Drive on winding mountain roads, and see forests, glacial lake, salmon, Bald Eagles, and a 200-foot tall Giant White Pine tree.
This 101-mile, 2-hour drive is only accessible spring through fall, and bends through forested mountains in Idaho’s panhandle, skirting the shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene and over the hills to Potlatch. East of Coeur d’Alene, get off I-90 at the Route 97 Exit and go south. The path hugs Wolf Lodge Bay, an arm of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Here, fall salmon runs draw about 60 Bald Eagles to the Bay daily.
The highway soon makes a switchback as you drive up a cliff to a rest area. There is a platform overlooking Beauty Bay Read more . . .
Anyone who’s journeyed to our westernmost state will tell you that this is a trip that’s not to be missed. The 100-mile, round-trip excursion clocks in at 6 hours, and provides 54 bridges and more than 600 curves sure to please the adventurous driver. The twisting “highway” is well-paved but narrow, so caution is advised.
At Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, you can view first hand the real force that is reshaping the Big Island of Hawaii even nowadays. Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, with steam rising from its massive caldera, and a landscape pocked with craters, cooled lava flows and cinder cones. This eleven-mile, 2-hour drive circles the rim and includes a desert and a beautiful rain forest.
The Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway is a 5-hour or longer drive from Whitewater to Placerville by means of Route 141 and 145. Side trips can add many miles to what is one of the most breathtaking travels anywhere in the Colorado Mountains. This 133-mile drive intersects the Uncompahgre Plateau through the Unaweep Canyon. Start the trip on Route 141 in the town of Whitewater. Enter the Unaweep Canyon and make a very short stop at the Grand Valley Overlook. The view here is spectacular. Next, take a left and follow Divide Road which climbs 2 miles to a cattle guard, where you can view the Great Unconformity, a unique line between Precambrian granite and Triassic sandstone that represents a 2.2 billion-year gap in geological history. 
Colorado’s San Juan Skyway is a one- to two-day trip that circles from Ridgeway through Ouray, Silverton, Durango, Cortez, Dolores, Telluride, and Placerville. The “round” trip begins at Ridgeway State Park, four miles north of Ridgeway. Driving south on U.S. 550 along the Uncompahgre River brings you past a number of hot springs. The Ouray Hot Springs, a municipal pool, is at the north part of Ouray. Continuing on U.S. 550 reveals superb waterfalls which run off the cliffs into Uncompahgre Gorge. At the heap of the gorge lies a breathtaking view of the Red Mountains. At the top of Red Mountain Pass, you begin a 10-mile descent toward the town of Silverton. The pass bottoms out in the Animas River Valley, where a left turn onto Route 110 leads into the old mining town of Silverton.