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?
***
Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.
Highway 285 Fort Stockton to Sanderson Texas. If you are lucky enough to enter and drive in the Big Bend Open Road Race you can go as fast as your car can go if you qualify. This Highway has many blind turns as you cut through the mountains. Unlimited prepped cars exceed 220 mph with course record near 180 mph average speed during the 120 mile contest.
RT 74 from Palm Desert, CA to Idyllwild CA, great views of the desert and mountains.
The Baccalieu trail on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland Canada winds from 1000 ft cliffs to small cove villages at sea level along the seashore for about 120 miles with many lookouts…Jimmy Kimmels Dildo is on it…
Carbon Canyon Drive (ie: Hwy 142} between Placentia and Chino Hills in Orange and San Bernardino counties in So. California. I have not driven it since 2001, so I have no idea what it is like now!!!
Growing up on Long Island, we would vacation in New England. We always used Route 2, The Mohawk Trail, in northeastern Massachusetts. I haven’t been back there in a few years. I hope it hasn’t changed. There was also the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. I attended Georgia Tech in the mid-1970’s and would drive my 1955 DeSoto on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the trips home and back each semester. Those were amazing driving experiences. My father once said he’d never seen anyone pass every car on that road. I would look across the valleys for oncoming traffic.
These days if I have some time and want some curves, I follow route 142 along the Klickitat River in southern Washington.
Nothing in Floor-eee-duh. Closest we can find is in NW Georgia and then up through the Appalachians. I used to live in CT and almost anywhere in the state were great twisties.
The Triple Nickle – Ohio RT 555
Blue Ridge Parkway.
Hwy 321 Boone NC to Butler TN around Watauga Lake.
If famous car enthusiasts and race drivers could be asked this question, I think their answers would make a good book.
The Antrim coast road in Northern Ireland is superb both for its stunning scenery and being an enjoyable technical driving experience.
My two favorite drives are
1. On the island of Oahu, driving along Hwy 83 on the east side from Waimanalo Beach up to the north shore to Haleiwa Beach. and back across the mountain via H3 thru Kaneohe. Just breath taking especially after a good rain on a really hot day you can drive through the clouds.
2. Hwy 90 from New Orleans to Pascagoula. Especially in early October during “America’s Largest Block Party” aka Cruisin’ the Coast. If you got a convertible, it’s extra fun. But you may want to apply a heapin’ amount of sunscreen.
The Dragon is the one everyone knows about, but in Western NC just throw a dart and you will find some sweet asphalt winding its way to somewhere or nowhere at times. My personal favorite is HWY64 from Franklin, NC to Murphy, NC but keep that between us we don’t want it getting spoiled like HWY129.
River Road, between Youngstown NY and Lewiston NY along the Niagara River in the morning or after dark
in the spring or Summer with the tip down
The Cascade Loop in WA State. Start on Hwy 2 at the entrance in Everett WA. Stevens Pass, then drop down through the white water rapids to Leavenworth. Drive up the Columbia River and head west to Winthrop. From there you drive up the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and down to Rockport, then Darrington and back to Everett. There is a spot between Rockport to Darrington where you wont see a cop for years.
I do love Hwy 1-101 up the Cali Coast, but there are too many road closures now.
Highway 4, Vancouver Island BC takes you out to the Pacific Rim National Park. Beautiful, soul searching and not for the faint of heart.
Route 8 from Winsted, CT to Dalton MA