Routes
Long-form road trip guides through the American West — every stop, every story, every mile that makes the drive worth taking.
Every byway on the map is a link — tap a line to open its guide.
Alpine Loop Scenic Byway
Twenty hairpin miles over the shoulder of Mount Timpanogos — UT-92 from American Fork Canyon into Provo Canyon, past Timpanogos Cave, Cascade Springs, and Sundance. Paved and narrow, closed in winter, unbeatable in fall.
California 190: Across Death Valley
The road across Death Valley exists because of borax: the twenty-mule-team haul, the company that sold the scenery once the mineral ran out, and the drive from Olancha to the salt.
Highway 12 Scenic Byway
A 124-mile All-American Road through southern Utah's red-rock canyons, alpine forests, and slickrock wilderness — widely regarded as one of the most scenic drives in America.
Highway 20
Twenty unsigned miles between I-15 and US-89 over Bear Valley — the Old Spanish Trail crossing that carried Panguitch's founders and the Quilt Walk of 1864.
Highway 24 Scenic Byway
A 47-mile drive through the Waterpocket Fold — the geological wave that defines Capitol Reef — from Torrey at Highway 12's eastern terminus to the desert crossroads of Hanksville.
Highway 9 Scenic Byway
A 57-mile drive from the I-15 gateway through Springdale and Zion National Park to Mount Carmel Junction — climbing the cliff-face switchbacks and the 1930 Zion–Mount Carmel Tunnel along the way.
Historic Route 66
Arizona's stretch of the Mother Road — the longest preserved run of Route 66 in the country, from the ponderosa high country down through Seligman and Kingman to the Oatman switchbacks and the Colorado River.
I-15: The Virgin River Gorge
Three states in twenty-nine Arizona miles — I-15 threads the Virgin River Gorge, the most expensive rural interstate ever built, following the desert water that drew every road here from the Old Spanish Trail to the Las Vegas Springs.
Interstate 80 — The Humboldt Road
The Humboldt corridor — about 175 miles of Interstate 80 from Wells to Winnemucca, the region's all-weather spine, with the Ruby Mountains, the emigrant trail, the invisible gold, and Jarbidge hanging off it.
Interstate 80: The Bonneville Crossing
A hundred and thirty miles across the bed of a vanished sea, from Elko to the Bonneville Salt Flats — the crossing that nearly ended the Donner Party and, a century later, rehearsed the atomic bomb.
Logan Canyon Scenic Byway
US-89 climbs forty-one miles from Logan up its limestone canyon to a pass near 7,800 feet, then drops to the turquoise water of Bear Lake — a National Scenic Byway, glorious in fall and open year-round.
Mirror Lake Scenic Byway
UT-150 climbs from Kamas into the Uintas over Bald Mountain Pass — at 10,715 feet, Utah's highest paved road — to the glassy alpine water of Mirror Lake. A short, spectacular season, roughly late June through early October.
Nebo Loop Scenic Byway
Thirty-eight winding miles over the back of Mount Nebo, the highest peak in the Wasatch — a CCC-built byway from Payson to Nephi, past alpine lakes, a 9,300-foot overlook, and a pocket of red-rock hoodoos. Closed in winter, unforgettable in fall.
Nine Mile Canyon Backway
The old freight road up the world's longest art gallery — a slow drive past a thousand years of Fremont and Ute rock art, from Wellington toward the Uinta Basin.
NV-28 — The Tahoe East Shore
The short, blue drive down Lake Tahoe's Nevada side — thirteen miles of granite coves and clear water on the shore the Comstock cut for timber and tapped for water, then sold back as scenery.
Old Highway 40: The Donner Pass Crossing
Forty-six miles over the pass the interstate misses — the Wašišiw summit and its petroglyphs, the tunnels Chinese crews cut by hand, the lake where the Donner Party wintered, and the 1926 arch bridge above it, then down the Truckee to Reno.
Route 66 in California: Needles to the Pacific
The Mother Road's last three hundred fifty miles: the Colorado River at Needles, the emptiest surviving pavement on the whole route, Cajon Pass, and the Pacific at the end of it.
Route 66: The Topock Crossing
Ninety-six miles of the Mother Road's hardest crossing — Kingman over Sitgreaves Pass to Oatman, then down to the Colorado River at Topock, where three bridges, a sacred Mojave geoglyph and a chromium plume all sit on the same half mile of ground.
Scenic Byway 143
Utah's Patchwork Parkway — 51 miles from Parowan to Panguitch, climbing 4,400 feet out of the desert to a 10,000-foot rim past Brian Head, Cedar Breaks, and Panguitch Lake.
The Comstock Loop
The compact circuit the silver built — Reno up the Geiger Grade to Virginia City, down to Carson City and the lake the Comstock logged, then home through Nevada's oldest town.
U.S. 163: The Monument Valley Crossing
Sixty-eight miles up US-163 out of the Navajo Nation — from Kayenta and the Code Talkers past sacred Agathla and the buttes the world mistakes for the West, across the reservation's edge into Utah's free-roaming canyon country.
U.S. 395: The Eastern Sierra
The one road along the east wall of the Sierra: Payahuunadü and Manzanar, the Whitney and bristlecone spurs, Mono Lake, and Bodie at the end of thirteen miles of Bodie Road.
U.S. 50 — The Loneliest Road in America
The 1986 insult that became an invitation — 320 miles of US-50 across central Nevada, from Fallon to the Utah line, linking petroglyphs, ghost towns, a singing dune, and the state's only national park.
U.S. 50: The Great Basin Crossing
The far end of the Loneliest Road: 150 empty miles from Ely across the Great Basin to Delta and the Topaz camp.
US-89 Heritage Highway
Forty-some miles down the floor of Sanpete Valley, US-89 threads the best-preserved string of pioneer Mormon towns in Utah — the "Little Denmark" heart of the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area, from Fairview's Ice Age mammoth past Manti's 1888 temple to Gunnison's century-old Casino Star Theatre.
US-89: Climbing the Grand Staircase
The climb from Lake Powell to Bryce Canyon — up the Grand Staircase, where each step north is younger rock and higher ground, from the slickrock desert to the Pink Cliffs and their hoodoos.
US-93: The Hoover Dam Crossing
The desert run from Kingman to Las Vegas — over the one place where Arizona and Nevada physically meet: Hoover Dam, wedged into Black Canyon, and the reservoir and neon it made possible.
US-95 — The Free-Range Art Highway
Ninety-nine miles of US-95 from Tonopah to the Death Valley line — four mining towns, the International Car Forest and the Goldwell sculptures, and some of the darkest skies in Nevada.
UT-128 Colorado River Road
A 44-mile scenic drive along the Colorado River through towering red-rock canyons — locals' choice for the most beautiful road in Utah.