USA
ModerateLonesome Highway — Gros Ventre Slide to Turquoise Lake via Red Hills Road and Atherton Creek
Landslide scars, moose meadows, and no pavement.
Surface: Dirt
Montana
DifficultLonesome Highway — Beartooth Plateau North Slope to Clarks Fork Canyon via Line Creek Road
Off the Beartooth and into the deep canyon country.
New Mexico
ModerateLonesome Highway — Jemez Mountains High Road to Valles Caldera via Forest Road 376
Supervolcano rim road, elk, obsidian, solitude.
USA
ExpertMaze District Road — Hans Flat Ranger Station to Flint Trail via the Canyonlands Backcountry
The Maze: no margin, no crowds, no forgiveness.
California
ModerateGenesee Road to Shuteye Peak — Sierra Nevada Foothills Mining Spine via Bass Lake
Sierra summit, zero crowds, hundred-mile views.
USA
ModerateZion Plateau Road to Kolob Terrace — Red Butte and Lava Point Overland Circuit
Zion's back door, no shuttle required.
Oregon
ModerateCoyote Hills to Warm Springs Summit — Ochoco National Forest High Divide via Antelope Flat (Oregon)
High ponderosa divide above Oregon's fossil country.
Oregon
ModerateGrave Creek Road to Rogue River Ranch — Wild Rogue Wilderness Canyon Rim via Marial (Oregon)
Oregon's wildest river canyon by dirt road.
California
DifficultMojave Road — Afton Canyon to Kelso Depot via Soda Mountains and Government Holes
Oldest road across the Mojave Desert.
USA
ModerateLonesome Highway — Sunlight Basin Road to Dead Indian Summit via Clarks Fork Absaroka
Wyoming's deepest canyon on a forgotten back road.