Great American Road Trips Scenic Drives

 Readers Digest  2020

191 pages     Travel

I returned recently from a trip to my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, where my grandchildren and I had ventured up the North Shore Scenic Drive, one of the scenic drives featured in Reader’s Digest’s lovely Great American Road Trips Scenic Drives. Imagine my pleasure when I returned home to find a copy of the book waiting for me, sent by the publicist. 

Beautiful photographs lure the reader into marvelous vistas and not-to-be-missed sites. I immediately searched out the section on the North Shore Scenic Drive that we had just visited. We had been on Highway 61 on a dramatically beautiful day, eaten at Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors, jetted down the alpine slide in Lutsen, saw the Split Rock Lighthouse on the horizon, and let Gooseberry Falls wash over us. It had been a glorious day, so it was fun to read the narrator’s take on the drive that I knew so well. What is not told is the magnificence of the city of Duluth, which on the three nice days of the year is the most beautiful city in America.  

I then went to the Table of Contents and checked off all of the scenic roads I had traveled, and it was a nostalgic pleasure to read about all the wonderful places I had been—17 I think. I especially enjoyed remembering the Heart of the Palouse outside of Spokane, which a friend drove us on. (We had not known a thing about the Palouse before our ride.) I also loved our visit to Door County, Wisconsin, and Monument Valley in Arizona and Utah.

Several years ago, my sister gave us the book, The Most Scenic Drives in America, a detailed look at 120 drives all over the United States. It was published in 1997 by Reader’s Digest. The current book, Great American Road Trips Scenic Drives, is more compact and easier to handle than the older version. The book gave me renewed interest in taking a scenic autumn trip to the Central Adirondack Trail in New York this year.

Read this book and get inspired! Happy trails to you!