There are roads, and then there is Route 66. The one that launched a thousand road trips. The one Steinbeck named the Mother Road.

This year, it turns 100. And it's still drivable, still photogenic, and still full of surprises worth stopping for. We've broken the full 2,400 miles into four stretches you can take on one at a time, or all at once, the way it was always meant to be done.

Click into the section that fits your timeline or use all four as a blueprint for the whole run.

This is where it begins, and where the road was already being driven before Route 66 officially had a name. Original alignments wind through Joliet, Pontiac, and Springfield, past diners and motor courts that predate the highway itself. Lincoln's hometown makes a natural midpoint.

Nearly 900 miles, and the least commercialized stretch of the whole run. This is the part of Route 66 that shaped its own identity — small towns with no other reason to exist than the road itself. If you want to feel what this drive was like in 1955, start here.

The landscape takes over on this stretch. Flat plains give way to high desert, Indigenous lands, and geological landmarks that predate the United States by thousands of years. The roadside stops feel like they're the last ones for miles because they often are.

The shortest stretch and the most cinematic. Mountain switchbacks, the Mojave, then palm trees and Pacific blue. It ends at the Santa Monica Pier, the only place it ever could. Take your time and savor the detours: Joshua Tree, Lake Havasu, Big Bear.