakfast stuffed sopaipilla will keep you going all day. Housed inside a former bank, Blackbird Bakehouse serves made-from-scratch bagels, scones, and other treats. It shares the airy, renovated space with the Gallup Coffee Company, which pours a mean red chile mocha.

STAY. El Rancho Hotel is as famous as the movie stars who bunked here when they were filming Westerns and other movies during the 1940s and 1950s. Stay in the Western-style hotel, filled with photos of John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and other guests, or book a Route 66–themed room in the annex, where a cherry red hood of a Cadillac juts out from one wall. 

DO. After admiring the glamorous exterior of Gallup’s 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival–style movie palace, El Morro Theatre, buy a ticket to catch a new release. At Art123 Gallery, take in a wide range of work by established and emerging Native and non-Native artists. Get off the road to hike and bike Gallup’s 30-plus miles of trails that showcase the area’s stunning painted deserts, red rock cliffs, and majestic mountains. Try the High Desert Trail System, a single-track, three-loop network exhibiting rock sculptures, metal sculptures, and sundials, or take a guided tour of the nearby Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness with a Diné guide. Take a subterranean tour of a simulated underground mine at the New Mexico Mining Museum in Grants, where uranium mining boomed during the Cold War. Reopened in December 2021, the Manuelito Visitor Information Center provides a Land of Enchantment welcome to eastbound travelers—and plenty of information on the area and its attractions.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTION. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway wrote part of The Old Man and the Sea in the Villa de Cubero Trading Post’s cafe on Laguna Pueblo’s stretch of Route 66. While we may never know for sure, it’s worth stopping at this 1937 Mediterranean Revival building between Puerco and Grants for groceries, souvenirs, and the joyful “ding ding” of the gas-station bell when cars pull in to fuel up.

Read more: Mark your calendars for these Route 66 events across New Mexico to celebrate 100 years of the Mother Road with markets, festivals, parades, and more.