New Mexico
ModerateLonesome Highway — Centennial Road to Pie Town via the Plains of San Agustin and Datil Mesa
Radio telescopes, open sky, and pie at the Divide.
Surface: Dirt
Colorado
DifficultNellie Creek Road to Slumgullion Pass — Hinsdale County High Country via Spring Creek Basin
San Juan shelf roads and a living landslide.
Oregon
ModerateForest Road 45 to Rogue River Gorge — Crater Lake Rim to Union Creek via Prospect Ridge
Old-growth fir and a lava gorge at the bottom.
Colorado
DifficultLonesome Highway — Breaks of the Yampa River to Harpers Corner via Echo Park Road
Steamboat Rock and two rivers at the bottom.
North Dakota
ModerateLonesome Highway — Little Missouri River Badlands to Medora via Burning Coal Vein Road
Badlands clay, wild horses, and a coal seam that won't quit.
USA
DifficultLockhart Basin Road — Canyonlands South Rim to Needles via Colorado River Benchlands
Colorado River shelf road with zero easy exits.
Arizona
DifficultSawmill Road to Superstition Mountains Backdoor — Tonto National Forest Four Peaks Wilderness via Fish Creek Hill
Fish Creek cliff drop — Sonoran Desert at its most vertical.
USA
DifficultLonesome Highway — Centennial Road to Tensleep Canyon via the Bighorn National Forest North Fork and Porcupine Creek Divide
Basin to canyon — Bighorn backcountry at its loneliest.
USA
DifficultCoyote Gulch to Beef Basin — Abajo Mountains Desert Rim via Dark Canyon Plateau
Anasazi ruins, zero crowds, real canyon country.
USA
ModerateSawmill Road to Bald Mountain — Uinta High Uinta Wilderness Subalpine Approach via Mirror Lake
Top of Utah's east-west range.