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Planning to travel
along America's growing network of Scenic Byways to your camping
destination will add to the enjoyment of your outdoor vacation. In
addition to taking you off crowded highways, these roads also offer
breathtaking views of mountains, forests, historical sites and great
waterways. For more information write to:
Scenic Byways
The American Recreation Coalition
1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 726
Washington, DC 20004
The National Scenic
Byways Program recognizes outstanding byways that celebrate the pride and
diversity of our communities as well as the stunning landscapes that have
shaped our lives. Let's take a look at roads rated best of the best:
1. Selma to
Montgomery March Byway (Alabama)
A 43-mile historic
trail of the famous 1969 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. march .
2. Route One,
Pacific Coast Highway (California)
This 72-mile route
treks through windswept cypress trees, fog-shrouded cliffs and the
crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean.
3. San Juan Skyway (Colorado)
This 233-mile Skyway
travels through Old West towns and picturesque national parks, all in
the shadow of impressive 14,000-foot peaks.
4. Trail Ridge
Road/Beaver Meadow Road (Colorado)
This 53-mile road
connects the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake as they cross through
the Rocky Mountain National Park.
5. Natchez Trace
Parkway (Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama)
A 425-mile historic
trail that charted new territory and created a vital link between the
Mississippi Territory and the fledgling United States.
6. Blue Ridge
Parkway (North Carolina)
This 252-mile
Parkway provides spectacular mountain and valley vistas, quiet pastoral
scenes, sparkling waterfalls, and colorful flowers and foliage displays.
7. Tioga Road/Big
Oak Flat Road (California)
This 64-mile road
offers the great diversity of flora and fauna as well as craggy
mountains and ruffling meadows crossing the Yosemite National Park
valley and ridges.
8. Grand Mesa
Scenic and Historic Byway (Colorado)
This 55-mile byway
offers visitors a peek at porcupines, mountain lions, coyotes, red fox,
elk and deer as it climbs through the dusty canyon to the cool evergreen
forests of the mesa top, 11,000 feet above sea level.
9. Connecticut
State Route 169 (Connecticut)
This 32-mile,
25-town route traverses one of the last unspoiled areas in the
northeastern United States with rustic farmlands, forests, farmsteads,
open spaces, and historic structures and features.
10. Merritt Parkway
(Connecticut)
This 38-mile
designed corridor brilliantly integrates the craft of the engineer and
the artist while contributing both recreational offerings and aesthetic
beauty.
11. Ohio River
Scenic Route (Indiana)
This 303-mile route
marks a time-worn and history-rich corridor linking historic villages
and farms through a picturesque landscape.
12. Creole Nature
Trail (Louisiana)
This 180-mile
historic route includes four National Wildlife Refuges, salt and
freshwater resources, Civil War and archaeological dig sites, and miles
of natural beaches, marshlands, and prairie lands, yielding an abundance
of wildlife and scenic appeal.
13. Edge of The
Wilderness Scenic Byway (Minnesota)
This 47-mile byway
travels through the vistas of flat lowland meadows, swamps and lakes,
rolling hills of hardwood forests, and remnants of glaciers long gone.
14. Eastshore Drive
(Nevada)
This 29-mile drive
skirts the edges of Lake Tahoe, providing visitors with breathtaking
views of the Lake Tahoe Basin.
15. Pyramid Lake
Scenic Byway (Nevada)
This 37-mile route
is the only byway traveling entirely within a tribal reservation and
through one of the largest desert lakes in the world.
16. Kancamagus
Scenic Byway (New Hampshire)
This 28-mile byway
travels through a "living museum" of trees and plants.
17. Seaway Trail (New
York)
This 454-mile route
tours along the historic and picturesque coast of the eastern Great
Lakes demonstrating a landscape formed by glaciers and shaped by wind
and water.
18. Peter Norbeck
Scenic Byway (South Dakota)
This 69-mile byway
highlights the rugged terrain, massive granite outcroppings, and
diversity of the landscape as it travels through the spectacular Black
Hills and Mount Rushmore.
19. Cherohala
Skyway (Tennessee)
This 23-mile skyway
offers cultural heritage and historic sites of the Cherokee tribe and
early settlers as it travels through the southern Appalachian Mountains.
20. Highland Scenic
Byways (West Virginia)
This 44-mile highway
treks through river valleys and up onto mountain ridges, providing
breathtaking vistas as well as scenic walks through mountain bogs and
cranberry glades in the Monongahela National Forest.
For a detailed
listing of these top Scenic Byways and other treasured roads, call
1-800-4BYWAYS.
The listings
given here are intended to assist in the location of organizations that
provide a special service and not as an endorsement of these firms. No
liability or responsibility is assumed for the services rendered by any
organization that is listed.
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