Oatman, Arizona: A Day Trip From Las Vegas or Wild West Overnight Getaway

This past Saturday, we decided to get out of town and get thrown straight into the Wild West. Destination: Oatman, Arizona.

This wasn’t our first trip to Oatman, or even our second. And while some people might spend a couple of hours here and wonder what there is to come back for, I think the fact that Oatman doesn’t seem to change very much is part of its charm. The wooden storefronts, old signs, Historic Route 66 running straight through town, and burros wandering around the street are exactly what I want to find when I come back.

On my previous trip here, I rode a motorcycle. I remember walking through the stores, finding several things I wanted to buy, and realizing there was absolutely no chance of getting them home. If it doesn’t fit in a saddlebag, it’s a no-go.

So this time we hopped in my truck and headed back.

Oatman From Las Vegas: Day Trip or Overnight?

Oatman works both ways. You can leave Las Vegas in the morning, spend several hours exploring town and make it home the same evening, or turn it into a much more relaxed overnight road trip.

From Las Vegas, expect roughly 2½ hours of driving each way, depending on your route, traffic, and stops. The town is about 120 miles from Las Vegas, but the key is that there are two very different ways to approach the trip.

One option takes you south through Laughlin and Bullhead City before continuing toward Oatman. The other takes you toward Kingman and then west over Historic Route 66 through the Black Mountains.

If you’re making Oatman a simple day trip, either can work. If you have more time, I would seriously consider making a loop instead of driving the same road twice.

We decided to spend the night in Laughlin this time, so we took the southern route and skipped Kingman on the way in. That also completely changed the feel of the trip. Instead of racing the clock to get back to Vegas, we could take our time in Oatman, wander around, eat lunch, and continue toward Laughlin when we were finished.

Add Nelson Ghost Town to the Drive

If you’re heading toward Oatman by way of Laughlin and have enough time, Nelson Ghost Town is one of my favorite additions to this road trip.

It isn’t directly on the fastest route, so don’t treat it like a five-minute roadside stop. Give yourself another hour or two if you want time to walk around, look at the old mining buildings and equipment, and take pictures. For anyone who hasn’t been there before, it adds another layer of Nevada mining history before you cross into Arizona and arrive in Oatman.

We’ve covered Nelson separately, and if you enjoy old buildings, rusty vehicles, abandoned-looking mining equipment and places that seem designed for photography, it’s worth the detour.

Why Laughlin Works for an Overnight Oatman Trip

Laughlin makes a lot of sense if you don’t want to squeeze everything into one long day. Oatman is close enough that you can explore town without constantly checking the time, then head back toward the Colorado River for the night.

That’s exactly what we did on this trip. We weren’t trying to make Laughlin the main attraction; it simply gave us a comfortable stopping point and turned what could have been a long out-and-back drive into a small weekend getaway.

It also works in reverse. If you’re already spending a night in Laughlin, Oatman is an easy addition. Visit Laughlin promotes Oatman as a nearby Historic Route 66 excursion, which explains why you see plenty of Laughlin visitors making the drive into town.

Things to Do in Oatman, Arizona

Driving into Oatman feels like entering a different version of Arizona. Historic Route 66 narrows into the main street, weathered buildings sit right against the road, wooden boardwalks line the storefronts, and somewhere between the parked motorcycles and pickup trucks you’ll probably find a burro casually blocking traffic.

That’s Oatman.

You don’t need an elaborate itinerary here. Park the truck, start walking, and let the town unfold around you.

Meet Oatman’s Wild Burros

The wild burros are easily Oatman’s most recognizable residents. They wander in and out of town, cross Route 66 when they feel like it, and have absolutely no concern about holding up traffic.

They aren’t a staged attraction. The Bureau of Land Management identifies Oatman as being within the Black Mountain Herd Management Area, and the burros are descendants of animals historically used by miners in this part of Arizona.

On our latest visit we spent plenty of time around them again, and they remain one of those experiences that makes Oatman feel different from just another historic roadside town.

One important change from advice you may have heard years ago: don’t arrive with a bag of carrots or random food. The Oatman Chamber currently recommends feeding adult burros only the approved hay cubes sold in town. They’re still wild animals, so give them room, watch small children closely and don’t feed the young burros marked not to be fed.

The Oatman Hotel Restaurant & Bar

Eventually all that walking made us hungry, so we headed into the Oatman Hotel Restaurant & Bar.

This is one of Oatman’s landmarks, and one of those buildings almost everyone eventually walks into. The historic hotel dates back to Oatman’s mining era, but today the building operates as a restaurant and bar rather than an overnight hotel.

Inside, dollar bills cover the walls. There are so many of them that after a minute you stop seeing individual bills and start seeing one giant collage left behind by travelers passing through Oatman.

I added my own dollar to the mix. Maybe nobody will ever notice it again, but that’s kind of the point. Each bill is one tiny piece of somebody else’s trip.

We stayed for lunch, took in the atmosphere and gave our feet a break before heading back outside.

Although its name might be confusing, The Oatman Hotel Restaurant and Bar only functions as this; the hotel is not operational.

Shopping Along Oatman’s Main Street

This was one of the reasons I specifically wanted to return in the truck.

On my motorcycle trip, I had found things I wanted but had nowhere to put them. This time there was an empty truck bed waiting outside, which changed the shopping strategy quite a bit.

Oatman’s stores aren’t polished shopping-center boutiques. That’s exactly why I enjoy them. You’ll find Route 66 signs, Western decorations, antiques, leather goods, old tools, metal art, mining-themed pieces, souvenirs and plenty of things that would make sense in a garage, backyard or man cave but absolutely no sense inside a motorcycle saddlebag.

If you’re someone who likes digging through unusual stores instead of walking in knowing exactly what you want, leave yourself time here. Half of the fun is figuring out what you’re looking at.

If you know yourself as a picker/shopper, consider an empty trunk or a truck because you will need the space 🙂

Don’t Skip the Route 66 Drive Toward Kingman

Once we had fed some burros, finished lunch, bought our share of Western memorabilia and put the step counter to work, we weren’t quite ready to leave.

Instead of immediately turning around, we continued east out of Oatman toward Kingman.

This is where the road trip gets even better.

The Historic Route 66 section through the Black Mountains climbs quickly out of town through tight curves and switchbacks. The Bureau of Land Management describes this portion of Route 66 as passing through the Black Mountains with steep grades, tight switchbacks and the hairpin turns of Sitgreaves Pass.

If you enjoy scenic drives, give yourself time for this stretch instead of treating it simply as the way out of town. There are places where the view opens across the desert and makes you realize just how high you’ve climbed.

It is also a road that deserves your attention. It’s narrow and winding in places, so this isn’t the section to rush.

If you’re doing Oatman as part of a larger Arizona trip, continuing toward Kingman connects nicely with our 3-day Las Vegas to Arizona road trip. We’ve driven through Kingman enough times that it has become one of our usual gateways into Arizona.

Our Oatman Overnight Route

For this trip, we eventually turned back toward our hotel in Laughlin rather than continuing all the way through Kingman.

That overnight completely changed the day’s pace.

If you’re trying to do Oatman from Las Vegas and back in one shot, leave early and don’t overload the itinerary. Oatman itself isn’t huge, but once you add shopping, lunch, burros, photographs, Nelson and the mountain road, the hours disappear quickly.

If you have a free Saturday and Sunday, though, staying in Laughlin gives you room to slow things down. Spend Saturday exploring Oatman, enjoy the Colorado River area that evening, then head home Sunday without feeling like you spent the entire weekend behind the wheel.

The other option is to continue through the mountains to Kingman and stay there. That makes even more sense if your plans continue east along Route 66. From Kingman, you can build it into our longer Las Vegas to Monument Valley road trip or keep going toward the Grand Canyon.

Is Oatman Worth the Drive From Las Vegas?

For me, yes — but not because Oatman is packed with attractions.

It’s almost the opposite.

I like Oatman because it still feels a little strange, a little rough around the edges and comfortably stuck somewhere between an old mining town and a Route 66 roadside attraction. You walk the same wooden sidewalks, see the burros blocking the same road, browse stores filled with things you probably don’t need, eat lunch in a building covered with dollar bills and then climb a mountain road that looks like it belongs in another era.

I’ve been here more than once, and I’ll probably be back again.

The town staying mostly the same isn’t a weakness. That’s the charm.

If you’re looking for more ways to get out of Las Vegas for the day, browse our Las Vegas day trips and road trips. And if the combination of old mining towns and desert history is what brought you here, make sure Nelson Ghost Town is somewhere on your list too.