Category
Arizona was built for road trips. Every drive in this category has been done with notes in the passenger seat: where to stop, where the light is best, where the gas stations actually exist, and which sections you can safely shortcut.
The Mogollon Rim is the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau — a 200-mile cliff that splits Arizona in half. Driving the top of it is one of the great Western road trips, and it's 90 minutes from Phoenix.
Yes, Arizona has wine country — and it's good. The Verde Valley grows grapes at 3,500 feet between Sedona's red rocks and the Black Hills. Here's how to do the trail in one day.
The Verde Canyon Railroad runs a 4-hour round trip through a canyon you can't access any other way. Most tourist trains are a gimmick. This one is genuinely one of the best in the country.
Meteor Crater is 50,000 years old, three-quarters of a mile wide, and so well-preserved that NASA trained Apollo astronauts here. It's also a privately operated tourist site with a $25 ticket. Here's the honest take on whether it's worth it.
Locals call it the Mini Grand Canyon. The Salt River Canyon crossing on US-60 between Globe and Show Low is 2,000 vertical feet of switchbacks and red-rock drama almost nobody plans for. Build in an hour and it becomes the best part of the trip.
US-191 between Clifton and Alpine has 460 curves in 123 miles and almost no traffic. Locals call it the Devil's Highway. It's one of the most underrated drives in the American West.
Monument Valley is far from everywhere — and that's the entire point. Here's how to plan a one-day visit so the drive in feels like the start of the trip, not a tax you pay to see the mittens.
Williams was the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40, and it's the one that kept the road's character most intact. Here's what to actually do there.
Oak Creek Canyon is the 14-mile drive between Sedona and Flagstaff that gets called 'Arizona's other Grand Canyon.' It's a different scale of wonder — narrower, greener, and twistier — and arguably the single most scenic stretch of asphalt in the state.
Once a stagecoach route, now one of Arizona's most spectacular drives — the Apache Trail (AZ-88) winds past three lakes and through deep Superstition Mountain country. Here's how to drive it well.
27 miles. Five ecosystems. One pie shop. The Mount Lemmon Scenic Byway near Tucson is the most underrated short drive in Arizona.
Arizona has more federally designated scenic byways than almost any other state. After years of driving them, here are the ten that consistently deliver — with routes, must-stops, and seasonal notes.
