The most scenic drives in America include this California highway
The sun’s out, rain is in the rear view and it’s road-trip season in America.
But where to head? There are several fabulous options — including a biggie in California — if driving is meant to be half the fun.
After soliciting travel experts and its readership, USA Today has put out a ranking for its annual Readers’ Choice Awards of Best Scenic Drives for 2025. These include at 10th place Montana’s Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park, which the paper deems an “architectural marvel” with grizzly bear and bighorn-sheep sightings. And at first place is the Great River Road that follows the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles — a modern way of living like Huckleberry Finn.
Sixth place? That’d be California’s lovely Pacific Coast Highway, stretching along mist-shrouded cliffs and mysterious redwood forests from San Francisco to San Diego. Here are the other scenic drives that USA Today’s readers loved:
Best Scenic Drives (USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards)
In North Carolina, the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway is shown off in spectacular fashion each autumn.
(jaredkay/iStockphoto/Getty Images)
4 Schoodic National Scenic Byway, Maine
5 U.S. Route 66, Los Angeles to Chicago
6 Pacific Coast Highway, California
7 Minnesota North Shore Scenic Drive, Minnesota
8 Door County Coastal Byway, Lake Michigan and northern Wisconsin
9 Midland Trail National Scenic Byway, West Virginia
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