The 7 Best Scenic Drives in Arizona
Grab some road snacks. Make that perfect highway mix of songs that go well with long, empty views. Then hit the road for some of the most scenic landscapes in the country.
The Desert
Open spaces and strange scenery abound on these routes through the hot rocky deserts of western Arizona.
- Historic Route 66: Drive the remains of the Mother Road on the dry northwestern plains, where you can jump back to a slower time, passing through Kingman, stopping at the Historic Route 66 Museum, and spending some time in Seligman, the center of a Route 66 cultural rebirth.
- Joshua Tree Forest Parkway: Take US 60 northwest from Phoenix through Wickenburg and keep going when it turns to US 93, known for its stands of Joshua trees.
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The Forest
You’ll be driving uphill on these scenic drives; watch as the vegetation changes from desert to a transitional bushy scrub to highland evergreen forests, all while you sit comfortably behind the wheel.
- The Apache Trail: This drive takes you past Indigenous ruins and old mining towns, and the forest comes on quickly as you leave the central scrublands and rise along a twisty highway—make sure to stop for a photo op at majestic Salt River Canyon.
- AZ 89A from Prescott to Jerome: Take AZ 89A up over forested Mingus Mountain, stopping to enjoy a sweeping view of the Verde River Valley below when you reach the pass at the top of the hill. A little farther on you’re in the old copper-mining town of Jerome, now home to boutiques and restaurants.
- Swift Trail Parkway: Negotiate a twisting forest road from the desert Gila Valley to near the top of Mount Graham at over 9,000 feet, the highest of Southern Arizona’s sky islands—it’s the equivalent of driving from Mexico to Canada in an hour.
The Plateau
The vast and sparsely populated Colorado Plateau has many lonely scenic roads. On some the traffic is so thin that you could take a nap on the center stripe.
- Vermilion Cliffs Highway: Perhaps the loneliest of Arizona’s lonely routes, this scenic road snakes across the Arizona Strip in northwestern Arizona, just south of the border with Utah, and passes towering red-rock cliffs and vast bunchgrass plains.
- Valley Drive: This loop road in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park on the Navajo Reservation, with its strangely eroded sandstone spires, buttes, and mesas rising from the sweeping red-dirt plains, is an essential Southwest drive. An added bonus is the short drive—which is almost as scenic—to the valley from Kayenta.
Vast open spaces, dreamy canyons, and colorful culture: experience it all with Moon Arizona & the Grand Canyon.
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