You take in another instantly recognizable location from Easy Rider, the Pine Breeze Inn. A bit of imagination, but not much, and you can practically see the ghosts of gold miners roaming its streets. With the wind at your back now, you drive on through an authentic "Old West" town, Oatman, Arizona. DAY 4 Needles, CA - Flagstaff, AZ 216.0 mi / 345.6 kmīid Needles the proverbial fond farewell and cross the mighty Colorado River on Route 66, the bridge that is location for such an iconic scene from the film. After all, if it was good enough for Easy Rider crew to use Needles as a base camp, it will serve you well for the night. You won’t be looking for trouble, but maybe a bit of mischief. Roaring along a road so straight and long the only end in sight is a vanishing point: if you aren’t feeling the Easy Rider vibe by now, it’s not our fault! The day ends with a dip in the refreshing waters of the Colorado, before you head into town. Passing by ghost towns, abandoned motels, defunct gas stations and abandoned mail boxes, we are now in the heart of the Mojave. This is no doubt, one of the most desolate stretches of Route 66. Arguably one of the earth’s lonelier places, you’ll drive through the relics and remnants of little towns on Route 66, places that clung to life, many years after the dustbowl era of the great depression in the 1930s was over. The huge expanse of the Mojave lies between Death Valley and the town of Needles. Either way, we’ll leave the regular, timekeeping world behind in a cloud of dust, as you head for the Mojave Desert. (Just like Peter Fonda did in the movie). Then, if you are feeling wild and crazy enough, you can throw your Rolex away outside the ghost town of Ballarat, California. The coolness of a morning in Death Valley is ideal for setting out towards Barstow, the renowned Route 66 town familiar to Easy Rider fans and anyone who’s read Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. As you can see, there’s little left of this ghost town (named after the Australian gold town), apart from crumbling ruins, though there is now a little store where you can pick up the basics.ĭAY 3 Death Valley, CA - Needles, CA 178.0 mi / 284.8 km The key scene of Wyatt tossing his Rolex to the ground was staged in Ballarat, east of Route 178, between Trona and Stovepipe Wells on the western edge of Death Valley. Nothing beats spending a night in Death Valley. After a good day’s drive, you’ll sit around a bonfire at the hotel, and stare up at the incredible blanket of the night sky. There are stories aplenty from the movie, and the landscape dotted with little towns, hasn’t changed much at all since 1969. Death Valley is a huge and unforgiving landscape, with high desert terrain and low valleys, is where Billy and Wyatt started out on their long, strange trip. But the miles just fly by when you have the sense of anticipation for the adventures to come. You will cover a lot of ground today, literally. This is a classic American road-trip of a lifetime.ĭAY 2 Los Angeles, CA - Death Valley, CA 292.0 mi / 467.2 km From there, you enjoin the historic trails of Route 66, driving all the way south to the party capital of Louisiana, the legendary city of jazz and blues and good times, New Orleans. Scroll the highways of Southern California, then on through the harsh but unforgettable Death Valley. Who could be so dead in spirit, they wouldn’t want to trade places with "Billy" or "Wyatt", even just for a day or two, on the open road? Well, now that dream can become a very tangible reality, as real as the roar of the engine or the feel of wind in your hair. The whole world - and motorcyclists in particular, couldn’t get enough of it. In 1969, it gave the world a mind-blowing taste of the freedom of the open road on a two wheeled chariot. Over 54 years after the movie hit the silver screen, it still sets the standard by which all other biker and motorbike movies are judged. There are motorcycle movies, and then there is Easy Rider.
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