Scenic drives in California & the Sierra
7 curated roads, across CA. Every road here was researched and verified rather than pulled off a listicle, and each is paired with the town worth basing yourself in.
- Emerald Bay Rd (SR-89)
- Generals Highway (CA-198)
- Highway 1 (SR-1) — Bixby Bridge
- Highway 1 — the North Coast (SR-1)
- Palms-to-Pines Scenic Byway (SR-74 / SR-243)
- Palomar 'Highway to the Stars' (S6)
- Tioga Pass Road (CA-120)
The turn-by-turn routes are members-only. Each of these roads has a verified Google Maps route that actually draws the road — the part that took the work, and the part interactive maps usually get wrong. Those live in the full Drives Atlas, which opens with an email. No account, no password.
Driving one of these?
Turn on “Avoid highways” in your maps app first. Otherwise you get rerouted onto the interstate and skip the entire point of the road.