Route 66 Turns 100 This November, and Pasadena's Doo Dah Parade Comes Back to the Old Road

"We know how many people love the parade, so have no doubt we'll be back in full force!" Patricia Hurley, managing director of the Light Bringer Project, said that in August 2025, when Pasadena Now reported that the Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade would skip that year. The nonprofit gave two reasons: the wildfire crisis and uncertainty over education funding. It also named a return date of Sunday, Nov. 22, 2026, in Old Pasadena, where the parade started.

That date now falls 11 days after Route 66 turns 100. Pasadena's share of the old highway runs through the same Old Pasadena blocks the parade used last time. So the city's most irreverent tradition and its biggest history anniversary of the year end up on the same pavement in the same month. The museum exhibit is worth a visit. Still, the most Pasadena way to mark the centennial may be standing on a curb near Fair Oaks Avenue on a Sunday morning, watching someone in a lizard costume go by.

Eleven Days Apart on the Same Streets

Route 66 was established on Nov. 11, 1926, and first ran about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, according to the Pasadena Star-News. The same report lists the local cities it passes through: Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, Azusa, Glendora and San Dimas.

Here, the route left clear marks. The National Park Service says Route 66 used South Fair Oaks Avenue from 1926 through 1940, past a Bekins Storage roof sign that still stands above the street and now reads "A. American Storage Co." The Park Service also says the Colorado Street Bridge stayed on the route until the Arroyo Seco Parkway opened in 1940. When the parkway was finished that year, it became the new Route 66 alignment into Pasadena.

Now compare the most recent Doo Dah route. In 2024, Pasadena Now reported that the parade started at Raymond Avenue and Holly Street, went south two blocks, turned right onto Colorado Boulevard, and ended at Pasadena Avenue. The street closures that year included Raymond, Holly, Colorado and Fair Oaks. That route crossed Fair Oaks Avenue, the street Route 66 used for its first 14 years, and then headed west on Colorado toward the bridge. The 2026 route hasn't been posted yet. If it follows 2024, the centennial and the parade will share the same corner.

Visit California's centennial guide lists the Nov. 22 parade among the state's Route 66 celebrations and says the parade "will salute the Mother Road" this year. The organizers' own pages give the date and say more updates are coming.

What the Skipped Year Changed

The Doo Dah has missed years before. That's where the "Occasional" in its name comes from: the parade began in 1978 and has skipped several years since. The Light Bringer Project has run it since 1995. After the 2020 and 2021 parades went virtual, the full event came back to Old Pasadena in 2023, according to Pasadena Weekendr. Before that, it had spent years in East Pasadena.

In 2025, organizers kept the crown going without the parade. On Nov. 23, 2025, a "Doo Dah Takeover" started at Dog Haus Biergarten at 93 E. Green St. and moved to The Old Towne Pub for the coronation. Meghan Kanyer, who performs as Bootleg Meg, won the crown on her first try.

The 2026 Queen Tryouts were set for Sunday, Oct. 25, at Old Towne Pub, 66 N. Fair Oaks Ave., with the entrance at 34 Holly St. The plan was sign-ups and live music from Ma the Band at 2 p.m. and the competition at 3 p.m., with Bootleg Meg scheduled to crown her successor, Pasadena Now reported. Each contestant got three minutes this year. At the 2024 tryouts in the same pub, they got five. Whoever won takes the crown into Nov. 22, so the first Doo Dah street parade since 2024 will also be the first time this reign goes down a street.

The tryouts also say a lot about the parade. The crown is open to every gender and orientation, and birds, dogs and lizards have competed in past years. NBC Los Angeles covered this year's call for contestants as a search for the parade's "most royal (and rollicking) ambassador".

The Museum Half of the Centennial

The quieter side of the anniversary is at the Pasadena Museum of History. Its exhibition, Where History Meets the Road: Celebrating Route 66 & Colorado Boulevard, runs through Jan. 24, 2027. It marks two milestones that both land in 2026: Route 66's 100th and Colorado Boulevard's 150th. Pasadena Heritage added four new oral histories about life along the boulevard. The exhibition also includes a 70-foot-long, five-foot-high canvas scroll from Claremont Graduate University's Route 66 Pathway Project, which illustrates the route from Santa Monica to Needles.

On Oct. 11, the Pasadena Post Office and the museum unveiled a commemorative Route 66 postmark, and visitors could buy the new Route 66 Forever stamps and have them canceled on site. "I can't think of a better way to craft memories than by crafting a letter from the heart to someone you love," Pasadena Postmaster Brenton Schaeffer told the Pasadena Star-News.

The museum has two more centennial events in November, and both fall between the anniversary and the parade.

Route 66 Places You Can Still Visit

Two of the businesses in the oral histories are still on Colorado Boulevard, and the route's two best-known landmarks are a short drive from Old Pasadena.

Pasadena Heritage describes Fred Hill as a lifelong model train fan who first visited the Whistle Stop as a young man and later bought it. That's an easy stop to add to a centennial weekend, especially with kids who have no interest in a 70-foot scroll. For a guided version, Old Pasadena lists a Melting Pot Food Tours walk that celebrates Route 66 along Colorado Boulevard through 2026.

The November Sequence, in Order

Put together, the month runs as one sequence on one corridor:

1. Wednesday, Nov. 11. Route 66 turns 100.
2. Thursday, Nov. 12, 7 to 8:30 p.m. "Route 66: Travelers and Tribes" at the Pasadena Museum of History, with historian Shawn Price, director of the Dine'Tah Navajo Cultural Program, on the highway's economic impact on tribal communities. General admission is $18 and members pay $13.
3. Saturday, Nov. 14, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Route 66 Trivia Night with the museum at Wild Parrot Brewing Company.
4. Sunday, Nov. 22, 11 a.m. The 46th Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade steps off in Old Pasadena.
5. Through Jan. 24, 2027. Where History Meets the Road stays open at the museum after the parade crowds have left.

A few parade details are still open. The 11 a.m. step-off comes from the Light Bringer Project's event page and the Oct. 21 Pasadena Now report. The parade's own FAQ still lists the time as TBA, along with the after-parties. The FAQ also promises the parade will go on "RAIN OR SHINE." Anyone who wants to march can email [email protected]. Parade T-shirts are sold in the staging area, and part of each sale goes to arts programs for public school students. Check pasadenadoodahparade.info for the 2026 route and closures before you pick a spot on the curb.

Colorado Boulevard has been a big part of my work across Pasadena for years, and a month that celebrates the boulevard itself is a good reason to walk it again. If you're spending the centennial on the old Route 66 blocks and want to talk about the history of a street you love, or a building that caught your eye along the way, Gordon Wang is glad to share what he knows. Let's Connect.