It's a given that a road trip is the most fun, exciting and cost-efficient way to see the grand ol' USA.
But if you're an active road tripper, you've probably already cruised the more iconic routes around the country. You've gotten your kicks on Route 66, patrolled the Pacific Coast Highway and meandered along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
You just might be ready for a spin along some roads less traveled. If that's the case, here are five of my favorite under-the-radar routes to add to your road-tripping bucket list.
1. Dalton Highway, Alaska
The Dalton is the most isolated road in the U.S. and includes a 240-mile span whose lack of fuel stations or settlements of any kind make it the longest stretch of unserviced road in North America.
Let's start with a wild and woolly drive that I'm fairly certain nobody you know has ever undertaken. You shouldn't either — without a rugged four-wheel drive vehicle and a real sense of adventure.
The 414-mile route extends from just north of Fairbanks to Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil terminals. Sometimes called the North Slope Haul Road, it was built in 1974 as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
The Dalton, which parallels the pipeline, is the most isolated road in the U.S. and includes a 240-mile span whose lack of fuel stations, settlements of any kind — and even radio signals — make it the longest stretch of unserviced road in North America. There are only three towns along the route, with a combined population of less than 60.
The payoff: plenty of solitude, mind-boggling scenery and wildlife galore, including grizzlies and large herds of caribou.
2. Gaspé Peninsula Tour, Quebec, Canada
Bonaventure Island National Park is a rocky islet that is home to some 223 species of avian wildlife, including North America's largest colony of Northern Gannets.
My all-time favorite road trip in North America circumnavigates Quebec's spectacular Gaspé Peninsula with its quaint fishing villages, rich colonial history, superb scenery, abundant wildlife and luscious lobster. Two-lane Route 132 runs some 640 miles along the perimeter of the peninsula, linking one bucolic village and brightly painted lighthouse to the next.
French is the "lingua franca," and the towns and villages are reminiscent of old France, but the peninsula's character is far more complex, with traces of Basque, Portuguese, English, Scottish and Irish settlers — most of whom came here for the lucrative fishing. Whale watching tours and kayaking trips are available all along the coast, while moose, caribou and black bears roam the forested interior and reserves such as Forillon National Park.
The tip of the peninsula is particularly dramatic with craggy sea cliffs and a striking, rock-strewn coastline. Here, one of Canada's best known landmarks — Rocher Percé or Pierced Rock — is a massive chunk of limestone jutting from the sea and pointing the way to Bonaventure Island National Park, a rocky islet that is home to some 223 species of avian wildlife, including North America's largest colony of Northern Gannets. Excursion boats take you to the park where sharing the island with 120,000 flapping, squawking gannets is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
One of the main attractions along Gaspè's southern shore is Parc National de Miguasha in Nouvelle. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site with a paleontology museum displaying fossils discovered in the surrounding cliffs.
3. Boston to Rockport, Massachusetts
Rockport's "Motif #1," an aging red fishing shack on Bradley Wharf, surely has been painted or photographed more than any place on the Massachusetts Coast.
Nearly everyone enjoys a coastal drive, and this takes you from busy Boston north along MA-1A toward Salem, home to the infamous witch hunts but a quaint and lovely town nonetheless. A visit to the Peabody Essex Museum here is a must. Funded in 1799, it's one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the U.S., and its extensive art holdings include one of the country's major collections of Asian art.
Marblehead is next, a charming maritime village founded in 1629 that has deep roots in fishing and yachting, and was the birthplace of the American Navy. Driving north on I-127 leads to Gloucester, a fishing town famous as the setting for the book and movie "The Perfect Storm" about the doomed fishing vessel Andrea Gale. Gloucester also lays claim to being the nation's oldest working fishing port.
Rockport, once home to a major fishing fleet and a huge granite quarry, has morphed into something of an artist colony, notable for its numerous galleries and its "Motif #1," an aging red fishing shack on Bradley Wharf that surely has been painted or photographed more than any place on the Mass Coast. Be sure to check out Halibut Point State Park, once the site of the big Babson Farm granite quarry.
4. Gulf Coast, Alabama-Mississippi
Mobile is home to the USS Alabama, which was commissioned in 1942 and served in World War II in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.
Perhaps it is the invitingly slow pace of life or the Southern hospitality — or maybe it's the shrimp, shrimp, shrimp — that make this hundred-mile drive along Highway 90 from Mobile, Alabama, to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, such a pleasant experience.
Mobile is home to the nation's oldest Mardi Gras celebration and packs plenty of visitor appear with its lovely antebellum neighborhoods and numerous attractions such as the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile Carnival Museum, Gulf Coast Exploreum and the new GulfQuest National Maritime Museum.
Naturalists will want to make a stop in Ocean Springs to visit Gulf Islands National Seashore, and, at nearby Moss Point, Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a favorite with birders and photographers, who are drawn to this pristine pine savanna to witness the millions of birds that migrate through it.
Pass Christian merits a pause to admire the gorgeous old mansions lining the water along Scenic Drive. Next, Biloxi offers some unusual attractions, including the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum where you'll find some interesting exhibits on shrimping and oystering; and Beauvoir, the elegant one-time home of Jefferson Davis, last President of the Confederate States of America.
Our final stop, the historic hamlet of Bay St. Louis, was named one of America's best beach towns by Coastal Living magazine. Its oak-shaded Victorian Old Town district is lined with antique shops — but across town, the gleaming Infinity Science Center, NASA's newest visitor center, features state-of-the-art exhibits heralding mankind's ongoing conquest of space.
5. Big Bend Loop, Texas
Big Bend National Park is a sprawling 801,000-acre preserve of stark desert and jagged mountains bounded by deep canyons carved by the Rio Grande River.
At the heart of this Texas-size drive lies one of America's great wild areas: Big Bend National Park, a sprawling 801,000-acre preserve of stark desert and jagged mountains bounded by deep canyons carved by the Rio Grande River.
Begin this loop tour by exiting Interstate 20 on Highway 18 just west of the oil towns of Midland and Odessa and continuing south to Fort Stockton. Take a break here to visit the reconstructed 1858 frontier outpost and to prepare for a long, lonely 100-mile drive to Big Bend.
Stop by the Panther Junction Visitor Center to acquaint yourself with the park. A short nature trail here will introduce you to many of the plants of this Chihuahuan Desert environment. You'll want to head up into the Chisos Mountains to the Basin, where there's a lodge, restaurant, campground and trailheads for hikes of varying distance and difficulty.
Big Bend’s most wondrous site, Santa Elena Canyon, lies in the park's southwest corner. Here, the Rio Grande has sliced through hundreds of feet of rock to sculpt chasms with sheer cliffs that tower above the narrow ribbon of water at their base. A short trail leads into the canyon, and there are several outfitters who offer rafting trips through Santa Elena and other canyons in the park.
Exiting Big Bend on Route 170, the 50-mile drive from Lajitas to Presidio, following the twisting Rio Grande, constitutes one of most scenic routes in all of Texas. Returning to Interstate 20 on Highway 67/17, take time to visit Fort Davis National Historic Site, the best preserved of the region's 19th-century army posts — and refresh yourself with a swim in the big pool at San Solomon Springs in Balmorhea State Park.
