US 66 entered Arizona from Needles, California, on the Old Trails Bridge across the Topock Gorge and Colorado River, within the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, arriving in Topock, Arizona. The route headed northeast, where it crossed the path of present-day I-40 and the BNSF Railway (formerly the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway). The highway then curved east for less than a mile, before curving directly north on Mohave County Route 10 (also known as Oatman Highway), past present-day Golden Shores through Bureau of Land Management-managed federal lands. About north of Golden Shores, US 66 arrived at the foothills of the Black Mountains, following the base of the those mountains for before entering them. Shortly afterward, the old highway arrived in the town of Oatman, passing through the center of the old mining town. North of Oatman, US 66 turned in a generally eastward direction winding its way up and through the Black Mountains over treacherous curves. US 66 passed through the small mining community of Goldroad and the adjacent mine, before continuing on its winding path up the mountainsides.