On November 11, 1926, a bureaucrat somewhere in Washington signed off on a number, and a legend got its name. Route 66 was commissioned that day — 2,448 miles of asphalt and gravel stitching Chicago to Los Angeles through eight states that had never before been connected quite like that. A hundred years later, almost … Read more
There’s a stretch of highway in northern New Mexico where the sky does something unfair. It starts out the regular blue you get everywhere else in America, and then somewhere around Questa — elevation 7,400 feet — it deepens into a shade of turquoise that doesn’t quite look real. I had to pull over and … Read more
There’s something about standing at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in downtown Chicago, staring at that green “Begin Route 66” sign, that makes your chest tighten a little. I’ve driven a lot of highways in my life — coast to coast, border to border — but this one hits different. This year, … Read more
There’s a stretch of highway in the American South where the air changes. Somewhere around mile forty on US-17, between Charleston and Savannah, the Spanish moss thickens, the marsh grass turns impossibly green, and you realize you’ve entered a part of the country that doesn’t need to try hard to be beautiful. It just is. … Read more
I showed up at Glacier National Park on a Tuesday in late June expecting the kind of elbow-to-elbow madness I’d experienced at Yellowstone the summer before. What I found instead was a place so vast, so absurdly layered with mountain ranges and glacial valleys, that the crowds thinned out the moment I stepped past the … Read more
There’s a moment about two hours east of Duluth when Highway 61 narrows, the birch trees crowd close, and Lake Superior opens up on your left like something out of a painting you didn’t know existed. I’d driven a lot of American roads by that point — the Pacific Coast Highway, the Blue Ridge Parkway, … Read more
The Day America Took My Breath Away I’ve driven thousands of miles across this country, from California’s coastal cliffs to Maine’s rocky shores, but nothing prepared me for the Beartooth Highway. This 68-mile stretch of U.S. Route 212 between Red Lodge, Montana, and Cooke City, Wyoming, isn’t just a road—it’s a transformation. In less than … Read more
Why Door County’s Coastal Loop Captivated My Heart This Spring Let me be honest with you – I never expected Wisconsin to steal my heart like it did. I’ve driven coastal highways from California’s Highway 1 to Maine’s Acadia Loop, but there’s something utterly magical about Door County’s 70-mile peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan … Read more
Why Spring is Prime Time for Scenic Road Trips There’s something magical about hitting the open road in spring. After months of winter gray, the landscape transforms into a canvas of blooming wildflowers and rushing waterfalls. I’ve spent years crisscrossing America’s highways, and I’ve learned that spring offers the most dramatic scenery changes of any … Read more
Discover breathtaking scenic byways you’ve never heard of. From Montana’s Beartooth Highway to the Oregon Coast, these drives rival anything in America.