Highway to Heaven: 15 Iconic U.S. Road Trips

atacama desert — Photo by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash

Does the thought of loading down the Mustang, queuing up a playlist, and going your own way thrill you?

If so, you can join the leagues of road trippers who trek across America year after year. Below, we’ve outlined 15 of the best road trips, from transcontinental highways to smaller, stateside journeys.

1. The Loneliest Road

the golden gate bridge — Photo by Alexey Komissarov on Unsplash

If you’re taking a year off and have a mind to see all of America, you may find yourself on the Loneliest Road.

Spanning from Ocean City, Maryland, to San Francisco, California, you can see it all. Granted, you might spend a good deal of time landlocked, but that’s okay! You’ll certainly get a gander of the heartland as you travel through 12 distinct states.

2. The Oregon Trail

oregon, united states — Photo by everett mcintire on Unsplash

Alternatively, if you want to travel along higher lines of latitude and do approximately half the country, you could take the ancient Oregon Trail. This was the road that the pilgrims and pioneers took in creaky-covered wagons in the 1800s, offering a bit of a haunting feel.

If you take it from Wayne City, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon, you can enjoy a nice little stay in Portland to congratulate yourself.

Along the way, you can augment that haunting feeling and make a few of these ghost towns your pit stops. Not only will they make for great photos, they may also make for a few meet and greets from both the living and the dead.

3. The Great Northern

If you want to move even further north, you might consider the Great Northern or US-2. This, too, gives a nod to the pioneers, but this time to the railroad that parallels part of the route.

The trick with this epic road trip is to plan it during milder months because you’re traveling all the way from Seattle, Washington to Bar Harbor, Maine – Acadia National Park. What a way to start and end what could be the greatest adventure of your life.

4. Southern Pacific

san diego, california — Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

If the winter months are the only months on the table, you can still make a full-country trek a little further south. Here, you’ll make your way from Savannah to San Diego – easily, two of the best cities in the country, if not the world.