What is Your Favorite Driving Road?
Roads give us freedom. They take us to our destination, whether that’s an actual place or a metaphorical reference to the thrills and fulfillment of the perfect combination of automobile and path. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a miles-long straight, a gravel farm road, mountain pass, or canyon asphalt, we all have at least a few favorites on our lists.
So we humbly ask members of the Hagerty Community one question to help us celebrate next week’s special award: What is your favorite driving road?
This is normally where your humble author chimes in with a suggestion in hopes of spurring conversation. But good driving roads are over an hour away from me, and I rarely get the chance to drive that far just to drive some more.
Don’t Look At Me
Instead I have this monstrosity, the Katy Freeway, just a couple of miles from me. I admit the flyovers can give you a giddy little thrill sometimes, but otherwise my life as a car enthusiast revolves around visits to other places with better roads, smaller highways, elevation changes, and a lack of streets designed around a grid.
So help me out here, Hagerty Community, and tell me your thoughts on the matter. What are some good driving roads, and what is your favorite driving road?
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I am partial to the generic on ramps to multi lane highways found everywhere. The general description is the turn you make to get onto the ramp, generally a 90 degree turn off a local road then accelerate through a gentle left turn hitting the apex in second gear at red line, then shifting into third as the turn straightens out and accelerating into a right turn and accelerate through the apex onto the highway. Then you have to brake hard to slow down to traffic speed and blend in. Doing this in a high horsepower car is not fun, it verges on stupidity. Doing this in a real low power old sports car is really exhilarating. I think the highway engineers designed these ramps with turns to keep your speed down as you enter the highway. Thank you! That’s right up there with traffic circles, aka state built skid pads.
HWY 141 COLORADO
Many back roads in Lancaster County, PA are lightly traveled and are perfect for cruising in my ’66 Beetle
As a follow up to this, can Hagerty create an index of these answers in some sort of data base? Include the state, the area, road numbers, start, end, and road type? Doesn’t need to be perfect. And members could fill in missing info or notes. Would be handy for planning cross country or regional visions.
FWIW, I like parkways. Blue Ridge, Cherohala, Footpath, or any other limited access, two lane roads with center lines thru mountains.
Amen!!!
Tail of the Dragon and Rt. 120 in Harimon state park NY. in my Backdraft Cobra.
Back of the Dragon, Marion BA
Spent a week in Houston, TX a few years ago and drove that very same Katy Freeway. Crazy. Get out of that left lane – cars going by at 80-90 MPH or more like they were driving on the German Autobahn.
Living in East Tennessee, Here are some of my close by “favorite” driving roads — Cherohala Skyway, Foothills Parkway, Devil’s Triangle TN — just to name a few. So lucky to have these and many others within an hour from home. Notice I left out “The Dragon”, it’s for tourists.
Live Oak Canyon Road through Trabuco Canyon in California…
I have tried to suss out the best roads in many states and have found wonderful roads in such far flung places as Washington’s Cascade Highway, Arkansas 7, lots of roads in the Hill Country of Texas and all over eastern Tennessee and North Carolina. I could try to make a best of list of my own, but I don’t know those places nearly well enough to advise anyone on which are the best.
On the other hand, I’ve lived in Colorado for over 50 years. I drive these roads the most and believe I know the best of all the fun and scenic roads in the Centennial state so here are five of Colorado’s best not yet mentioned:
America’s Mountain: The Pikes Peak Highway. It is definitely a bucket list item. The 19-mile stretch of roadway starts just west of Colorado Springs, twists and turns up into the clouds to the top of Pikes Peak, at 14,115 feet elevation. On one of the most visited peaks in the world this highway gives you a 360-degree view of all the beauty of the Rockies once you reach the top. Use the ascent for the fun of the road and a slower descent to gawk at the incredible vistas around every hairpin turn. Oh, and get a doughnut and spend time on top looking around…it is breathtaking!
Mount Blue Sky (Formerly Mount Evans) Scenic Byway. As an alternative to Pikes Peak, one can drive a whole 156 feet higher than the Pikes Peak road to 14,271 feet above sea level, up this designated scenic byway that offers panoramic views of Echo Lake, the Front Range of Colorado, and the grandeur of the Continental Divide. State Highway 103 runs from Interstate 70 (I-70) at Idaho Springs, 13 miles to SH 5, the “official” Blue Sky/Mt. Evans road which begins at Echo Lake.
Independence Pass, CO 82, is North America’s highest paved pass and runs from Aspen to Twin Lakes over a 12,095-foot summit where almost always brilliant blue skies contrast with the green and gold of the aspen leaves in the fall. This is the best time and the best direction to take this jaw-dropping mountain road. The panorama at the summit and the views along the 44-mile route include some of the most striking in Colorado.
Cottonwood Pass road runs from Buena Vista to just north of Gunnison, CO. It was a favorite of dirt bikes for a long, long time and they had it all to themselves, but all that changed a couple of years ago…it was fully paved. Now it is a glorious road that covers about 65 miles in central Colorado as it twists and turns over the Continental Divide and passes Taylor Reservoir, a shimmering jewel of water in the middle of the run with light traffic all the way. It can be combined with some other roads like Independence Pass and The Black Canyon north rim to make a wonderful 300-mile loop around the high country.
North Rim Road, Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a wonderful and undervalued road through a national park that features the most steep, incredible and hypnotic deep ravines of any in the state where it has been cut by the Gunnison River below. The road, CO 92, follows the rim of the canyon and the tributaries that feed into it making a snaking canter with a colossal helping of scenery. There are several overlooks which demand a stop even if you are short on time as the Black Canyon’s fascinating painted walls are must-see scenery. Looking over the steep walls of the Precambrian rock is a bit spooky but mesmerizing too. Meanwhile the road is simply a hoot with sweeping turns and unexpected hairpins in equal measure so pay attention! This is a must drive.
I’m in Marin county CA. Close to home I love Novato Blvd from just west of town to Pt Reyes-Petaluma Rd. It’s only 9 miles but it’s a fun twisty curvy road through farmland and on a weekday morning has little traffic so I can really push the light VTEC in my 2002 Accord. The car is really not fast but it does a good job of pretending it is if you push the tachometer towards the ketchup range coming out of each curve.
As others have mentioned PCH is great if you don’t get stuck behind someone. Several years ago I was on the especially squiggly stretch south of Big Sur and had a good half hour with no one in my way so I could push it as hard as I dared.
Mighty VTEC. Not light VTEC…
US 199 – Crescent City Ca to Grants Pass Or. Starting only a couple of miles from the Pacific Ocean,it winds through the tall trees of Redwood National/State Park, runs along the Smith River, carves through canyons filled with pine and deciduous woodlands, and goes through quaint small settlements. It presents technical banked and off- camber turns, hairpins, undulating “S” turns, long sweeping curves and a long straight here and there. The road has traffic at peak hours sometimes, and is often busy at the height of tourist season, but taking advantage of a very early or very late run can be quite the excellent experience.
Ooo – I’m gonna make a note of this one. Sounds like my cuppa tea!
Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan we are spoiled by the abundance of low traffic scenic roads but I have to 2nd Glenbob50’s top choice of the loop from Phoenix to Copper Harbor and back on M-26 and US-41. A run up of Brockway mountain drive allows for a second pass on M-26 along Lake Superior.
“The Keweenaw peninsula MI. From Pheonix [sic] on M26 to Copper Harbour [sic] to the beginning of US41. Then US41 back to Pheonix [sic]. These twisting, turning, and undulating paved roads will have you working all three pedals. Scenic any season but gorgeous in the autumn. While in Copper Harbour [sic] shoot up to the top of Brockway Mountain Drive for kicks for a view that will take your breath away!”
My perfect car for this drive is any late body style (1965-69) model of the Corvair.
British Columbia Hwy 3 eastbound from Hope to the Alberta border. Three mountain passes. Fabulous scenery as you traverse coastal rain forest, interior forest, the northern tip of the Senora Desert, range lands, and the western approach to the Rocky Mountains. Stop in Osoyoos to jump in the lake, and visit a couple, or 40 wineries. Enjoy the ride!
US 191 from Hoback Juction to “the Rim” (off season only) or US 26 from Moran Junction to Dubois (again off season only) Even in a lowered ‘tricked out’ Coyote powered pickup! Better in a 356 or 911. Both in western Wyoming, south of Yellowstone National Park.