Jim Hinckley’s gorgeous new book, “Route 66 Backroads” (Voyageur, 208 pages, $24.99), is a guide to more than 40 side trips that use historic Route 66 as a jumping-off point.
The book’s initial focus remains on 66, with seven chapters on each of the states the Mother Road traverses (the 13 miles of Kansas is merged into the Missouri chapter). From there, dozens of side trips aim to show roadies as much significant local history and geological diversity as possible. Each chapter has a nicely detailed map to show those side trips, including driving directions.
Tours include Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, the Great River Road of Illinois, the Coronado Trail in Arizona, the “Mark Twain Road” (from the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge to Hannibal, Mo.), a portion of the Lewis & Clark trail, part of California’s Highway 1, an excursion through Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, a “Cattle Barons & Aliens” drive from Amarillo to Roswell, N.M., a jaunt through Death Valley, a trip down to Supai, Ariz., at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and more.
Hinckley sprinkles the text with a few short sidebars, including Catalina Island, the “Father of Route 66” Cyrus Avery, and what traveling conditions were like before modern highways took root.
It should be noted that Hinckley gets equal billing with photographers Kerrick James, Rick Bowers and Nora Mays Bowers. This is appropriate, because “Route 66 Backroads” is the best-looking road book since Michael Wallis and Michael S. Williamson’s “The Lincoln Highway.” The volume is loaded with stunning images, especially the Arizona chapter with its photographs of the Grand Canyon, a rainbow in the Painted Desert, Wukoki Ruin in the Wupatki National Monument, and Havasu Falls.
The books is augmented by images from Hinckley’s postcard collection and from Jim Ross and Shellee Graham’s Route 66 Photographs.
Because of the book’s format, Hinckley’s text may seem lean at times. But one gets the sense he doesn’t want to reveal too much — those side trips should be more fully discovered by the readers themselves.
Also, it’s wise that Hinckley gets out of the way of the book’s photography. An well-framed image will do as much to sell an unfamiliar destination as anything.
Recommended (especially for wanderlust roadies).