Right here at HoneyTrek, we completely LOVE highway journeys. In reality, now we have highway tripped by all 50 US States (to not point out numerous Canadian Provinces, Mexican states, and almost 100 international locations). The sensation of cruising down the backroads of America, home windows down, strong tunes on the radio…that’s a vibe!
Under you can find our favourite USA highway journeys. If you wish to dig deeper into any of those places, simply click on the picture or the textual content hyperlink that claims “take me on this highway journey.”
Everybody is aware of the world-class metropolis of San Francisco and the high-tech hub Silicon Valley, however many miss the gems in between. The San Francisco Peninsula is just some miles south of the town, flanked by the Pacific Ocean and the SF Bay, with beautiful mountains operating up the center. Whereas it has a bunch of charming cities, San Mateo County and its many out of doors advocates had the foresight to guard 42% of its land, from seashore coves to redwood groves.
That steadiness of city sophistication and wilderness is what makes this area so particular. We may catch a couple of waves within the morning, comply with it with a Michelin-star lunch, hike in a state park within the afternoon, and absorb an outside live performance at a historic mansion within the night. And in the case of meals, the San Francisco Peninsula takes its farm-to-table delicacies very significantly. They treasure their 50 native farms (many family-run, natural, and regenerative) and profit from the culinary expertise pool at their doorstep.
We are going to admit we’ve been to San Francisco a dozen occasions and brought a number of Pacific Coast Freeway highway journeys, however we didn’t give the peninsula almost sufficient time. There’s a ton packed into this 450-square-mile space, so whether or not you might be planning a metropolis journey or a fast weekend getaway from the Bay Space, you don’t must journey far to have a trip, with each out of doors journey and tradition. Comply with our San Francisco Peninsula highway journey information for one of the best issues to do in San Mateo County, from the bayside to the coastside.
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We lived in New Jersey for 11 years, however after this 7-day highway journey, we realized how a lot we had taken without any consideration. Nicknamed the Backyard State, it boasts quite a few out of doors leisure alternatives, together with 130 miles of seashores, 12 nationwide park websites, and the primary nationwide reserve. It’s the one state within the US the place all of the counties are thought-about metropolitan areas, so you might be by no means shy of fantastic eating, cultural happenings, and issues to do.
And did we point out it’s the Diner Capital of the World? You’re in for some good eats! Too typically, individuals choose New Jersey by what they see from the turnpike…however hop on the backroads, comply with our journey information beneath, and also you’ll see {that a} New Jersey Street Journey is filled with unbelievable and surprising issues to do.
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Do you know that Orlando is America’s most-visited trip vacation spot? Folks, a Florida highway journey has a lot extra going for it than amusement parks! Extra freshwater springs than wherever on this planet, the one and solely Everglades, the oldest European metropolis within the U.S., a melting pot of cultures from across the globe, and seashore climate when a lot of the States is shoveling snow…why wouldn’t we spend our winter right here? We put aside one month to highway journey the Sunshine State, from the southernmost level to the northwestern border, and uncover the locations much more magical than Disney.
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After 3.5 years and 74,000 miles of road-tripping round North America, we’ve reached our Fiftieth State! We began this grand USA highway journey in April 2017, ventured in all places from the Arctic Circle to the Florida Keys, and have lastly made it to the Nice Lakes state of Wisconsin! With Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and 15,000 different lakes scattered round WI, they’re identified for his or her freshwater adventures, however we shortly realized that’s only the start.
They’ve an Worldwide Darkish Sky Park, billion-year-old rock formations, a 1,200-mile mountaineering path, IMBA-ranked mountain biking, and extra fruit and veggie farms than a vegan may dream of. For our Fiftieth-state celebration, we went massive and partnered with Journey Wisconsin for a 1,300-mile, two-week highway journey across the state—in peak fall foliage, no much less! We had an absolute blast and are excited to share our must-see stops for the final word Wisconsin highway journey.
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Tennessee! Not solely is that this state dwelling to The Nice Smoky Mountains, their famed whiskey, and the birthplace of nation music, blues, & rock n’ roll, but it surely’s additionally dwelling to nearly all of Anne’s household! With aunts, uncles, and cousins on one facet of the state and our siblings and nieces on the opposite, this referred to as for a cross-state highway journey! Tennessee has 16 self-guided driving routes connecting 95 counties, plus Tennessee Music Pathways, tracing the state’s music historical past and legends. With loads of inspiration for our route, we zigzagged from Knoxville to Memphis and found so many fantastic off-the-beaten-path locations.
On our 10-day Tennessee highway journey, we have been struck by the amount of historic little cities discovering their mojo. From the previous mining boomtown of Monterey to the school city of Cookeville, locals all talked in regards to the latest inflow of inventive individuals and hip companies turning their sleepy cities round. Tennessee appears to breed and appeal to inventive individuals, and its cities are proud to rejoice them. We stumbled upon so many festivals, artwork workshops, free live shows, and group occasions that endeared us to those locations much more.
See our favourite issues to do throughout the state and begin planning your individual Tennessee highway journey!
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“So, you two are in Chicago and driving to LA…are you gonna take Route 66?” My dad posed this query, and we felt foolish that taking the nation’s most iconic highway journey hadn’t even crossed our minds. We had simply hit our Fiftieth state, and the Essential Avenue of America was a superb homecoming. Zigzagging 2,448 miles throughout eight states, it’s a freeway many people have pushed on–whether or not we’ve identified it or not.
It was decommissioned in 1985 and slowly paved over by main interstates or bypassed totally, placing a lot of its gems off the crushed observe. Although that’s the fantastic thing about the Mom Street, it’s a treasure hunt reserved for these with a way of journey and an appreciation for the previous. Keep the course and also you’ll be rewarded with neon motel indicators, basic automobiles, glass-tank fuel pumps, hole-in-the-wall diners, and the fantastic individuals retaining the spirit of the highway alive.
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The Grand Circle highway journey is like wrapping one of the best of the Southwest’s nationwide park system up in a bow. Historic volcanic mountains, protruding plateaus and buttes, and deeply carved canyons reveal themselves in a rainbow of colours. Civilizations courting again hundreds of years, adopted by the Navajo, Apache, Spanish, Mormons, crystal readers, and adrenaline junkies have created a multicultural combine distinctive to this a part of the world. The Colorado Plateau has the densest focus of nationwide parks within the US and this Grand Circle tour connects one of the best of them.
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Everybody is aware of about iconic US highway journeys…just like the Pacific Coast Freeway or Route 66…however hugging the curves of the Cascade Vary? This Oregon highway journey has simply been considered one of our favourite legs on our 130,000-mile journey across the States. Throughout the Pacific Ring of Fireplace and operating from Northern California to southern British Columbia, this mountain vary is beautiful throughout the board.
Although to deal with it with out crampons or a month of trip time, we’d vote for the Oregon route between Ashland and Terrebonne. Spunky cities, glaciated mountains, excessive desert, craft beer nation, and extra journey than an adrenaline junkie is aware of what to do with, our Oregon Street Journey by this slice of the Cascade Vary has all of it.
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“Please shut the gate behind you; don’t let the cows out,” mentioned the be aware area on our back-country tenting app. We shut it behind us and inched down the dust highway, hoping the heifers would clear a path. “May this actually be the best way?” I mentioned to Mike. We rounded the bend, and a river flowing round a rippled mountain with dashes of crimson and purple appeared, with a wonderfully stage campsite. It was one of many prettiest we’d seen in our first 500 days of our USA highway journeys, and nobody was round. This was the theme of our Idaho highway journey: magnificence below the radar.
For instance, they don’t have any nationwide parks, although whenever you’re going by Patagonia-style mountain ranges with 40 peaks over 10,000 toes or rafting the deepest river gorge in North America, it appears the Nationwide Park Service will need to have made a mistake. And even crazier, this beautiful state is generally identified for its potatoes! One thing needed to give…so we set the report straight with a month-long Idaho highway journey. Listed here are our highlights from 1,500+ miles by the wildly underrated Gem State.
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“I had a dream of RVing Alaska,” mentioned our mechanic and camper namesake, Buddy. With a slew of well being points, work, and grandbabies retaining him near dwelling, this forlorn 72-year-old man instilled an Alaskan wanderlust in us from our first day of RV possession. We needed to do an Alaska highway journey for him and ourselves, we simply didn’t know if this 1985 four-cylinder relic may make the arduous journey. Two summers of road-tripping glided by, and, save for the southernmost ghost city of Hyder, the Final Frontier evaded us.
We’ll admit, it sounded intimidatingly far, rugged, huge, and out of our league, however you by no means know till you attempt. Attempting to present Buddy the Camper one of the best odds, we acquired new tires, a brake job, and a full tune-up…and by July seventh, we have been heading in direction of the Alaska Freeway. Scaling the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and braving the unpaved roads of the Yukon, Buddy took the gradual and regular strategy. However after driving to the bottom of glaciers, boondocking on riverbanks, and blazing the gravel path into the Arctic Circle, Buddy gained the race.
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Everybody needs to go to Glacier Nationwide Park…like 3 million individuals a 12 months. However what many park-goers don’t notice is that the majority of Western Montana was carved by the identical glacial exercise, providing so many different beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, and forests, with a fraction of the vacationers. To assist extra individuals discover the lesser-known gems and hold them pristine, we took our expertise as off-grid RVers with a inexperienced coronary heart and partnered with Glacier Nation Tourism for a Montana highway journey.
Over the course of 12 days, we traveled from the Bitterroot Mountains to the far north of Kootenai County, by three nationwide forests, dynamic Native American territories, charming small cities, the most important freshwater lake within the West, and a ton extra in between. Listed here are a few of our favourite Western Montana highway journey locations and the methods you may go away these locations higher than you discovered them.
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Who’s acquired a buddy who moved to Colorado lately? Nearly everybody…as a result of it’s superior. It’s a state the place mountains erupt from the earth with crimson cliffs, snowy peaks, and sand dunes. Cities are as cosmopolitan as they’re granola, with bankers leaving work early to hit the mountain bike trails and farm-to-table waiters serving to maintain their ski behavior. Coloradans have gotten it found out, between pure magnificence, nice climate, and a wholesome life-style that leaves room for a couple of craft beers.
We’re completely comfortable as nomads, however cities like Denver, Fort Collins, and Steamboat Springs had us wanting up actual property. We drove over 1,200 miles, zigzagging in each route, and the state by no means ceased to amaze. We didn’t imply to be on a Colorado highway journey for 2 months, however take a look at our favourite locations and adventures, and also you’ll see why it was so arduous to go away.
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The California Gold Rush modified the nation perpetually. 300,000 individuals got here from throughout the US and each nook of the world to strike it wealthy. Dozens of cities sprang up in a single day in what was as soon as the backwaters of Mexico, sparsely populated with Native Individuals. Whereas the 1849 Gold Rush had horrible penalties for the indigenous individuals, a truth that may’t be overstated, the Rush is what gave California its basis as probably the most numerous state within the nation, its entrepreneurial spirit, and its love of journey.
To get again to California’s Wild West roots and plenty of of my favourite locations as a Cali child, we took a three-week Gold Nation highway journey! CA Freeway 49 winds by the Sierra Nevadas, connecting dozens of Nineteenth-century Gold Rush cities from Yosemite Nationwide Park to north of Lake Tahoe. So, along with historic websites, this route serves up beautiful mountains, raging rivers, alpine lakes, and wine nation for a visit that’s acquired all of it!
See our information for one of the best issues to do in Gold Nation, California, and prepare for the most effective USA highway journeys!
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Higher Peninsula Street Journey
For over a century in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, it was wilderness vs. trade. Mining, logging, and delivery dominated by the Nineteen Sixties, however the UP has reemerged as the gorgeous place it was meant to be and with battle scars that make it even cooler. The ruins of copper smelters crumble with the rocky shorelines, overgrown railroads seem deep within the forest, and shipwrecks add a way of thriller to its Nice Lakes.
The world’s largest freshwater lake by quantity, Superior whips up some wild wind and waves, carving beautiful cliffs and churning up gem stones. Agates are in all places and florescent sodalite had us looking the seashores till 3am. Going snorkeling, we weren’t searching for fish; the lake has rocks as colourful as coral and even sunken treasure to be discovered. And perhaps what we beloved most in regards to the UP is the individuals’s pleasure for this place.
After we informed our Facebook fans we have been happening an Higher Peninsula highway journey, feedback poured in like we introduced a visit to the moon. Anybody vaguely from the Midwest and past, chimed in with favourite hikes, must-try sandwiches, secret tenting spots, and unforgettable moments…and now we’re simply as proud to share our personal UP tales and suggestions with you.
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Nevada Street Journey: Loneliest Street in America
Don’t let the title “Loneliest Street in America” idiot you. Nevada’s Freeway 50 has been a significant thoroughfare for the reason that Pony Specific related the West. And when mail by horse pale with the daybreak of the telegraph and vehicle, the route blazed a brand new path as the primary transcontinental freeway, from New York to San Francisco. We’ll admit that we thought Route 66 held that declare to fame, however the Lincoln Freeway got here first, and Nevada’s part was a lynchpin to guiding vacationers by the desert and over the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Why is Nevada’s Freeway 50 referred to as “The Loneliest Street in America”? In 1986, Life Journal did a characteristic, damning this 287-mile stretch, saying, “There aren’t any factors of curiosity,” and warned that motorists would want “survival abilities” to make it by this excessive desert. Properly, as seasoned highway trippers who’ve pushed the Alaska Freeway, everything of The Mom Street, and 9 cross-country highway journeys, we knew higher than to let some persnickety editor hold us or Nevada down! We’d taken a chunk out of The Loneliest Street in America on earlier Nevada journeys and have been excited to lastly drive its full size and discover all its wonders with an eight-day highway journey!
Comply with our Route 50 Street Survival Information from Nice Basin Nationwide Park, by eight historic cities to quite a few scorching springs, sacred Native American websites, sand dunes, sagebrush saloons, and so many stops to make The Loneliest Street in America a bucket-list highway journey.
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North Florida Street Journey
We thought we’d do our North Florida Street Journey for perhaps three weeks…it was almost six! And we didn’t lollygag wherever both; we explored 36 completely different areas, and distinctive they have been…from white sand seashores to swamps, springs, islands, savanna, hardwood hammocks, villages, and numerous “capitals” of the world. This can be a little bit of a Florida phenomenon; it’s dwelling to the world capital of…manatees, sponges, shark bites, springs, cigars, horses, lightning–you title it. There are numbers to again up these claims, however you’ve additionally gotta credit score the gusto of Floridians. They’re happy with the wonders they’ve and, as semi-resident explorers of Florida this winter, we really feel that pleasure too.
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SLO CAL Street Journey
We’ve pushed Central California’s jaw-dropping part of the Pacific Coast Freeway a couple of occasions, however by no means gave San Luis Obispo County the credit score it deserves. Midway between LA and San Francisco, it’s the guts of the Central Coast however typically overshadowed by its big-city neighbors and legendary ocean highway. We’ve even hopped out to wildlife watch at their unbelievable elephant seal colony, gawk on the ultra-luxe Hearst Fort, and marvel on the volcanic Morro Rock jutting out of the ocean, however didn’t notice so many gems we’re hiding on this SLO CAL Street Journey.
This California highway journey was going to be completely different. In partnership with the San Luis Obispo County tourism board, we devoted 10 days to find its vibrant little cities, seashore cities, wine nation, farmers markets, mountaineering trails, artwork reveals, and down-to-earth individuals. Confirmed to be one of many happiest and healthiest locations on Earth, the county seat of San Luis Obispo is among the many few cities on this planet to be designated a Nationwide Geographic “Blue Zone.” Why do its individuals dwell longer with fewer well being problems? Take a look at our article “SLO CAL: Better of California’s Central Coast” and see what the great life is product of!
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