Drivers AtlasThe world's best roads

United States

The best driving roads in America, state by state

48 scored American roads across 22 states, from paved Colorado summits above 4,000 metres to a hundred miles of bridge across the Florida Keys. Pick a state and the library reorders itself around it.

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Driving states

CA · 6 roads

California

The deepest set of great roads in the country, from Big Sur cliffs to Sierra passes and canyon roads that start inside Los Angeles.

Top road: Highway 1, Big Sur · 90.1 mi · 9.5 / 10

CO · 6 roads

Colorado

High altitude driving at its purest, with paved roads above 4,000 metres and a run of passes no other state can match.

Top road: Million Dollar Highway · 24.9 mi · 9.5 / 10

TN · 4 roads

Tennessee

Home of the Dragon, and of several quieter roads locals prefer once the summer coach traffic arrives.

Top road: Tail of the Dragon, US129 · 11.2 mi · 9.3 / 10

NC · 3 roads

North Carolina

Appalachian ridge driving with the two most famous corner sequences on the east coast within an hour of each other.

Top road: Tail of the Dragon, US129 · 11.2 mi · 9.3 / 10

UT · 3 roads

Utah

Red rock scenery so relentless that ordinary connecting roads become memorable, and Byway 12 sits near the top of any national list.

Top road: Utah Scenic Byway 12 · 123 mi · 9.6 / 10

WY · 3 roads

Wyoming

Beartooth country, where the traffic thins to nothing and the road keeps climbing well past the tree line.

Top road: Beartooth Highway · 67.7 mi · 9.7 / 10

AZ · 2 roads

Arizona

Desert distance broken by canyon climbs, with Oak Creek and the Monument Valley approach doing most of the heavy lifting.

Top road: Oak Creek Canyon, AZ 89A · 28 mi · 9.2 / 10

HI · 2 roads

Hawaii

Two very different classics, one a jungle coast road of six hundred corners and the other a climb from sea level to a volcanic summit.

Top road: Haleakala Highway · 23.6 mi · 9.3 / 10

MT · 2 roads

Montana

Two of the finest mountain roads in North America sit here, and both are gated by snow for half the year.

Top road: Beartooth Highway · 67.7 mi · 9.7 / 10

NH · 2 roads

New Hampshire

White Mountain driving with a genuine toll climb to a summit and a notch road that turns golden in autumn.

Top road: Kancamagus Highway · 34.2 mi · 9 / 10

OR · 2 roads

Oregon

The best coastal driving on the Pacific side outside California, plus a historic river highway built for the view rather than the schedule.

Top road: US 101 Oregon Coast · 366.6 mi · 9 / 10

VA · 2 roads

Virginia

Long ridge line parkways where the pace is deliberately slow and the reward is a hundred miles of uninterrupted view.

Top road: Blue Ridge Parkway · 435 mi · 9.1 / 10

WA · 2 roads

Washington

Wet, green and mountainous, with a north cascades crossing that feels alpine and a ridge road climbing straight off the coast.

Top road: North Cascades Highway · 70.8 mi · 9.3 / 10

AL · 1 road

Alabama

A short but scenic slice of the Natchez Trace, best treated as part of a longer parkway run.

Top road: Natchez Trace Parkway · 444.3 mi · 8.4 / 10

AK · 1 road

Alaska

Scale that reframes what you think a long drive is, with a coastal highway out of Anchorage that ranks with anything in the lower 48.

Top road: Seward Highway · 126.8 mi · 9.3 / 10

AR · 1 road

Arkansas

Ozark and Ouachita country, where the roads are tight, the surfaces are good and the traffic is almost nonexistent.

Top road: Talimena Scenic Drive · 54.1 mi · 8.7 / 10

FL · 1 road

Florida

Flat, but the Overseas Highway is a genuine one off, a hundred miles of bridges laid across open ocean.

Top road: Overseas Highway · 111.8 mi · 8.6 / 10

ME · 1 road

Maine

Granite coast, working harbours and a park loop road that packs an enormous amount of scenery into a short circuit.

Top road: Acadia Park Loop Road · 26.7 mi · 8.7 / 10

MI · 1 road

Michigan

Great Lakes shoreline driving, quiet outside the summer weeks, with a tunnel of hardwood that peaks in October.

Top road: Tunnel of Trees, M119 · 19.9 mi · 8.6 / 10

MS · 1 road

Mississippi

The Natchez Trace runs the length of the state as a commercial free parkway, which is a very particular kind of pleasure.

Top road: Natchez Trace Parkway · 444.3 mi · 8.4 / 10

NV · 1 road

Nevada

Empty basin and range highways where you can see the next hour of driving ahead of you, plus one short desert road that outshines all of it.

Top road: Valley of Fire Road · 18 mi · 8.9 / 10

OK · 1 road

Oklahoma

Better than its reputation, thanks to a ridge top drive along the Ouachita spine that runs into Arkansas.

Top road: Talimena Scenic Drive · 54.1 mi · 8.7 / 10