Places I've Been... Roads I've Driven

Arkansas Scenic 7 might be the first road I actively went out of my way to drive, while looking for an interesting way to get to Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Since that time, I've driven it every time I had to go through that part of the country. Unfortunately, as repairs are made with federal funds, the road is being brought up to federal highway standards, which generally ruins the character of the drive.

The Blue Ridge Parkway can be a spectacularly beautiful drive as it follows the crest of the Blue Ridge mountain chain, but that very fact can change low hanging clouds into fog on the parkway. A very common occurrence. Ugh.

I have been on the parkway three times, but never North of the North Carolina border.

I've actually driven all 443 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway, who's history goes back hundreds of years before the industrial revolution.

Once one of the most important roads in young America, today it's preserved as a monument to its past history, with dozens of historic and scenic sites along its length. If you're travelling to a destination somewhere along the Trace, it'd be worth the extra half-day or so to drive a portion of it...

Pikes Peak Highway is a single purpose highway, specifically built as a tourist attraction. And it's a pretty good one, climbing to 14,100 feet via a few dozen switchbacks, with pull offs to enjoy the incredible views. You can also get to the top via a cog railroad, but what's the fun in that?

I thought the air was thin at almost 12,000 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the (lack of) air at 14,000 was actually noticeable.

Utah State Route 12 (also named as the "Journey Through Time Byway") is my favorite road in America.

The 124 mile road starts at a unnamed junction with US-89 and ends in Torrey, Utah, pretty much connecting Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef National Park. In-between are a couple of those spectacular Utah State Parks, a National Monument and some jaw-dropping landscapes just off the side of the road.

Utah State Route 24 was the southern detour around the San Rafael Swell for 35 years before I-70 opened through the wilderness.

Today, it's still the way to get to Goblin Valley State Park, Capitol Reef National Park and the Waterpocket Fold. It is also one of the endpoints of Utah-12, a road everyone should drive at least once...

Utah-128 follows the Colorado River's meanders upstream (from Moab) for over 30 miles before turning toward (and joining) I-70. It is one of those roads which seemingly define some of the iconic views of the West, where the Colorado River lazily flows through the Red Rock desert with its sculpted mesas and pinnacles.

There are also a couple of images of Cisco, an uranium mining town on US-6 near I-70.

When I planning my 2008 trip, I was going to leave Monument Valley and go North to Natural Bridges National Monument via Utah-261. On every map the road took this tiny little squiggle, like a knot in a string. I actually had a detour ready in case the road was too... shoddy.

It turned out to be a fantastic road. I did some research on it when I got back, and it turns out it actually had a name and some history...

Utah-279 is an access road for the Potash mine in Moab.

That said, it's a beautiful road that follows the Colorado River for some 15 miles, showcasing the vertical, sandstone cliffs of "Wall Street" which is rock climber and base jumper habitat. There's also a backdoor to Canyonlands National Park for high clearance vehicles, and some old graffiti left by the Fremont Culture a thousand years ago.

The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway is the other scenic route you can take out of the Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance. While not as spectacular as the Beartooth Highway, it's very scenic once you reach the mountains, and it puts you closer toward the Black Hills should you be going there on the way home.

If you can only drive one, I'd recommend the Beartooth Highway, but Chief Joseph has its moments...

I drove the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway (also known as the Lewis and Clark Trail and the Nez Perce Trail), because I was doing a bunch of Lewis and Clark sites in July 2006. The road doesn't exactly follow the Lolo Trail through the Bitterroots, but it's a stunningly beautiful road, following the Lochsa River (and eventually the Clearwater) through the Bitterroot Mountains.

There are also images of the Nez Perce National Historical Park (East Kamiah).

I've travelled US-20 (in Idaho) from the Western Border where it joins I-84 to Rexburg. The portion from Mountain Home to Idaho Falls was known as Goodale's Cutoff, a shortcut on the Oregon Trail skirting the basalt lava fields rather than following the Snake River.

This link will take you to the Idaho State Page.

US-24 (CO) in Colorado is a nice mountain drive between Buena Vista and Colorado Springs.

Along the way is Wilkerson Pass, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods, a Colorado Springs city park.

This link will take you to the Colorado State Page

US-26 is the main way to get to the Southern Entrance of Grand Teton National Park, by following the Snake River from Idaho Falls to Jackson, Wyoming.

There is a shorter, more direct route over Teton Pass, which also allows you to bypass Jackson should you wish. (Jackson is pretty much your best option for groceries, alcohol and food before entering Grand Teton, but it can be a madhouse during tourist season.)

US-30 in Idaho from Bliss to Buhl has the nickname "Thousand Springs" because the rivers around Southern Idaho tend to sink through the upper crust of volcanic debris until it hits a hard basalt layer from previous volcanic eruptions, then channels the water underground into pools and underground rivers.

The water re-emerges here, and at one time would gush out of the rock layers. However in recent years, they've started to capture the water for irrigation, so you'll actually see more pipes than springs. Ugh.

I drove US-50 (in Colorado) from Montrose to Salida, where I stayed for the night.

Along the way is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which was much more stunning than I expected, then through the Curecanti National Recreation Area, and over the remarkable Monarch Pass in the San Isabel National Forest.

US-89 is a remarkable road that follows some of the most scenic areas of the West from Canada to Arizona, and along the way passes through (or comes within a few miles of) over a half dozen major Western Parks. Glacier to Yellowstone to Grand Teton, Bryce, Zion, Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon.

I've actually frequented this road quite a bit, but in a disjointed, non-continuous fashion.

US-160 though Arizona lies completely within the Navajo Indian Reservation, from Four Corners to US-89 near the Grand Canyon.

Monument Valley is a stone's throw from US-160, so you get to see quite a few sandstone rock formations that just jut out from the desert.

(These images are on the Navajo Indian Reservation page.)

I drove US-160 from I-25 to the Four Corners. It's a nice drive, with several major attractions along the way, such as Great Sand Dunes and Mesa Verde National Parks, and a place you can stand on four states at one time.

This page only has images from Colorado.

The Beartooth Scenic Highway is one of those magnificent mountain drives, this one crossing the Beartooth Mountains. It's a spectacular way to leave (or enter) Yellowstone from the East.

I do list it as one of my must do drives.

US-395 in California follows the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

I drove it from Lone Pine (exiting Death Valley) to Yosemite National Park.

The Million Dollar Highway is a spectacular mountain road which crosses the mining country of Western Colorado.

I drove it from Durango to Montrose in Colorado, a magnificent drive I'd recommend to anyone.