Devil's Highway AZ

[sandy]

A few years ago, I posted a video of my ride through here. This guy is much better at videos than me. Sadly he missed a backroad that avoided the stretch from Springerville to Show Low.

https://youtu.be/O2M0JbW11gc

[Serk]

Thanks for sharing! I always imagine all of Arizona as nothing but flat boring desert, even though I've crossed the state more than once and know better...

Need to get out that way, still haven't ridden anything west of New Mexico/Colorado...

(Driven, but not ridden.)

[F6Dave]

Arizona has some of the best roads anywhere. 89A from Prescott to Flagstaff is legendary. The stretch from Sedona north through Oak Creek Canyon gets busy but the scenery is worth it.

My favorite is the Beeline Highway from the NE Phoenix area to Payson. It climbs over 3500 feet in 60 miles, starting in a desert full of saguaro cactus and ending in the mountains surrounded by pines. When it was widened to a divided highway years ago there was a 3 mile stretch where the two northbound lanes wouldn't fit on the east side of the existing road. So they built a pair of overpasses and flipped the northbound lanes over to the west side. When I first drove it and realized I was driving on the left side of the road I thought I'd made a wrong turn.

Oak Creek Canyon (89A at bottom)

[F6Dave]

As good as Arizona is, Utah is even better. For one thing, the pavement is smoother. Arizona is rough in places, especially on the reservations. Traffic is light except for the SLC area. They have more national parks (5) than any state except Alaska and California. Moab is a great place to stay, and you're just minutes from Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Arches gets crowded, but Canyonlands is relatively unknown and offers views much like the Grand Canyon.

For some reason I'm always enchanted by Monument Valley. I find an empty place to pull over (Utah has lots of paved parking areas) and just stare for a while.

Canyonlands



Monument Valley