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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsAmerica’s Most Epic Road Trips & Destinations
Looking for some road trip inspiration? We outline some of America’s most epic road trip routes and awe-inspiring destinations.
“It’s About the Journey”
You can find millennia worth of wisdom is common aphorisms. Take “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” or “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush” as fine examples. Aphorisms about travel, however, tend to fall well short of the mark. For instance, there’s the old say about travel being about the journey and not the destination. While that might be fine as a metaphor for life, it’s not the best way to plan a summer road trip. Question: “Where are we going this year, honey?” Answer: “Who cares darling!”
Even poorer is “getting there is half the journey,” which is clearly from the Yogi Berra school of aphorisms, wherein half the journey is getting there with the other half presumably being going back from whence you came, again making the destination an afterthought.
Sure, sometimes the chosen road trip thereto is as fun and memorable as the place you traveled to, but just as often the slog to get to your destination is difficult, annoying, or just plain forgettable. To ensure your next trip is more the former than the latter, we’ve assembled a list of the best road trip destinations, accounting for both an enjoyable drive to get there and a spectacular end point, a proper raison d’etre for the whole thing. As to the travel aphorism problem, we’ll leave that up to you, dear traveler.
Zion to Grand Canyon to Monuments Valley
The Grand Canyon is one of the world’s greatest natural wonders and a favorite choice for a destination point in The Great American Road Trip. But if you’re going to be traveling in the area, our advice is to crisscross the Arizona/Utah border to take in some of the country’s most astounding national parks. Traveling west to east, the natural first stop is Zion National Park in southeastern Utah. The beautiful red cliffs of this canyon rival, and in some estimations exceed, more famous national parks like Yosemite. From Zion it’s just a few hours’ drive south to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, one of those natural features so awesome in scale it defies comprehension.
Along the way northeast toward Monuments Valley, make sure to stop at Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona, an enchanting sandstone slot canyon. Monuments Valley, in southern Utah, makes a great final destination as its giant mesas have been a familiar backdrop for countless Hollywood movies. If southwestern vistas are your thing, take this trek to some of the region’s most astounding landmarks.
Tail of the Dragon Tour
This next trip is specifically intended for the driving enthusiasts among you. Some of the best driving roads in the US are in the southern half of the Appalachians Mountains. Twisting through dense woods, the highways of the area are a paradise of curves and switchbacks tailormade for swooping through the bends in the sports car of your choice (a Mazda Miata seems about right).
Our tour starts with the renowned Tail of the Dragon, part of US Highway 129 that traverses Deals Gap along the Tennessee/North Carolina boarder. Directly to the northeast the very easternmost tip of Tennessee in Johnson County is a section of US Route 421, otherwise known as “The Snake,” a favorite especially among motorcyclists for its 489 curves.
And just in case your desire for curvy roads is not yet slaked, head over the border into North Carolina to meet up with the midway section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the country’s most scenic drives, which heads north into Virginia. Driving the winding roads of Appalachia is a case where the journey is the destination.
US Highway 101: Seattle to SoCal
Exploring the west coast at its most awe inspiring requires hugging the coastline as you travel southward down US Highway 101. We suggest starting your journey in Seattle, Washington, home of Pike’s Place Market and the Space Needle. Just to the west, where you’ll find the 101 circling the verdant forests and snow-capped peaks of Olympic National Park.
Traveling south affords an unobstructed view of the sea as you follow the ribbon of the 101 down Oregon’s picturesque coast. Stop by Cannon Beach for a glimpse of Haystack Rock, a gigantic natural monolith, one of many along the rocky coastal cliffs. Hitting the southern Oregon/northern California coast means you’re in Redwood country. Even amidst the immensely tall Douglas fir (up to 300 ft. tall), the giant coastal redwoods will instantly stand out. Redwood National Park is a worthy destination all on its own so mind-bendingly massive and ancient are the coast redwood trees.
And yet, the redwood forest is just the beginning of the wonders the California coast has to offer travelers. San Francisco and the surrounding area offer innumerable sights and experiences from Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island to the Winchester Mansion in San Jose and Monterey Bay just to the south.
Again, San Francisco makes a fine terminus for your road trip. However, some of the most beautiful vista along the 101 from Monterey south and include Big Sur and San Simeon (where you can visit Heart Castle). If you’ve ever wanted to visit Hollywood or Disney Land, continue south to greater metropolitan Los Angeles, the 101’s end point.
Yellowstone to Glacier
Like any of these road trips, you can take this journey north to south or vice versa. However, I like the feeling of ascension possible coming from the Tetons and Yellowstone north into the high peaks of northern Montana. Though Yellowstone gets most of the attention, with its geysers and abundant wildlife, Grand Teton National Park, south of Yellowstone, is as gorgeous a skyline as you’ll find in all the Rocky Mountains and makes a great introductory stop on your road trip. Yellowstone captured Teddy Roosevelt’s imagination enough to have it declared as the US’s first national park, and once you visit, you’ll know why. The enchanting and beguiling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone offer a rare window into the seismic dynamism roiling just below our feet.
Western Wyoming is, to be sure, a fine destination for any road trip. But let’s face it, western Wyoming is a long way from about anywhere so if you’re traveling in the region, taking the extra day or two to drive north to Montana’s Glacier National Park is well worth the effort. The Going-to-the-Sun Road offers one the country’s most scenic drives with its alpine meadows, ice-cold waterfalls, and soaring mountain peaks. Really, all of Glacier is beautiful to the point of pinching yourself to remember it isn’t a photograph you’re looking at. For natural splendor in the Rockies, Yellowstone and Glacier are hard to beat.
Sierra Nevada Mountains: Yosemite, Sequoia, and Las Vegas
Yet one road trip that might rival the eastern slopes of the Rockies is its southwestern slopes in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. This road trip offers extremes of high natural beauty and the man-made glitz of the Vegas strip. Our first destination is Yosemite National Park famous for its sheer granite cliffs, popular among climbers and photographers alike. A three-hour drive south gets you to our next stop, Sequoia National Park. (Extra points for driving your Toyota Sequoia there.) While the coastal redwoods are the world’s tallest trees, the sequoia redwoods are the largest trees by mass. Indeed, they are the largest living things on earth.
If chipmunks and hiking trails fail to satisfy your traveling companions desires, press on from Sequoia through Death Valley National Park and on to Las Vegas. Vegas’ main attraction is, of course, gaming, but even if you’re not one for wagering the city still has a lot to offer as a road trip destination. Las Vegas offers a panoply of diversions from numerous world-class restaurants and an electric nightlife to helicopter rides, all manner of live entertainment, and even tracks where you can pay to drive some of the finest and fastest production cars in the world. Forget the keno and craps, I’ll take that spin in a 911 GT3, please.
