Scenic road trips in the U.S.

Northwestern U.S. and Canada

The Northwestern U.S. and Canada are veined with 10 unique roadways and four connecting trails along what has become known as the Top 10 Scenic Drives in the Northern Rockies. If you’re intent on doing one of these drives, you can start at such gateway cities as Spokane, Wash., Salt Lake City; Boise, Idaho; Billings, Mont; Denver; or Calgary, Canada; and rent a car, SUV, RV or motorcycle to explore the nearest drive. Among them:

The 400-mile Montana Scenic Loop reveals the majesty of Glacier National Park. For part of the year, the Beartooth All-American Road in Montana and Wyoming is flanked by lush forests that lead into sugary alpine tundra at the Northern Rockies’ highest elevation roads. For some history with your scenics, Idaho’s Northwest Passage Scenic Byway retraces the steps of trailblazing explorers Lewis and Clark and the Nez Perce Indians.

The Top 10 Scenic Drives connect 19 national parks, monuments and recreation areas and areas deeply rooted in Native American heritage.

Info: https://www.drivethetop10.com

Louisiana

In southwestern Louisiana, the changing of seasons brings a change in the number of birds and species that thrive here. Roadside birding attracts avian enthusiasts from intermediate to advanced birders. Nearly 90% of Louisiana’s 456 species of birds have been recorded in the southwestern corner of the state, which butts up against Texas.

Just 15 minutes from Lake Charles around Grout’s Bayou Marina and Parish Boat Launch, upland mixed pine-hardwood forest, riparian hardwood forest, backwater swamp and open river land are home to waterfowl and allies, herons, egrets and riparian woodland songbirds. Drivers won’t want to miss the Sam Houston Jones State Park or Holbrook Park. Among the hedgerow and scrub thickets, crested caracara and other diurnal raptors, including Swainson’s hawk and Ferruginous hawk, make regular appearances.

Locals call Old Highway 90 Road the “burned-out bridge road.” It’s on a six-mile oak ridge that meanders through a maze of bayous, freshwater marsh and ditches. Along the drive, the oak forest provides gaps through which birders can see a variety of birds finding a resting place during fall migration. The road ends over the Sabine River at an old burned-out bridge near Orange, Texas.

Wise drivers gas up and bring snacks and beverages when driving and birding throughout this rustic part of Louisiana because populated stops are sporadic. That’s the good news, because no trip to Lake Charles is complete without some of Louisiana’s famous gumbo. The Visit Lake Charles organization offers a birding guide to help drivers build an itinerary. Don’t forget good binoculars.

Info: https://www.visitlakecharles.org

The Southwest

A seemingly endless ribbon of mammoth red rocks, cactus and spellbinding views, the drive from Phoenix to Jerome, Ariz., seems to melt everyday anxieties.

Make time to stop along the way to photograph the thousands of cactuses, their arms thrown in the air as if in welcome. The 900-year-old masonry walls of the Montezuma Castle National Monument in Camp Verde, Ariz., enclosed the cliff homes of the Sinagua (meaning “without water”) tribe. The 20-room habitat peers precariously out of the side of a soaring limestone cliff.

The drive to Jerome also takes travelers through the colorful red rocks of Sedona. Early mornings and dusk are perhaps the best times here, when the natural world wakes up or falls asleep.

The little surprises also make this drive a pleasure: a tiny fountain built into the side of a casita, an ancient-yet-still-colorful graveyard of antique trucks. Jerome’s Gold King Mine Museum and Ghost Town is the place to find otherworldly spirits before finding the other kinds of spirits and top-notch New Mexican fare at Quince Grill & Cantina.

Info: https://www.visitsedona.com; https://www.azjerome.com

— Kelly Merritt