Top 10 Spots for an Extended American Road Trip

Some consider a road trip across the United States to be a rite of passage. Quintessential and timeless, coast-to-coast exploration can be found throughout American history, literature, and popular culture. And now that Summer is approaching, what better time to satisfy our hunger for this time-honored tradition?

If you’re planning (or even just considering) a road trip, Realtraveler little haxby’s blog The Grand American Road Trip is a must-read. Her engrossing, vivid prose and lovely photographs will have you renewing your AAA membership in no time! She followed the call of the open road, finding herself careening through the country solo for the past four months. From historic B&Bs to scenic campgrounds, and from reflective solitude to lively saloon conversation with strangers, little haxby has certainly had her share of adventures. As her epic journey winds down, she was generous enough to compile some travel tips for our readers!

Check out her list, The Top Ten Spots for an Extended American Road Trip:

1. Driving Highway 1 (California)

I took off from charming Cambria under perfectly blue skies and forceful coast winds, and drove highway 1. The road curved and climbed and fell. The afternoon was glorious. I stopped for the futile attempt to capture the view every other scenic outlook or so. The Big Sur strip of 1 is somewhere around a hundred miles, and the most famous section, for good reason. North of San Francisco, the road is the stuff of car chases and tragic accidents, overlooking the great blue Pacific, from high cliff to rocky shoreline. The road only suits compact cars with excellent turning radii and brand new brakes. It’s an adventure. Highway 1 is arguably the most scenic drive (and also up for most fun drive) ever built. If you know of a better one, I would love to drive it, because so far, there’s nothing that beats this in my book.

2. Dogfish Head Brewery Tour (Delaware)

The microbreweries of the United States can boast impeccable quality, dedication to small business craftsmanship, and the production of truly distinguished brews. My favorite tour, hands down, was my first. Off a random cul-de-sac in suburban Delaware, I walked into my first brewery. Inside, a guy behind a makeshift bar was pouring Raison D’Etre into Dixie cups. Then he pulled out an ear of dried corn. “This,” he said “is corn. This should not be in beer. If you see your beer has a corn product in it, do not drink.” Meeting the employees (so excited for the new machinery we saw on the tour) and waving at the beer scientists testing the brews behind the glass endure as the best of the tour. There’s nothing grand or architecturally stunning about the building were hand crafted ales are born. It’s the culture, the excitement and hospitality of those invested in the products that make the experience a must when touring the country.

3. Mardi Gras (New Orleans )

Somehow, without prompt or sign, Bourbon Street drew me in. I turned and was not sure that the street in front of me was THE artery of debauchery, or whether they all look like that in the French Quarter. (They do.) That evening my quota of citing pissed parents pushing strollers with toddlers squealing to Bob Marley and Zydeco rhythms, tanked homeless folk, and red-faced grandfathers skyrocketed. The air was full of the scents of liquor, roasting sweet sausage, and funnel cakes. There were politics, and rebirth, fueling this smorgasbord. I wished that I was walking with a native, someone proud to tell me about both the city itself and the progression, the development that these holidays have undergone since Katrina.

The streets were littered, but I was not looking down; I was gaping at the contrast of luxury, the Hilton’s new façade, across directly from a building missing a wall, one corner crumbling, steel skeleton exposed within the stripped brick. Most revelers were pie-eyed from drink or excitement or both. Then the parade began and for hours we cheered and shrieked for beads and prizes. I didn’t feel alone because the ceremony of the parade, the magic of the famous and celebrated spectacle, was unifying, even if the verve that carried the holiday remained something of a mystery to me.

4. Big Bend National Park (Texas)

The park traces the Rio Grande along the Mexican border, covering a huge territory. Surrounded by nothing for hundreds of miles, this is an isolationist’s retreat. Hikes are gorgeous and calm with Western-style switchbacks up the Chisos Mountains, birds and mammals are abundant, the geography takes your breath away. There are craggy peaks, rolling hills, stubby limestone plateaus at the feet of the mountains, loose earthen mounds, and canyons. The geology of this verdant desert staggers the curious tourist- it is beautiful and diverse and powerful. Stay in the Chisos Mountain Basin campground nestled under rocky peaks that are thrusts of orange rock from subterranean plates. And it is quiet, birds in their perches, the drumming staccato of the roadrunner, murmurs of camping bikers and families. The Lost Mine Trail and the Santa Elena Canyon Trail may not wind you, but they offer spectacular views. The latter follows the silty river inside the walls of the canyon, cool and musky in a forest of ferns and cacti. The former takes you up the ridge, where not a single hint of civilization ruins the expansive view.

5. Jemez Pueblo (New Mexico)

In college I read N. Scott Momaday’s The Names: a Memoir, and had since hoped to visit the inspiring lands of the author’s people. The first glimpses of the unique geology of the lands enforced what I had been told about the region: how spiritual it feels. On route 550 bearing north, a number of reservations and their respective pueblos are situated one after another. I saw stretches of land that, for lack of a better description, are undoubtedly worshipful. Had you been born beneath these painted rocks and raw cliffs, hot and red like the womb of the earth, you, too, would have felt closer to some spiritual center.

The attempts of the Jemez and Hemish peoples to protect their lands came at the price of a vast majority of the population, and there is an excellent museum with the local history on the outskirts of the pueblo. This too must be appreciated, and it only adds to the awe suffusing the land. The earth there feels raw, new, and very much alive. I can’t express why the expanse is so engrossing, so moving. Granting an afternoon to respect the many histories here will enrich your trip.

6. Bryce Canyon (Utah)

Curiously, this National Park sits only sixty or seventy miles from Zion National Park, yet enjoys only a fraction of the latter’s visitors. This is an incredible piece of land with well maintained trails. I heard from others we spoke to along the trail that for some who had seen much of the world, this spot still served as most captivating. It is in the land of hoodoos, first introduced in Dixie National Forest. A hoodoo appears like a totem, a rocky finger rising from the dry earth it has shed, sometimes solitary, sometimes in an army; they form what is left behind after erosion. I recommend hiking a figure eight from three popular trails (almost eight miles total)- beginning at the Navajo Loop, a steep downhill into the amphitheater, connect to the Peek-A-Boo loop, which meets up with Queen’s Landing trail for a pleasant and more gradual uphill out, to the Rim trail for a ridge walk back to the car. The entire amphitheater is full of the natural wonder that is bright orange hoodoos. The blue sky, green pines, and orange rock sucking the sunshine in were stunning together. There you can explore a grand garden of nature so singular it feels almost other-worldly.

7. Russian River Valley- Free Wine Tour (Northern California)

Sunday was bright and clear and warm, a perfect day to drive around and taste wines. The roads are curvy and old and often secluded for miles under the mammoth redwoods, and green giants. On the River Road, we began with Korbel. Champagne is just so bubbly and grand, it’s a celebration whether a bottle of Cook’s or Veuve Clicquot! The gardens are superb; they were erupting in color, the new blossoms. The antique roses there have won awards, so you can imagine the experience of tasting free champagne and emerging into spring sunlight bathed in warmth and the scents of new flowers.

Then, turn onto West Side Road and follow the narrow byway, just about every winery along here is free. Porter Creek, Davis Bynum, Hop Kiln, Arista. Porter Creek deserves a special mention because they are crafting organic, biodynamic wines that are as good or better as the wineries that still use Roundup. The employees’ excitement and pride in the wine and mission are palpable inside the intimate tasting room. Hop Kiln sat on a beautiful estate that would have been perfect for a picnic. This was far and away my favorite day in wine country.

8. New Mexico Museums

At the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, a short documentary expels a rumor, that her reputation as highly sexual was inspired by the public reaction to nude photographs of her in her husband’s exhibit, and explains her connection to the state. O’Keefe’s abstractions and landscapes captured the same powerful cliffs and color I wrote about Jemez, above. The museum is a tribute. I was studying a painting entitled something cryptic when a caretaker walked over and told me that she painted it from memory- a storm from the panhandle of Texas. He pointed to her technique of light and layers and energy for how she painted the lightning. Then he walked away.

Also in town is the Museum of International Folk Art. The Girard Wing houses a collection of folk craftsmanship that I bet could rival any other, at least in diversity and creativity. The wing was set in a spiraling, free form fashion that allowed the visitor to peruse without loss. Due to the global scope, by culture the chronology was apparent, but the designers did not organize the room with that in mind. The obvious variations in figurines around the world within a particular time frame, was fascinating. The resources available to a culture determined the figurine, and so whether it was cloth and painted, or carved from dense wood, or clay, or rough wool, aided recognition of the geographical origin before any religious symbols or specific imagery hinted at a culture.

The reason I wanted to highlight museums here, rather than more famous and respected museums in big cities is the dedication of the museum keepers. These men (who were dressed as guards) worked at the museums because it allowed them to study art and help people with it. At every museum I went to I met and got to know at least one guy who worked there. This was not a trend that followed me to other cities, which was disappointing.

9. Along the Umpqua River (Oregon)

When 101 winds back toward the shore in Northern California, the territory is Oregonian. The cliffs have softened to rolling along a rocky beach. Rivers often lead inland from the Pacific, leaving dense trails of green along the beds. I turned east at the Umpqua River onto route 38. To call the sixty-odd mile drive to route 5 (in the throes of April’s wet warmth) picturesque, would be the understatement of this road trip. The perfection of the river valley- from homely cottages to blossoming apple trees offering shade and ornamental borders between lush horse pastures and wildflower beds lining the river was almost too much to keep my foot on the gas. Hills climbed opposite the river, which dug an older path than the farms. Covering everything was vegetation of the bright, healthy green that makes you breathe deeply to absorb the richness of the land that surrounds you and spoils your lungs, nose, and eyes. It made for an exquisite afternoon and a new love for Oregon.

10. New York City

I was seriously considering writing about the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway Drive, or raving about the vast wilderness of Yellowstone, until I looked at my other nine and realized that nature might be overrepresented.

New York City is my favorite city. It was not always so, it required the patience and excitement of locals I’ve visited for me to enjoy the hustle, the crowd, the traffic, and to find what makes all that worthwhile. Of course, after a period, those three elements only add to the splendid experience of the Big Apple. So here are some highlights: figuring out the subway and riding it with an ipod or a book and pretending you’re alone, just like all the rest of the riders; shopping in Soho and eating the best food in the world in a hole in the wall; the museums; Central Park picnics; getting to choose between off and on Broadway theater; the ultimate Karaoke experience; Sunday brunch. Once you can walk at a healthy clip and understand the subway, it feels smaller, and accessible. It’s a city where you can choose anywhere from budget (the seriously budget hostels are still around $50 a night) and live off bagels and free subway concerts, to extravagance ($500 per person sushi restaurant is on my “after lottery win” list) and always spend as much time as you want quite contentedly.

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Fuel up for an American road trip of your own with these useful links:

United States Travel Guide
Other USA Road Trip Blogs
American Automobile Association
United States Travel Map

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