Oatman, Arizona

 

Oatman, Arizona is on old Route 66 north of the tiny town of Topock and south of Kingman.  Route 66 is a two lane road that winds over mountains in the desert, as you can see above.  It was a fun road to drive on, and since it was early morning, there wasn't much traffic.

 

All buildings in town are old, mostly wooden, with creaky, well-worn floorboards.  Most of the buildings are now gift shops and tourist shops specializing in T shirts, hats and leather goods.  The hotel shown above has a good restaurant that was crowded by lunch time.  The walls and almost every vertical surface in the restaurant were covered with dollar bills that had been posted with the names of patrons.  There were probably thousands of dollars in bills stuck to the walls and ceilings, an amazing display.

By the time it was lunch time, the bikers started moving in, parking their bikes in rows along the sides of the streets in front of the town's two restaurants.

One shop had a small museum on the second floor, a small collection of Harley motorcycles and a few other antiques.

 

There were quite a few murals painted on the walls of the buildings, similar to the one shown below.  Murals have been popular in New Mexico and Arizona. 

 



 

The town is famous for the burros that wander through town.  I was there for three hours and never saw any of them.  There was evidence that they'd been there, piles left on the streets.  When I started driving home, they were wandering up the road to town.  They were going from car to car to see if anyone would give them a treat.  They created a little traffic jam, but I don't think anyone cared, since people got out of the cars and took pictures. 

 

And as I was driving out of town - an old car by the side of the road, announcing an art studio. 

 

This was a fun place to visit - more of my photos of town are shown in a slide show at https://youtu.be/pfa24bvoUxM