USA On The Road: 16 scenic roads to cross
There is no other way to discover America than by car, traveling thousands of miles on roads that cross surreal landscapes.
In the USA, more than anywhere else, it is easier to choose a more scenic route than the others, as you will often find the designation "Scenic Byway" next to the official road number. This means that you can be fairly certain to find distinctive landscapes that offer a memorable visual experience, that the settlements or natural formations are of particular interest, that you will encounter elements of the historical heritage and that the natural elements are mostly intact and marginally marked by human activity.
Whether they were overhanging the sea, among rugged mountains, in the middle of the desert or in the woods, we can say that we have travelled some of the most impressive roads in America and if on your planned route you find an unexpected detour to a scenic road, do not hesitate to take it!
1. HISTORIC ROUTE 66
The road par excellence, the Mother Road that crosses 8 states from Illinois to California.
The beauty of Route 66 is that it will take you back decades, through abandoned settlements, towns where time stopped in the 1950s, endless prairies crossed by busy highways a few hundred yards away, sequences of old-style diners and motels. The route sometimes forks, to follow two roads dating back to different eras. Sometimes the road disappears, and you'll have to take the Interstate for a few dozen kilometers and then rejoin the Mother Road.
Check the route on the Website
2. HIGH ROAD TO TAOS, NM
This road leads away from Santa Fe towards Taos, through a semi-desert landscape between straight stretches that offer suggestive views of the horizon, and winding portions that wrap around the low reliefs. This panoramic road has offered us one of the most beautiful sunsets of our journey.
Check the route on the Website
3. KAIBAB PLATEAU-NORTH RIM PARKWAY, AZ
Route 67 crosses a plateau that laps the Grand Canyon. It is the road that leads, through scenic scenery, to the spectacular North Rim of the National Park, from which you can admire the Canyon from another perspective.
Check the route on the Website
4. KAYENTA-MONUMENT VALLEY SCENIC ROAD, AZ
We took Highway 163 from Flagstaff to Moab. It crosses Navajo territories and some reserves, including Monument Valley. It runs isolated among immense prairies populated by the American antelope, and past the reserve, it offers a spectacular postcard view of the pinnacles of Monument Valley.
5. LOWER COLORADO RIVER SCENIC BYWAY, UT
Route 128 winds its way from Moab around the coils of the Colorado River, lapping the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It runs through a very deep valley with steep walls. On the bottom flows the immense river, next to which there are several campsites to stay overnight in the surroundings of Moab.
Check the route on the Website
6. DEAD HORSE MESA SCENIC BYWAY, UT
It climbs along the rocky ridges at the edge of Canyonlands Park, and offers a bird's eye view of the deserted expanses outside and inside the park. We drove up to Island in the Sky, where we parked and took the mountain bikes for a hike. The road continues then through a dirt track that can only be covered with a 4x4 vehicle.
Check the route on the Website
7. CAPITOL REEF COUNTRY SCENIC BYWAY , UT
Scenic Byway 24 runs through Capitol Reef Park. It creeps up to its heights, crosses flat stretches dotted with rugged rock formations, and finally wedges into green fairytale valleys dotted with characteristic Mormon wooden buildings and community fruit plantations. You can park and go down to pick apples directly from the trees, paying by leaving the money in a special box, or you can go into the Amish shops, where jams and fruit cakes are sold.
Check the route on the Website
8. SCENIC BYWAY 12, UT
Byway 12 reaches Bryce Canyon, and crosses the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The landscape is one of the most varied we've ever crossed, and as you climb up imposing heights it offers a beautiful view from above of the rocky expanses, tree-lined valleys, through dense pine and birch forests, through stony terrain rippled with soft hills, and then to the green plains that precede Bryce, guarded by imposing rock stratifications.
Check the route on the Website
9. MOUNT CARMEL LONG VALLEY SCENIC DRIVE & ZION PARK SCENIC BYWAY, UT
These two roads reach and cross Zion National Park. Unlike other roads that are flanked by heights and canyon walls, or that run on the plateau, this one wedges between the mountains and descends, through bridges and tunnels, to the bottom of the park's valleys, sheer to deep cliffs and next to rocks smoothed by the winds.
Check on the Website for Mount Carmel & Zion
10. LAS VEGAS STRIP, NV
Let's take a break from the natural beauty, to cross the artificial beauty par excellence: the reproductions of monuments of Las Vegas and its glittering hotels. The scenic word actually befits this stretch of road that runs through the Las Vegas casino area. You may want to walk it at night, when everything is lit up, even if it's swarming with people and lots and lots of traffic.
11. HIGHWAY 50, NV
Many people know it with the nice nickname of "America's loneliest road", a very long stretch of asphalt that crosses Nevada between desert areas, abandoned mines, ghost towns, some small towns made of no more than a few saloons. After the gold rush period, with the abandonment of the mines, has become a stretch of road crossed by a few sparse vehicles. We have covered all the 600 and a few more kilometers, and we have met little more than 3 cars on our way.
A fabulous, lonely, and sometimes frightening place. It's just you and the desert. Maybe you should fuel up first, just in case!
12. DEATH VALLEY SCENIC BYWAY, CA
State Route 190, maybe my favorite. Miles, and miles, without a curve, cut straight through the desert like an arrow and get lost in the foggy horizon. Under the scorching heat, at more than 40 degrees, without a tree around, just the desert and the bare rock. It goes up and down following the hollows and offers magnificent and endless views.
13.ROUTE 1 - BIG SUR COAST HIGHWAY, CA
One of the most famous scenic roads in America, even if it is not one of my favorites, perhaps because the view is simply more ordinary, although still picturesque. A succession of viaducts overhanging the sea that follow the steep coast of California, on the stretch that leads from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Sometimes you travel meters above the water, suspended in the void, others by the shore, populated by lazy sea lions.
14. BEARTOOTH HIGHWAY, MT
From Yellowstone to Billings, through high green mountains, enriched by pools of water. The road climbs up the plateaus covered with pine trees, and descends along the ridge of high mountains inhabited by deers.
Check the route on the Website
15. BADLANDS LOOP STATE SCENIC BYWAY , SD
We only hastily travelled this panoramic road, on the way back to Chicago, and we couldn't help but stop to observe the endless panorama of the Badlands that can be admired from the top of the roadside, which then creeps in between these multi-layered hills.
Check the route on the Website
16. LINCOLN HIGHWAY HERITAGE BYWAY, IA
If not spectacular, at least original, this road that crosses hundreds of kilometres of corn plantations, pastures full of cows studded with red wooden barns and silos. A glimpse of rural America different from the desert landscapes that the other roads cross.
Check the route on the Website
This content is NOT SPONSORED, but based on my genuine personal experience. Spontaneous opinions, positive and negative, shareable or not, that I hope will help to live better travel experiences. My advice is a guide to lead you through world explorations, but the real journey, you build it!
