Where to stay near the best vintage highway signs

What to take away

• Stay in the bypassed town, not at the interstate exit. The signage is where the traffic left.
• Public campgrounds on historic routes put you inside the subject rather than beside it.
• Confirm water, power and reservation rules per site. They vary enormously.
• One base for two nights beats two bases for one night each on a sign trip.

Where you sleep on a sign trip decides what light you get. The good subjects are in old town centres and on bypassed alignments, and both are best photographed within an hour of sunrise or sunset. A bed twenty minutes closer is worth more than a bed twenty dollars cheaper.

Choose the bypassed town over the highway exit

Interstate exits have the beds and none of the subject. The town three miles off the exit usually has both, because the old highway went through it and the signage stayed. Small-town motels also tend to be the surviving examples of the thing you came to photograph, which is a decent reason to sleep in one.

The trade is fewer options, earlier check-in cut-offs and less choice for dinner. Phone ahead rather than arriving late and hoping. It is also worth asking, when you book, whether the property still has its own original sign and whether it is lit after dark, because that answer often decides which of two similar motels is the better base for the trip.

Camping on the historic route itself

Public campgrounds on historic corridors are the strongest option if you are equipped for them. The BLM's Simpson Springs Campground in Utah's West Desert sits beside a historic station on the Pony Express National Historic Trail, on ground that was also a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Its page lists potable water seasonally and accessible vault toilets, along with twenty campsites that have accessibility features and mostly compacted gravel pull-through parking. Seasonally is the word to notice: carry your own water.

Read the booking rules per site, not per agency

Reservation systems differ between neighbouring campgrounds. Burro Creek Campground in Arizona is a good illustration of the detail worth reading: it is reached by a 1.25 mile paved road from U.S. Highway 93 and offers 23 individual sites, some of which take reservations that must be made at least seven days ahead while the rest stay first come, first served. Knowing which sites are which changes when you need to arrive.

What to confirm before you commit

• Whether drinking water is available in the month you are travelling.
• Whether the access road is paved, graded or unsuitable for your vehicle.
• Arrival cut-off times, for both motels and staffed campgrounds.
• Whether there is any lighting, which matters if you want night photographs of signs.
• Distance to fuel, because small-town stations close early.

One base, two nights

Sign country rewards staying put. A single base lets you shoot the same subject in morning and evening light, go back for the one you got wrong, and skip an hour of packing. Choose a town roughly in the middle of your corridor rather than at one end, and accept a slightly longer drive on both days in exchange.

Plan the driving around it with our two-day sign itinerary, and pick the subjects themselves from the list of sixteen vintage sign types.

Common questions

Are historic motels worth staying in? Often yes, for the trip rather than the room. Ask about the sign specifically; owners usually know its history.

Is camping practical on a sign trip? Very, if the corridor has public campgrounds. It also puts you in place for first light.

How far from the corridor is too far? More than about thirty minutes and you lose the early and late light that makes the trip work.

Should I book ahead in small towns? Yes. Options are limited, and a single event or crew job can fill the only motel in town.