Route 66 in Illinois runs about 301 miles, from the Begin sign on Adams Street in downtown Chicago to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi. The stops worth the brakes, east to west: Lou Mitchell's for breakfast, Joliet, the Gemini Giant in Wilmington, the Polk-a-Dot in Braidwood, the old gas stations in Dwight and Odell, the free Route 66 museum and murals in Pontiac, Funks Grove, the giants of Atlanta, the covered wagon in Lincoln, Springfield and its Cozy Dog, the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield and the 1926 Soulsby station in Mount Olive. Give Illinois two days, three if you like museums.
I'm Helena. I drove all 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica in April 2026 for the Centennial Edition of my Route 66 Field Manual, and Illinois is the state people rush: a photo at the Begin sign, then I-55 all the way to St. Louis. That's a mistake. The first state has some of the best-kept gas stations and roadside giants on the road, and most of them are free.
Where does Route 66 start in Illinois?
Route 66 starts in the Loop, on Adams Street at Michigan Avenue, across from the Art Institute of Chicago. The brown "Begin Historic Route 66" sign hangs on the westbound side of Adams, and your mileage starts there. The matching End signs for eastbound drivers are one block south, on Jackson Boulevard, because the route was split into two one-way streets in 1955.
Since March 25, 2026, Chicago also has a ceremonial start sign at Navy Pier, about a mile and a half away. It makes a nice first photo, but it isn't on the historic road. I tell the story of both signs in where Route 66 starts and ends.
Before you leave the city, eat breakfast at Lou Mitchell's, 565 West Jackson Boulevard. It has fed Route 66 travelers since 1923, three years before the road had a number, and they still hand out warm donut holes while you wait in line.
How many miles of Route 66 are in Illinois?
About 301 miles, the figure Wikipedia, the Illinois Office of Tourism and every mileage table in this Journal use. That makes it a little shorter than Missouri, at 317, and California, at 316.
The number hides two different roads south of Springfield. The original 1926 route ran through Carlinville, Gillespie and Staunton. In 1930 a second alignment opened through Litchfield and Mount Olive, and that is the one most travelers follow today, because the Ariston Cafe and the Soulsby station are on it. The two meet again near Hamel, before Edwardsville and the river.
I-55 replaced Route 66 piece by piece from 1957, and the federal route left Illinois in 1974, but long stretches of the old two-lane still run beside the interstate. When to take which is in Route 66 vs the interstate.
Route 66 Illinois map: the stops in order
East to west, in driving order:
| Town | Stop | Why stop |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | Begin sign, Lou Mitchell's | Mile zero and breakfast since 1923 |
| Willowbrook | Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket | Fried chicken on old Joliet Road since the 1940s |
| Joliet | Joliet Area Historical Museum, Old Joliet Prison, Rich & Creamy | Route 66 welcome center and a famous prison |
| Wilmington | Gemini Giant, the Landing Pad shop | A green fiberglass astronaut, saved at auction |
| Braidwood | Polk-a-Dot Drive In, Braidwood Motel | A 1956 drive-in and a 1951 motel |
| Dwight | Ambler's Texaco | A 1933 station, now a visitor center |
| Odell | Standard Oil station | The prettiest gas station in the state |
| Pontiac | Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, murals | Free museum, Bob Waldmire's bus and van |
| Funks Grove | Funks Pure Maple Sirup, the chapel | Sirup made by the same family since 1824 |
| Atlanta | Bunyon statue, American Giants Museum | A 19-foot giant holding a hot dog |
| Lincoln | Railsplitter Covered Wagon | Abe Lincoln reading in a 24-foot wagon |
| Springfield | Cozy Dog, Shea's, Lincoln Home, State Museum | The corn dog on a stick and a centennial exhibit |
| Litchfield | Ariston Cafe, Sky View Drive-In | The oldest continuously operating restaurant on 66 |
| Mount Olive | Soulsby Service Station | A 1926 Shell station with its pumps in place |
| Edwardsville and Granite City | West End Service Station, Muffler Men, neon sign park | New roadside giants near the river |
| Madison | Old Chain of Rocks Bridge | A 1929 bridge with a bend, walkers and cyclists only |
For the whole road, all eight states town by town, see my Route 66 map with cities.
Chicago to Joliet: getting out of the city
The first 35 miles or so, west on Ogden Avenue through Cicero and Berwyn, are the least romantic of the trip. Leave early on a weekend morning, and for the Begin sign photo park in a garage and walk over rather than stopping on Adams.
In Willowbrook, Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket, at 645 Joliet Road on the old alignment, has fried chicken under a neon sign since the 1940s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's in my guide to the best Route 66 diners.
Joliet
Joliet was the official Route 66 Kickoff City for Illinois this year. On May 1, 2026, about 5,500 people watched a baseball game inside the walls of the Old Joliet Prison to open the state's centennial.
Start at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, 204 North Ottawa Street, which doubles as a Route 66 welcome center and opens daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum also runs tours of the Old Joliet Prison, the limestone penitentiary that operated from 1858 to 2002 and appears in The Blues Brothers. Self-guided tours are $20; flashlight tours run nightly through October 31, $30 for adults.
For something sweet, Rich & Creamy at 920 North Broadway is a restored ice cream stand right on the route.
Wilmington to Odell: giants and gas stations
Wilmington: the Gemini Giant
The Gemini Giant is the first great roadside character of the trip: a green fiberglass astronaut, about 30 feet tall, holding a rocket. He stood outside the Launching Pad drive-in from the 1960s until the restaurant closed in 2022. When his future looked uncertain, the Joliet Area Historical Museum bought him at auction in March 2024 for $275,000.
Since November 2024 he has stood at the entrance to South Island Park, less than a mile from his old spot. In May 2025 a souvenir shop called the Landing Pad opened beside him at 110 South Park Street; its hours are seasonal.
Braidwood: the Polk-a-Dot Drive In
The Polk-a-Dot Drive In at 222 North Front Street has been feeding travelers since 1956. Burgers, shakes, chili cheese fries, jukeboxes on the tables, and life-size figures of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Boop and the Blues Brothers waiting for your photo. It hosts a car show every year during the Red Carpet Corridor festival.
A short walk away, the Braidwood Motel, built in 1951 with its original neon sign, is still listed as operating. It is a simple budget stop. I'd call ahead before you count on a room there.
Dwight: Ambler's Texaco
Ambler's, at the corner of Old Route 66 and Illinois 17, was built in 1933 and pumped gas for 66 years until 1999, the longest-running station on the route. It is named for Basil "Tubby" Ambler, who ran it from 1938 to 1966. Since 2007 it has been Dwight's Route 66 visitor center, staffed by volunteers from May through October.
Odell: the Standard Oil station
Odell's Standard Oil station, at 400 South West Street, went up in 1932 in the "house with canopy" style, built to look like a cottage. It sold gas into the 1960s and was a body shop until 1975. Restored with help from the National Park Service's Route 66 preservation program, it won the Cyrus Avery Award for the year's best Route 66 preservation project in 2002 and is now the village welcome center. Eight miles past Dwight, it is the best photo between Chicago and Pontiac.
Route 66 in Pontiac: the museum and the murals
If you only stop once between Chicago and Springfield, stop in Pontiac. The Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame and Museum, at 110 West Howard Street just off the courthouse square, is free, with donations welcome. Its displays run town by town in Route 66 order.
Most people come for Bob Waldmire. The Route 66 artist, whose family started the Cozy Dog in Springfield, traveled in a Volkswagen van and lived in a converted school bus, and the museum has both: the van inside, the bus out back. From April to October it opens 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends; from November to March, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Then walk the town. Pontiac has more than 20 outdoor murals, and 18 of them were painted in four days in the summer of 2009 by the Walldogs, a traveling crew of sign painters. The largest, and the photo everyone takes, is the Route 66 shield on the back wall of the museum, with bricks from the original road at its base. There are also three swinging pedestrian bridges and several small museums that ask only for a donation.
The museum is in the town's old fire station. Leave an hour for it and another for the murals.
Central Illinois: Funks Grove to Lincoln
South of Pontiac the road passes through Chenoa, Lexington and Bloomington-Normal. The stretch from Joliet to Bloomington calls itself the Red Carpet Corridor, a 100-mile run of small towns that throws a festival together every spring. In 2026 it was May 2 and 3.
Funks Grove
Funks Grove is a stand of old hardwoods south of Bloomington, where the Funk family has made maple sirup, spelled the old way, since 1824. The shop is at 5257 Old Route 66 in Shirley. The family usually has sirup from March through August; after late August the shop opens by chance or appointment, with some weekend hours around the holidays. In the fall, call first at 309-874-3360.
The grove itself is always there. The little white chapel in the trees is one of the quietest stops on the road, and in late October it is one of the best places in Illinois to see fall color. I wrote about the timing in Route 66 in the fall.
Atlanta: the hot dog giant
Atlanta is a small village that has made itself into a Route 66 town. On Arch Street stands the Bunyon statue, a 19-foot fiberglass Muffler Man holding a giant hot dog. His first owner bought him in California in 1965 for a hot dog stand called Bunyon's, and he came to Atlanta after the stand closed in 2002.
At the corner of Arch and Vine, the American Giants Museum opened on Memorial Day weekend in 2024, in a building made to look like a vintage Texaco station. It tells the story of the 1960s fiberglass giants. Across from the Bunyon statue, the Palms Grill Cafe was restored to its 1934 look in 2009. What operates inside has changed since it closed in 2020, so check before you plan lunch there.
Lincoln: the Railsplitter Covered Wagon
Lincoln was named for Abraham Lincoln before he was president. On the lawn of the Best Western at 1750 Fifth Street, the Railsplitter Covered Wagon is recognized by Guinness as the world's largest covered wagon: 24 feet tall, with a fiberglass Lincoln on the bench reading a law book. David Bentley built it from steel and Illinois oak in 2001, and it has stood in Lincoln since 2007.
Springfield: Cozy Dogs and Lincoln
Springfield, about 200 miles from the Begin sign, is the big stop in central Illinois and the natural place to sleep on a two-day crossing. Route 66 comes in on Peoria Road and leaves on Sixth Street.
- Cozy Dog Drive In. Ed Waldmire came home from the military in 1945 and worked out a quick way to fry a hot dog in batter on a stick. His family introduced the Cozy Dog at the Illinois State Fair in 1946, and his grandson Josh Waldmire runs the drive-in on South Sixth Street today.
- Shea's Gas Station Museum. Bill Shea's old station at 2075 North Peoria Road was a gas station from 1946 to 1982 and then a museum of his collection. It closed in 2013 and reopened on May 20, 2024, with its original signs reproduced. Check hours before you go.
- The Illinois Route 66 Experience. At Gate 2 of the State Fairgrounds, 1045 South Fifth Street, this outdoor exhibit is free and open all year. In August 2026 it added a 25-foot Cozy Dog with neon mustard and ketchup.
- Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Lincoln's house and the four blocks around it. The visitor center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and house tour tickets are free, handed out on the day.
- The Illinois State Museum. Its centennial exhibit, Miles of Memories: Stories of Route 66, opened on May 23, 2026, and runs through April 4, 2027. It is built around 100 recorded interviews with people who lived and worked on the road. Admission is free, at 502 South Spring Street, about half a mile west of Sixth Street.
The last 100 miles: Litchfield to the Mississippi
The southwestern Illinois tourism bureau calls the run from Virden, just south of Springfield, to the Chain of Rocks Bridge "the last 100 miles." It is the most rural stretch of the state, and it has two stops I would not skip.
Litchfield: the Ariston Cafe
The Ariston is the oldest continuously operating restaurant on Route 66. Pete Adam, a Greek immigrant, started the business in Carlinville in 1924 and followed the highway to Litchfield when it was rerouted. The current building, across the street from his first one, dates to 1935 and has been on the National Register since 2006. The current owners say they changed nothing.
Litchfield also has the Sky View Drive-In, showing movies since 1950 and one of the last drive-in theaters still running on Route 66, and the free Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center, built on the site of an old gas station.
Mount Olive: the Soulsby station
Henry Soulsby left the coal mines after an injury and built a gas station in 1926, betting the new highway would bring customers. The family sold Shell gasoline there for 65 years, until 1991. Restored and listed on the National Register in 2004, it is now a small museum at 710 West First Street, described as the oldest usable service station on the highway in Illinois. It is the photo at the top of this page.
Staunton, Edwardsville and Granite City
If you take the older 1926 alignment through Staunton, you'll pass Henry's Rabbit Ranch, one of the best-loved stops of the last 25 years. It is closed: it shut in 2025, after Rich Henry's death in 2024, and in June 2026 the property went up for sale.
Closer to the river, Edwardsville's West End Service Station is now a Route 66 welcome center and museum. Granite City added a set of new roadside attractions in 2025: two Muffler Men, the 20-foot "Rusty" and the 15-foot "Earl," a 20-foot metal sculpture called Fork in the Road, and the It's Electric Neon Sign Park.
The Chain of Rocks Bridge: your last Illinois stop
The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge opened in 1929 and runs about a mile across the Mississippi, 5,353 feet, with a 22-degree bend in the middle. The bend was needed because the bedrock on a straight line couldn't hold the piers. In the late 1930s, the bypass route of Route 66 used the bridge to skirt downtown St. Louis.
You can't drive it. The bridge closed to cars on February 25, 1970, and reopened in 1998 as a walking and cycling path. Drivers cross on the I-270 bridge next to it, opened in 1966. Walk out to the bend: the views of the river and the old water intake towers standing in it are the reason to come.
On the Missouri side, Chain of Rocks Park, 10840 Riverview Drive in St. Louis, is open from 7 a.m. to 30 minutes after sunset. The Illinois entrance is off Chain of Rocks Road on Chouteau Island near Madison, but Great Rivers Greenway says the canal bridge leading to it is closed for construction from June 22 through the rest of 2026, so this year you reach the old bridge from the Missouri side. From there my Route 66 Missouri stops take over.
How many days do you need for Route 66 in Illinois?
Two days is my minimum, three if you like museums. In a 14-day trip across all eight states, Illinois usually gets two; in 21 days it gets three. I broke down the full trip in how long does Route 66 take.
| Plan | Day | Route | Don't miss |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 days | 1 | Chicago to Springfield, about 200 miles | Begin sign, Lou Mitchell's, Gemini Giant, Odell, Pontiac museum, Funks Grove |
| 2 days | 2 | Springfield to the Chain of Rocks, about 100 miles, then on into Missouri | Cozy Dog, Ariston lunch, Soulsby station, the bridge on foot |
| 3 days | 1 | Chicago to Pontiac or Bloomington-Normal | Begin sign, Joliet museum and prison, Gemini Giant, Polk-a-Dot, Dwight, Odell, Pontiac |
| 3 days | 2 | Bloomington-Normal to Springfield | Funks Grove, Atlanta, Lincoln, an afternoon in Springfield |
| 3 days | 3 | Springfield to the Chain of Rocks | Lincoln Home, State Museum, Litchfield, Mount Olive, Granite City, the bridge |
The two-day plan is the one in my two-week Route 66 itinerary. If you are still choosing a season, start with the best time to drive Route 66: several Illinois stops, including the Dwight visitor center and Funks Grove's sirup shop, keep warm-weather hours.
Where to stay on Route 66 in Illinois
Illinois is the thinnest state for vintage motels. Most of the old motor courts between Chicago and St. Louis are gone or have become something else. Here is how I'd plan the nights.
- Braidwood: the Braidwood Motel, from 1951, original neon sign, a budget room a short walk from the Polk-a-Dot. Call ahead.
- Pontiac or Bloomington-Normal: chain hotels near I-55, the natural first night on a three-day plan.
- Springfield: a hotel town, with the most choice in the state and everything you'll want to see within a short drive.
- Litchfield: a Motel 6 right on the old road, if you want to wake up near the Ariston.
One thing people mix up: the Wagon Wheel Motel, the stone-cottage motel everyone wants to book, is in Cuba, Missouri, roughly 90 miles past the Chain of Rocks Bridge. It is not in Illinois. My list of the best Route 66 motels covers every state, and RV travelers should see Route 66 camping and RV parks.
Route 66 centennial in Illinois: what's left of 2026
Route 66 turns 100 on November 11, 2026, and Illinois marks the day in Springfield. The full national calendar is in my Route 66 centennial events guide.
- Through October 31: nightly flashlight tours at the Old Joliet Prison.
- November 11: the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway's statewide conference and centennial celebration at Route 66 Motorheads, 600 Toronto Road, Springfield. Conference tickets are $75 for members and $125 for everyone else. The evening concert, with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, is $150.
- November 20 to 22: the Route 66 Film Festival at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 South Sixth Street, Springfield, with a $10 suggested donation per session.
- Through April 4, 2027: Miles of Memories at the Illinois State Museum, free.
- All year: the Illinois Route 66 Experience at the State Fairgrounds, free.
Closed or changing on the Illinois stretch
- Henry's Rabbit Ranch, Staunton. Closed in 2025, for sale since June 2026.
- Palms Grill Cafe, Atlanta. The restored building stands, but its operators have changed since 2020. Check before you go.
- Chain of Rocks, Illinois side. Canal bridge construction in summer and fall 2026. The Missouri entrance stays open.
These are the kinds of changes my book flags with "verify operating status before travel." If we couldn't verify it, we left it out.
The short version
Illinois is 301 miles and two unhurried days: the Begin sign, the Gemini Giant, Odell and Pontiac on day one, a night in Springfield, then the Ariston, the Soulsby station and a walk across the Chain of Rocks. The Centennial Edition Field Manual has the Illinois chapter with its maps, GPS waypoints, nine restaurants and nine hotels, so you can leave Adams Street and stay on the old road to the river.
