Former US 66

All photos are eastbound.


Under I-40 at Exit 8, then under each half separately in Defiance. The first overpass is barely worthy of a dirt farm road, while the second set would be fitting for a small freeway underneath. The "historic" shield just after is anything but, lacking the correct font or even the abbreviation "U.S." inside the shield.


Same problem, heading into Gallup.


NM 602 now extends to I-40 north of town, but before the freeway was completed, it ended here at the end of a connecting road from NM 118. (NM 602 rises over railroad tracks paralleling the original US 66, and doesn't have enough room to come down for an at-grade intersection.) The highway that began here was a spur from US 66, famously numbered US 666. Unfortunately, the conservative-minded state of New Mexico decided that a Biblical legend (and nothing says that the Bible wasn't really referring to "18" or "216" for the devil, as three sixes together) was more important than preserving vestiges of US 66's numbering. Under both of these US 491 shields, and no don't ask me why the order switches between signs, is a narrower US 666 shield, probably with the same Series B font as the NM 602 shield.


The view as the connector from NM 602 ends at NM 118. There are so many ugly things, I'll just focus on the only element that was done correctly - for once, there's a "U.S." inside the US 66 shield.


I have to think the white arrows were mounted underneath US 66 shields. There's really no other explanation. The Business Loop 40 shield must date to when I-40 was completed around Gallup. In the first photo, the hotel made some bad choices in shield design.


On the east side of Gallup, NM 118 ends at I-40 Exit 26.

Gallup sights on NM 118 (Non-Roads)
Continue east on old US 66 to NM 122
Back to US 66 main page
Onto I-40 (US 66's successor)

Into Arizona on old US 66
NM 118 scenery photos
Back to New Mexico Roads
Back to Roads