Featuring North America’s Leading Travel Destinations
Great American Roads U.S Route 89, the National Park Highway Lombard, World’s Most Crooked Street The Great River Road in Iowa Road Tripping on Virginia’s Eastern Shore Edmundston, Along the Trans-Canada Highway
Great American Roads
U.S. Route 89 at the border of Arizona and Utah, near Page, Arizona. Photo courtesy Adam Kliczek. adam.kliczek@gmail.com
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U.S. Route 89, The National Park Highway
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The Colorado River at Horseshoe Bend, Arizona, a few miles below Glen Canyon Dam. Photo courtesy Paul Hermans.
magine, traveling a highway that traverses seven Montana, ending at the Canada–U.S. border. Unnumbered roads through Yellowstone connect the national parks and 14 national monuments through 5 two sections. Before 1992, U.S. Highway 89 was a states. That stretches from the Canadian border to the Canada to Mexico, border-to-border, highway that endMexican border. You would think that’s a roadway that most Americans ed at Nogales, Arizona, on its southern end. Often called the National Park Highway, U.S. 89 links would be familiar with. seven national parks across the Mountain West. In addiExcept, U.S. Route 89, while serving as Main Street for many American cities, large and small, is a road that few Americans Salt Lake City Skyline. have heard of. © 2011 Douglas Pulsipher. U.S. Route 89 is a north–south highway featuring two sections, and one former section. For most of its nearly 2,000 miles, it is a two-lane road. You are kept close to the scenery providing ample opportunities to stop and experience the best America has to offer. The southern section begins in Flagstaff, Arizona and runs for 848 miles to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section runs for 404 miles from the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park in 10 • Byways
tion, fourteen other national park areas, mostly national monuments, are also reachable from this backbone of the Rockies.
Arizona
Today, U.S. 89 begins at Flagstaff, Arizona. The highway proceeds north passing near Grand Canyon National Park and through the Navajo Nation. Near the Utah state line, the highway splits into U.S. 89 and U.S. 89A. The Alternate is the original highway; what is now the main highway was constructed in the 1960s to serve the Glen Canyon Dam. The two highways rejoin in Kanab, Utah. The main branch passes over the Colorado River just south of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell near Page, Arizona, and then it enters Utah. Prior to 1992, the southern terminus of U.S. 89 was at Nogales, Arizona, and the highway proceeded to Flagstaff, along what is now I-19. Just north of the Mexican border in Arizona is the Tumacacori National Monument. Saguaro National Park is the first national park, in Tucson. Short links from Highway 89 take motorists to the Casa Grande National Monument and the Hohokam Pima National Monument, before reaching Phoenix. Approaching Flagstaff there are four national monuments, including Tuzigoot National Monument, Walnut
Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell. Photo courtesy Adam Kliczek adam.kliczek@gmail.com
Canyon National Monument, Sunset Crater National Monument, and Wupatki National Monument. North of Flagstaff is the Grand Canyon National Park, the second of the seven national parks along this highway.
Utah
From Kanab U.S. 89 proceeds north passing by Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. It even-
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Sunset at Cape Royal Point, Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim. 12 • Byways
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Bryce Canyon National Park. Photo courtesy Tom Till. ŠUtah Office of Tourism.
tually enters Sevier County, Utah, and the Sanpete Valleys. The highway then passes by Thistle, Utah, a ghost town that was destroyed by a lake resulting from a landslide in 1983. The highway then enters the Wasatch Front where U.S. 89 becomes the main street for many of the largest cities in Utah. In Ogden, the highway is Washington Blvd. From Ogden the highway runs north until it reaches Brigham City, Utah, where it turns east to serve the Cache Valley and Logan, Utah. In Logan, U.S. 89 forms the southern portion of Main Street before splitting off to the east, passing by the campus of Utah State University. The highway next proceeds up Logan Canyon to Bear Lake where the highway exits Utah. Two sections of U.S. 89 in Utah have been designated 14 • Byways
Scenic Byways. The Kanab to Mt. Carmel and Long Valley Scenic Byway is a designated Utah Scenic Byway. Utah is dominated by the Colorado Plateau. Along The Mountain Goat is the official symbol of Glacier National Park. Photo courtesy Dave Grickson.
U.S. 89 are Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Although not readily adjacent to U.S. 89, the Capitol Reef National Park is accessible from U.S. 89. U.S. 89 leaves northern Utah wellnorth of Salt Lake City and Timpanogos Cave National Monument and the Golden Spike National Historic Site.
Idaho
In Idaho, the highway partially circumnavigates Bear Lake which straddles the Utah-Idaho state line. Bear Lake boasts sandy beaches, great water sports, fishing, boating, and the famous Bear Lake State Park. The lake has been called the Caribbean of the Rockies because of its distinctive turquoise waters. In Montpelier, visitors can learn about the great migration west at the National Oregon-California Trail Center.
Soda Springs Geyser. Photo courtesy Visit Idaho.
There are 13 Oregon-California Trail sites identified in the Soda Springs area. Soda Springs is also home to the world’s only captive geyser, timed to spout into the air every hour.
The John Moulton Barn on Mormon Row at the base of the Grand Tetons, Wyoming. Photo courtesy Jon Sullivan.
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The upper end of St. Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island, Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo courtesy Ken Thomas.
Wyoming
National Park. Here, U.S. 89 is the backbone visitor highway for two U.S. National Parks. In Wyoming, U.S. 89 passes through many scenic sites Leaving the Tetons, the road enters a lesser known including Grand Teton National Park, the Jackson Hole park, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, before valley, the Snake River Canyon, and the Star Valley. Passing northward along the western border of ending at the South Entrance of Yellowstone National Wyoming with Idaho, U.S. 89 enters the Grand Teton Park. A park road connects the two sections of U.S. 89 through Yellowstone.
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Snake River Canyon. Photo courtesy Joe Tordiff.
Zion National Park. Photo courtesy ©Utah Office of Tourism.
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Montana
U.S. 89 enters Montana at the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. It traverses the width of the state before approaching Glacier National Park. At St. Mary, Montana, U.S. 89 is the access highway to Glacier Route One, also known as the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The Kings Hill Scenic Byway passes through the Little Belt Mountains in the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana. The route is home to a wide variety of wildlife and provides many recreational opportunities for travelers on the route. The byway is a 71-mile route that begins on U.S. 89 at its junction with U.S. 12. From the junction of the byway, it travels north through the Lewis and Clark National Forest through the communities of Neihart and Monarch. The route offers access to the Showdown Ski Area and Sluice Boxes State Park. The route travels over the Kings Hill Pass which snow removal crews work to keep open throughout the winter season.
Alberta
The northern terminus of U.S. 89 is at the Canada– U.S. border. There, the highway continues into Canada as Alberta Highway 2, a core route in the National Highway System of Canada. From there it proceeds to Calgary and Edmonton, and then on to Northern Alberta.
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United States Naval Academy
Undergraduate College of the U.S. Navy
Guided Walking Tours include the Naval Academy Chapel, Crypt of John Paul Jones, Statue of Tecumseh and the history and traditions of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. HISTORICAL, EDUCATIONAL, JEWISH CHAPEL AND MILITARY REUNION TOURS
Naval Academy Gift Shop, Restrooms, Exhibits, Film U.S. Naval Academy Campus.
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o or Vide
Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center (410) 293-8112 Scheduling (410) 293-3365 (fax) www.usnabsd.com/for-visitors Visitor Center Hours January-February: 9 am - 4 pm March-December 9 am - 5 pm Photo ID required, ages 18 and over
Welcome to Needles, where Historic Route 66 and the Colorado River meet in California.
Best Western Colorado River Inn
Free Hot Breakfast @Juicy’s Famous River Cafe Right Next Door!
2731 W. Broadway (Route 66) (760) 326-4552 Needles, California 92363 www.coloradoriverinn.com
ideo V r k fo Clic
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San Francisco’s Lombard, Worlds Most Crooked Street 20 • Byways
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Lombard Street is paved with red brick. Photo courtesy Érico Andrei.
ombard Street in San Francisco is famous for a downhill and paved with red bricks. The Powell-Hyde cable car stops at the top of the steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. block on Hyde Street nearby. Stretching from The Presidio east to The Embarcadero (with a gap on Telegraph Hill), most of the street’s western segment is a major thoroughfare designated as part of U.S. Route 101. The famous one-block section, claimed as “the most crooked street in the world,” is located along the eastern segment in the Russian Hill neighborhood. Lombard Street is known for the one-way block on Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, with eight sharp turns. The design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and built in 1922, was intended to reduce the hill’s natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles. The crooked block is some 600 feet long, one-way
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