Open Road Guide

Regions

The American West, organized by place — each region gathers the parks, towns, drives, and roadside stops that define one corner of the map.

Each colored area marks where a region sits — tap one to explore it.

California · Region

Big Bear & the Rim of the World

Yuhaaviatam country above the Citrus Belt — the Rim of the World crest from Crestline through Lake Arrowhead to Big Bear, two dams built for oranges on the valley floor, Holcomb Valley's 1860 gold, and San Gorgonio at 11,503 feet.

10 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Bryce Canyon Country

The high-plateau heart of Scenic Byway 12 — Bryce Canyon's hoodoos, the Grand Staircase–Escalante, and the string of towns and parks along one of America's great drives.

25 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Cache Valley & Bear Lake

Utah's green northern corner — the dairy-and-college town of Logan, the Logan Canyon scenic byway, and the turquoise water of Bear Lake.

12 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Capitol Reef Country

Utah's quietest red-rock park and the country around it — Capitol Reef, the Waterpocket Fold, the orchards of Fruita, and the desert towns of Highway 24.

9 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Castle Country & the San Rafael Swell

The empty heart of east-central Utah — the San Rafael Swell, the richest dinosaur quarry on earth, the rock art of Nine Mile Canyon, and the coal town of Price.

8 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Cedar Breaks & Brian Head

The high, cool plateau above Cedar City — Cedar Breaks' wildflower amphitheater, the ski town of Brian Head, and the ancient rock art at Parowan Gap.

3 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Central Utah

The heartland between the Wasatch Front and the red-rock south — pioneer towns along I-15, Cove Fort, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Fish Lake, and the Manti Temple.

24 places to explore
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Nevada · Region

Cowboy Country

Nevada's northeast — the Humboldt River corridor along I-80, the buckaroo town of Elko and the Ruby Mountains, and the invisible-gold country of the Carlin Trend, all on land the Western Shoshone never ceded.

8 places to explore
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California · Region

Death Valley & the Basin Ranges

The Timbisha homeland the maps call Death Valley — the lowest ground in North America, the Panamint wall above it, Trona's tufa spires, and an opera house in the middle of the Amargosa desert.

9 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Dinosaurland & Flaming Gorge

Utah's far-northeast corner — the dinosaur fossil beds around Vernal and the red-rock canyon country of Flaming Gorge, deep in the Uinta Basin.

9 places to explore
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California · Region

Eastern Sierra & Owens Valley

Payahuunadü, the land of flowing water — US-395 under the Sierra escarpment, the Alabama Hills, Manzanar's hard history, Bishop, Mono Lake's tufa towers, and the ghost town of Bodie kept in arrested decay.

9 places to explore
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California · Region

Gold Country & the Northern Passes

Highway 49 through the Mother Lode — Coloma, where the Gold Rush began, the living main streets it left behind, Sacramento at the head of US-50, and the emigrant passes at Donner and Tahoe.

9 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Greater Zion

Utah's red-rock southwest corner — Zion National Park and the canyons, ghost towns, and desert parks of Washington County around it.

11 places to explore
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California · Region

Joshua Tree & the Southern Deserts

Two deserts meet at Joshua Tree — Mojave high, Colorado low — with Pioneertown's film-set main street, the accidental Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, and the badlands and dark skies of Anza-Borrego.

9 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Kanab & the Grand Staircase

The red-rock crossroads of southern Utah — the movie-history town of Kanab, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and the largest animal sanctuary in the country.

3 places to explore
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Nevada · Region

Las Vegas & the Colorado River

Nevada's far south — beyond the neon, the red sandstone of Valley of Fire and Red Rock, the wall of Hoover Dam, and the long blue reach of Lake Mead.

12 places to explore
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California · Region

Los Angeles Harbor & the South Bay

Tongva sea country, where ti'ats crossed to Pimu — then the harbor Los Angeles won in Congress and built from nothing, the village it erased at Fish Harbor, and the beach towns that decided who belonged.

10 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Moab & Canyon Country

Utah's red-rock basecamp on the Colorado River — Arches, Canyonlands, and a dense web of overlooks, river roads, and slickrock around the town of Moab.

19 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Monument Valley & the Trail of the Ancients

Utah's remote far southeast — Monument Valley, the San Juan River canyons, and the Ancestral Puebloan country of the Trail of the Ancients.

8 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

Navajo & Hopi Country

The Colorado Plateau's tribal heart — Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, the Hopi mesas, Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon, and the banded ground of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, across the homelands of the Diné and Hopi.

9 places to explore
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Nevada · Region

Nevada Silver Trails

South-central Nevada's mining country — Tonopah and Goldfield, the ghost town of Rhyolite, Cathedral Gorge's clay spires, and the long straight run of the Extraterrestrial Highway.

8 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Park City & the Wasatch Back

Salt Lake's high-country playground — Park City's ski resorts and silver-mining history, the Mirror Lake Highway into the Uintas, and the Heber Valley.

16 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

Red Rock Country & the Central Highlands

Arizona's red-rock center — Sedona's sandstone spires and the green Verde Valley below, the copper ghost town of Jerome on Cleopatra Hill, and the pine-ringed old territorial capital at Prescott.

6 places to explore
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Nevada · Region

Reno–Tahoe & the Comstock

Nevada's western edge — Lake Tahoe's east shore, the silver boomtown of Virginia City, and the capital at Carson City, where the Sierra meets the sagebrush.

11 places to explore
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California · Region

Riverside & the Citrus Belt

The Citrus Belt from Chino to Redlands — Maara'yam homeland, then the valley the Washington navel rebuilt. Eliza Tibbets's parent orange tree, Riverside's Mission Inn, and the labor the groves ran on.

9 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

Route 66 & the Colorado River

The Mother Road and the water border with California — the longest surviving stretch of Route 66 from Seligman through Kingman to Oatman, the Black Mountains switchbacks, and the Colorado River lakes from Lake Havasu down to Yuma.

6 places to explore
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California · Region

Route 66 & the Mojave Heartland

Route 66 crosses the Colorado at Needles and runs its emptiest miles — Amboy, the Kelso Depot, Calico's silver hills, and Barstow's Harvey House — through the homeland of the 'Aha Makhav, the People by the River.

8 places to explore
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California · Region

Route 66 West: Cajon to the Sea

The Mother Road's last miles — down Cajon Pass into Tovaangar, the Tongva world, past the Wigwam Motel and Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard to the pier at Santa Monica, where the road runs out at the Pacific.

6 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Salt Lake & the Wasatch Front

Utah's capital and the urban corridor along the mountains — Temple Square, the Great Salt Lake, the Cottonwood ski canyons, Ogden, and the Golden Spike.

26 places to explore
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California · Region

San Fernando & Santa Clarita Valleys

Tataviam and Tongva country behind the hills — Mission San Fernando at the village of Achoicominga, California's first gold and first oil well, and the Owens Valley water that arrives at the Cascades.

10 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

The Grand Canyon & the San Francisco Peaks

Arizona's high volcanic north — the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the ponderosa city of Flagstaff, the San Francisco Peaks sacred to the Hopi and Diné, and the cinder cones and lava flows that built this country.

7 places to explore
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Nevada · Region

The Loneliest Road

US-50 across the middle of Nevada — basin and range, basin and range, from Fallon to Ely, with Great Basin National Park and its bristlecone pines at the far end.

8 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

The Mogollon Rim & the White Mountains

The great forested escarpment and the Apache high country — the long wall of the Mogollon Rim, the alpine White Mountains, the plunge of Salt River Canyon, and the Coronado Trail, on the homelands of the Western Apache.

6 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

The Sonoran South & the Borderlands

Saguaro desert, silver towns, and the border missions — Tucson under its sky-island ranges, Saguaro National Park, the Spanish missions at San Xavier and Tumacácori, and the mining towns of Tombstone and Bisbee, on Tohono O'odham land near the Mexico line.

7 places to explore
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Arizona · Region

The Valley of the Sun

The desert metropolis on the canal builders' ground — Phoenix and its cities, the Superstition Mountains and the old Apache Trail, all laid over the irrigation canals the ancestral Huhugam dug and the Akimel O'odham still farm beside.

6 places to explore
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Utah · Region

Utah Valley

The valley between Utah Lake and Mount Timpanogos — Provo's canyons and waterfalls, Sundance, Timpanogos Cave, and the family attractions of Lehi.

10 places to explore
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