Scenic drives in the Southwest
6 curated roads, across AZ, NM and UT. Every road here was researched and verified rather than pulled off a listicle, and each is paired with the town worth basing yourself in.
- Catalina Hwy — Sky Island Scenic Byway
- Mirror Lake Scenic Byway (SR-150)
- Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Rd (SR-89A)
- The High Road to Taos (NM-76)
- Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway (SR-128)
- Zion–Mt Carmel Highway (SR-9)
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.