The American Southwest rewards people who take the long way. Across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Nevada, the highways themselves — not just the parks at the end of them — are the attraction. One writer who drove from the Los Angeles coast all the way to Texas's Big Bend recently ranked the region's ten best scenic drives, and the list doubles as a ready-made itinerary.
Colorado claims two of the strongest entries. The 116-mile Colorado stretch of the Trail of the Ancients (part of a 480-mile byway crossing three states) links Mesa Verde National Park's Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings with the stone towers of Hovenweep and the thousands of archaeological sites inside Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Then there's the 83-mile Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway, which threads between Aspen, Twin Lakes, Leadville and Minturn under the state's tallest peaks, crossing the Continental Divide over Independence, Tennessee and Fremont passes.
Arizona's picks cover the classics. State Route 179 — just eight miles long, but an All-American Road — runs from the Village of Oak Creek through Sedona, past Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Cathedral Rock and the Chapel of the Holy Cross. The 42-mile Kaibab Plateau North Rim Parkway climbs through forest and meadow to the Grand Canyon's quieter, higher North Rim. And a 152-mile section of historic Route 66 between Lupton and Topock delivers vintage motels, neon and diners, with stops in Seligman (self-styled birthplace of the road) and Kingman's Route 66 Museum.
Utah contributes three routes out of Moab and beyond. The 22.5-mile Dead Horse Mesa Scenic Byway heads to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands, with a detour to the dinosaur park Moab Giants. The 54-mile Zion Scenic Byway on SR-9 ends with a mile-long mountain tunnel and Checkerboard Mesa. The 37-mile Nebo Loop in the Wasatch Range tops out below 11,928-foot Mount Nebo, with a stop at the red-rock Devils Kitchen site.
New Mexico rounds out the list with the 52-mile Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe — former mining towns Los Cerrillos and Madrid are now full of galleries and cafés — and the 163-mile Jemez Mountain Trail, which passes Bandelier National Monument, Battleship Rock, Soda Dam and Valles Caldera's vast volcanic basin.
Timing matters here. Desert stretches of Arizona, Nevada and southern Utah can push past 100°F in summer with little shade or cell-service comfort, so spring and fall are the sweet spots — and remember that climbing a few thousand feet can flip the weather entirely.
For anyone plotting a first Southwest road trip, this list is a genuine shortcut: pick two or three of these byways, connect them with Route 66 or Interstate corridors, and you get parks, archaeology, small towns and diner food without ever driving a boring mile. It suits road-trippers with a week or more, photographers chasing golden-hour light on sandstone, and anyone who thinks the drive should count as the holiday.
