11 Most Scenic Drives in The Northern United States

No road trip beats a northern summer with the windows down. Up here, a single drive can string together glacier-fed lakes, granite spires, Lake Superior sea cliffs, and tunnels of fall color, sometimes all in an afternoon. The hard part is choosing. These eleven routes run across the whole northern tier, the Cascades, the Rockies, the Great Lakes, and New England, and they are the ones worth clearing a weekend for, whether you have driven them a dozen times or keep meaning to.

North Cascades Highway, Washington

If you have not driven State Route 20 through the North Cascades, move it up the list. The highway cuts across the wildest stretch of Washington, climbing through North Cascades National Park on a road so buried each winter that crews close the high section from roughly November to April. When it reopens, the payoff is immediate.

The signature stop is the Diablo Lake Overlook, where glacial flour turns the reservoir an unreal turquoise against the peaks. Farther east, the Washington Pass Overlook frames the sheer spire of Liberty Bell Mountain, and pullouts along the way reach trailheads, waterfalls, and the old company town of Newhalem. It is a few hours of driving that feels like crossing a continent.

Olympic Peninsula Loop, Washington

The roughly 300-mile loop of US 101 around the Olympic Peninsula packs more ecosystems into one drive than almost anywhere in the country. Circling Olympic National Park, it runs through temperate rainforest, glaciated peaks, and open coast without ever leaving the road for long.

The Hoh Rain Forest, dripping with moss, is the showpiece, but the loop also reaches Hurricane Ridge for mountain views over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the glass-clear water of Lake Crescent, and the sea stacks and driftwood of Ruby Beach. A short walk off the highway leads to Sol Duc Falls. Allow more than a day; there is too much to rush.

Historic Columbia River Highway, Oregon

The Historic Columbia River Highway was the first road in the country built with sightseeing in mind, opened in the 1910s and now a National Historic Landmark. The old US 30 route hugs the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland, a corridor so thick with waterfalls that several drop right beside the pavement.

The Vista House at Crown Point is the classic first stop, a stone rotunda on a bluff 700 feet above the river. Below it, the road threads a run of falls, including Latourell, Bridal Veil, Wahkeena, and 620-foot Multnomah Falls, the tallest in Oregon. Much of the original highway is now a walking and biking path, so you can drive part and walk the rest.

Sawtooth Scenic Byway, Idaho

State Highway 75 runs more than 100 miles up the heart of Idaho as the Sawtooth Scenic Byway, trading the resort polish of Ketchum and Sun Valley for raw mountains as it climbs north. The high point, literally, is Galena Summit, where an overlook opens onto the headwaters of the Salmon River and the jagged Sawtooth Range beyond.

Dropping into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the road reaches Redfish Lake, its clear water backed by granite peaks, and the tiny frontier town of Stanley, where three byways meet under some of the darkest night skies in the Lower 48. It is Idaho at its most Idaho, and most drivers have the pullouts nearly to themselves.

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Montana

Going-to-the-Sun Road is the drive every Montanan measures the others against. The 50-mile route crosses Glacier National Park between West Glacier and St. Mary, carved into cliffsides and over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. Snow keeps the full road closed until roughly July, and it usually shuts again by mid-October.

Logan Pass sits at the top, the trailhead for the Hidden Lake Overlook and often ringed by mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Lower down, Lake McDonald mirrors the peaks, the Trail of the Cedars boardwalks through old growth, and the Wild Goose Island Overlook on St. Mary Lake is the shot everyone stops for. Vehicle reservations are required in peak season, so plan ahead.

Beartooth Highway, Montana and Wyoming

Charles Kuralt famously called the Beartooth Highway the most beautiful drive in America, and 68 miles of switchbacks make the case. US 212 climbs out of Red Lodge, Montana, to nearly 11,000 feet at Beartooth Pass before dropping toward Cooke City and the northeast gate of Yellowstone. Snow closes the road from about mid-October to late May.

Up top, the route runs through open alpine tundra and past glacial lakes like Island Lake and Beartooth Lake, with the Beartooth Basin ski area still working patches of summer snow. Pull off at the Vista Point and Rock Creek overlooks for the full drop-away view into the valleys below. Bring a jacket; it can snow up there in July.

Needles Highway, South Dakota

Part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway in the Black Hills, the Needles Highway is 14 miles of pure engineering mischief. State Highway 87 threads through Custer State Park among the granite "needles" the road is named for, squeezing through tunnels so narrow that drivers fold in their mirrors and wait their turn.

The Needles Eye Tunnel, barely wider than a car, frames a slot of sky and stone that is the drive's signature shot. The route passes Sylvan Lake, one of the prettiest in South Dakota, and connects to Iron Mountain Road, whose "pigtail" bridges and tunnels are aimed to frame Mount Rushmore in the distance. Former Governor Peter Norbeck laid it out on horseback, insisting the road bend to the scenery rather than the other way around.

North Shore Scenic Drive, Minnesota

Highway 61 up the North Shore is the drive Minnesota shows off to everyone else. It runs about 150 miles along Lake Superior between Duluth and the Canadian border, the biggest of the Great Lakes on one side and dense boreal forest climbing the ridges on the other.

The string of state parks is the draw: Gooseberry Falls tumbling over ancient lava flows, Split Rock Lighthouse perched on its 130-foot cliff, the overlook at Palisade Head, and the waterfalls of Tettegouche. The road ends in Grand Marais, a harbor town with a serious arts streak and a bakery locals will argue about. In October the maples turn the whole shore gold.

Tunnel of Trees, Michigan

M-119 north of Harbor Springs is barely two lanes wide, with no center line and often no shoulder, and that is exactly the point. For about 20 miles the "Tunnel of Trees" curls along a bluff above Lake Michigan, the hardwoods arching overhead so completely that the road runs in green shade all summer and a blaze of color each fall.

It is a slow drive by design, winding past old cottages and roadside shrines to the hamlet of Cross Village, where the Legs Inn, a stone-and-driftwood roadhouse built by a Polish immigrant, serves pierogi at the end of the road. Glimpses of the lake flash between the trunks the whole way. This is northern Michigan at its most beautiful.

Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

"The Kanc," a 34.5-mile run of Route 112 through the White Mountain National Forest, is New England's fall-foliage pilgrimage, though it earns the trip in any season. It climbs over the Kancamagus Pass between Lincoln and Conway, with no gas, no lodging, and no billboards the whole way, just forest and the Swift River.

Pull-offs lead to the short walk at Sabbaday Falls, the river gorge at Rocky Gorge, and the Albany Covered Bridge, a classic red span over the Swift. Lower Falls is the summer swimming hole, and the Pemigewasset Overlook delivers the big mountain panorama. Come on a weekday in early October if you can; on peak foliage weekends, half of New Hampshire has the same idea.

Park Loop Road, Acadia National Park, Maine

Acadia's 27-mile Park Loop Road is how most of Maine's only national park reveals itself, a circuit around Mount Desert Island, one-way for much of its length, that links the headline sights with granite coastline in between. It is open spring through fall and worth timing around sunrise.

The road runs past Sand Beach, the boom of Thunder Hole when the surf is right, and the pink-granite cliffs of Otter Point, then loops inland by Jordan Pond, where the lawn teahouse has served popovers for over a century. A spur climbs Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the US Atlantic coast and, for part of the year, the first place in the country to catch the sunrise. Reserve a summit slot in summer; everyone wants it.

Pick a Weekend

The northern tier does not lack for great roads; the trouble is fitting them into one lifetime of weekends. Some demand planning, with timed-entry passes and short open seasons, while others are a spur-of-the-moment Saturday with a full tank. Start with the one closest to home, the drive you have somehow never gotten around to, and go from there. The views have been waiting.