Route 66 Is Fun for Kids! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lake Michigan

Imagine starting a long cross country road trip right at the edge of a huge body of water. Route 66 kicks off in downtown Chicago very close to the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. Even though it's called a lake, Lake Michigan is extremely large. It is one of the Great Lakes and when you stand on the beach, you can't even see the other side.

Before you get in the car for your ride, you might want to do some fun things on the beach. You can roll down a sand dune or hunt for unique rocks made of fossilized prehistoric coral. The sand along Lake Michigan is super soft and fine. Because there's no saltwater sticky residue, it's perfect for digging deep moats and building sandcastles. Or you may just want to stand still and watch the big cargo ships pass by on the lake.

Answer: Stalactites

Deep beneath the hills of Missouri along Route 66 sit Meramec Caverns, a gigantic underground world carved out over millions of years. When you're inside you'll notice the chill as the cave stays cool all year round, no matter how hot it is outside. As you walk through illuminated pathways, you'll look up to see thousands of sharp stalactites hanging down from the ceiling like giant stone icicles, formed drop-by-drop over centuries. (I used to learn that stalactites hold TIGHT while stalagmites MIGHT make it someday).

Besides just looking at the cave, you can have all kinds of fun. It is rumored that Jesse James had a hideout here and you can imagine that scene. Near the end of the tour, everyone gathers in a massive cavern room for a dramatic light show projected right onto the ancient rock walls set to music. Finally, you can try to pan for real minerals, polished gemstones, and fool's gold in wooden troughs. Good luck!

Answer: It has a bend in it

When travelers on Route 66 reached the border between Illinois and Missouri, they had to cross the Mississippi River, which is the second longest river in North America. To get across, cars drove on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, a steel bridge high above the water. The bridge gets its name from a dangerous, rocky ledge hiding under the river water called a "chain of rocks". Today, cars don't drive on it anymore, but you can walk across it.

You can have some fun just by standing on the middle of the bridge. Here a line marks the state border and you can put one foot in Illinois and one foot in Missouri and be standing in two states at the same time. Or you can stand right at the famous bend in the bridge (made so boats can glide safely through) and watch boats on the currents below.

Answer: The Lighthouse

Located near Amarillo along Route 66, Palo Duro Canyon State Park has a large valley carved out by a branch of the Red River. This is called the "The Grand Canyon of Texas". There are hills, cliffs, and bright orange rock towers. The canyon's most famous rock formation is a huge stone tower that looks just like a giant natural lighthouse sticking out of the red hills.

There are many fun thing to do in the canyon. Certainly, you can hike to the Lighthouse Rock. You can ride horses through the canyon bottom, surrounded by giant prickly pear cactus plants and wild turkeys. You can count the number of small natural caves you see. If you are there in the summer, there is sometimes a great show with fireworks.

Answer: Pacific

High up in the red rock country of New Mexico, Route 66 reaches a high elevation at the Continental Divide. This special geographic line acts like a giant, natural roof peak across North America. It determines which direction every single drop of rain or snow will flow. Water to the west flows toward the Pacific Ocean and water to the east heads toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Besides trying the water pouring experiment, you can also have fun by getting a photo taken while you jump. You are at 7,200 feet (2,195 m) above sea level so you are jumping more than a mile high. You can also watch trains go by as they climb up and over the heights.

Answer: A meteor crashing down

Around 50,000 years ago, a giant piece of space iron slammed into the Arizona desert right along where Route 66 runs now. That impact created Meteor Crater. When people drive up to the rim, they get to stand on the edge of a big hole in the Earth that is nearly a mile wide (1.6 km) and deep enough to fit a 50-story skyscraper inside. The landscape here is so dry and rocky that NASA actually sent Apollo astronauts here in the 1960s to train for walking on the Moon.

For fun, you can use the rim telescopes to search the floor of the crater, where you can spot a life-sized astronaut statue and model of an Apollo capsule sitting at the very bottom. Inside the visitor center, you can actually reach out and touch a chunk of the actual iron meteorite (called the "Holsinger Meteorite") that survived the crash. You can also take a tour along the rocky edge of the rim and learn more about meteors and the Earth.

Answer: Painted Desert

Right along Route 66 in northeastern Arizona sits Petrified Forest National Park and the surrounding Painted Desert. This land looks like a giant artist palette filled with striped, colorful hills in shades of red, purple, orange, and blue. Millions of years ago, this dry land was actually filled with ancient rivers and lakes. As floods washed over the area, they deposited soft layers of mud, silt, and volcanic ash. Iron oxide made red and pinks, manganese made purple and blue, and volcanic ash made whites and grays.

For fun, you can go to the canyon overlooks and see where the stacked layers of rock look like layers of birthday cake. Perhaps try to draw this on a sheet of paper. You can tap on massive fallen petrified "logs" (ancient trees that turned into stone) lying on the ground to hear a heavy stone clink instead of a wood thud. You can look through telescopes to spot prehistoric rock carvings left behind on giant boulders by Native Americans thousands of years ago.

Answer: Black

Deep in the Mojave Desert along a stretch of Route 66 sits Amboy Crater, an extinct volcano that looks like a giant bowl turned upside down in the sand. Thousands of years ago, this volcano blasted ash and melted rock into the sky, creating a tall cinder cone hill surrounded by 24 square miles of black lava fields. Because the desert is so dry and hot, the dark lava rock looks almost as fresh today as it did when it cooled down thousands of years ago.

For fun, you can not only go to the top of the volcano rim, but you can hike inside of it and stand right in the middle of the old volcano. You can look for mini-caves carved out when flowing lava hardened on the outside while liquid rock kept draining through the inside. You can try to spot desert horned lizards (often called "horny toads"), roadrunners, and desert tortoises hiding near the cactus plants.

Answer: Sand grains sliding down the steep slopes

Riding along Route 66 through southern California brings you right into the heart of the Mojave Desert. Here, powerful desert winds blow over ancient lakebeds, carrying tiny grains of sand and piling them into giant yellowish mountains up to 650 feet (200 m) tall. Because these dunes are constantly shaped by the wind, their peaks change shape every day.

For fun, you can climb these sand dunes and trigger mini-avalanches of sand that make the ground rumble and "sing". You can bring plastic snow sleds or specialized sandboards and zip down the tall sandy slopes at top speed. Or you can look for animal footprints in the sand and try to figure out what was there before you.

Answer: About 30%

After traveling 2,448 miles (3,939 km) from Chicago, your Route 66 trip reaches its geographic endpoint in Santa Monica, California at the Pacific Ocean. Here, the North American landmass comes to an abrupt end at coastal bluffs overlooking Santa Monica Bay. Standing on the famous Santa Monica Pier next to the "End of the Trail" sign, you are looking out at the largest ocean on the planet, covering about 30% of the Earth's surface.

For fun, you can pose at the "End of the Trail" sign and get your picture taken under the iconic sign that marks the absolute end of the cross-country road trip. You can run down to the beach to splash in the Pacific surf and see how much colder it feels compared to the lake near Chicago. You can go to the end of the pier and look down into the water to spot California sea lions swimming through the kelp, pelicans diving for fish, and sometimes even dolphins playing in the water.