When you remember your best bike rides, you don’t remember the logistics of getting to the start, scheduling the ride, or juggling your workload to make the time. You remember the smells, the sights, the roads — the perfect moments you wish would never end. We checked with tour guides and cycling vets for this list of the 25 greatest roads for two skinny wheels.
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Ride through the Mad River Valley to Warren, just north of Green Mountain National Forest, and tackle two of the state’s most famous gaps — the climb over Middlebury and Lincoln — and with a thrilling descent on the “steepest paved mile” in America, says Liz Einbinder, a marketer with Backroads bike tours. Route 100 sports well-maintained two-lane blacktop lined with trees, and the terrain it traverses is aggressively undulating, with downhill rewards that match the effort you’ll put in on the climbs — a very Vermont ethos.
The 469-mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway was designed in the 1930s for car cruising. In fact, it was conceived as a sort of natural museum. But it makes a perfect road for cyclists, too. Start at the southern end in the Great Smokey Mountains for a thrilling 6-mile descent, says Liz Einbinder of Backroads. After that you’ll climb and descend rolling blacktop, alternating vistas of Asheville with tunnels of trees, says Einbinder. As the name implies, the road follows the ridgeline, and there are few flat sections. It’s a much-driven road which cars take at a slow tourist speed, and it’s carefully maintained. You can ride the length of it, or do an out-and-back — either way, carry what you need. Not many developed areas straddle the parkway.
You may recognize Greenville, South Carolina, as the home of former pro cyclist George Hincapie. That’s a clue: The roads in the area are long, low-traffic, and a joy to ride. Liz Einbinder of Backroads says, “the joy of this ride is the quiet and peace you find climbing 10 miles of the backcountry roads of the Greenville Watershed before descending to Summit Lake and the chance to circumnavigate the water on a well-traveled packed dirt road entering the mountain town of Saluda.” The quiet roads, although they climb frequently, are pitched just right for easy pedaling. And although few would call the surrounding area congested, the watershed itself has a quiet peacefulness that enhances the dense woods — and coming into Saluda feels like entry into a new world.
First: Crater Lake was not made by a meteor; it’s the result of the eruption and subsequent collapse of Mount Mazama almost 8,000 years ago. It left behind steep rock walls and a deep lake — the deepest in North America — renowned for its intense blue color. The rim rises as much as 2,000 feet above the water. The road around the lake is about 30 mile long, and offers rolling terrain with about 4,500 feet of climbing and scenery spectacular enough to slow you down, says Todd Starnes, owner of tour company Bicycle Adventures. Most riders take a clockwise direction around the lake, but the counterclockwise route is just as beautiful.
Starns calls the road “just majestic.” Although it’s a long climb (a “few hours”), it’s manageable; you’ll have views of mountains and glaciers and maybe glimpse bears and mountain goats. Starting at the Apgar visitor center, you head up, gaining 3,300 feet in the 32 miles to Logan Pass, most of it in the last 10 miles. As steep as that might sound, Starns says the grade is gentle enough that you won’t suffer much on the way up. The road is basically a ledge carved into the side of the mountain, so you get spectacle views of the glaciers, valleys and mountains. And of course, the reward of heading back down.
You might not think of South Dakota as a great place to ride your bicycle, but Needles Highway will change your mind. The “needles” are granite spires; several have tunnels carved into them. The smooth road is elevated, and you’re high enough to see the Black Hills area, sacred to Native Americans. For better viewing, the road includes “pigtail bridges,” or elevated stretches that twist the road over itself allowing for great views of Mt. Rushmore in the distance. You finish at pretty Sylvan Lake, surrounded by pine and spruce.
Route 1806 parallels the Missouri River, roughly following the path of explorers and cartographers Lewis and Clark. And, says Bicycle Adventures guide Matt Paul, it feels like you’re right there with Lewis and Clark. He claims you can see forever. And although you might glimpse cattle, elk, and pronghorn, you won’t see houses or many cars, you can ride for 50 miles and not encounter a car, Paul says. The terrain is rolling (Paul compares it to a roller coaster), with perfect blacktop and wide-open vistas that let you see the river and the grassy prairie. It’s a road you hesitate to tell people about, but it’s almost too good to share.
The total length of the byway is 208 miles, looping around the Wallowa Mountains. Bicycle Adventures guide Matt Paul favors the stretch from Joseph to Halfway. Picture smooth asphalt, no potholes, rumble strips, or even lane stripes, just blemish-free blacktop. Trees crowd up to the road’s edges, forming a tunnel of quiet green that occasionally opens to long vistas, and once, gives you a glimpse into the deepest gorge in North America, Hells Canyon, near the Snake River. As you climb and descend — each descent better than the last — the trees give way to open exposure and even longer, more luscious views.
The route to the Grand Escalante, or Grand Staircase, is beyond the popular Bryce and Zion parks, which siphon away tourists and cars, leaving the narrow roads across south Utah to the intrepid. The name Staircase indicates a transition from the canyon to the plateau — you are basically stepping up to the high elevation of the plateau. Climbing to the plateau, the narrow road is perched higher than the landscape, so you’re literally above it all and can see far across the backcountry into a landscape of rock. Mark Thompsen of Trek Travel notes the undulating roads and the stunning red rocks everywhere, “truly a memorable landscape.”
Although this route is just 10 miles long, it's closed to commercial traffic and takes you among old-growth giant redwoods, some of the tallest in the world. In fact, you’ll ride right up to Big Tree, a 1,500-year-old, 300-foot-tall redwood with a 21-foot diameter. As Todd Starnes says, you’ll feel your place in the world as the trees tower over you. Also look out for herds of elk that roam the park.
Very close to the Canadian border, Lake Koocanusa was formed when the Libby Dam was built in 1972 in partnership between the U.S. and Canada. The lake extends 90 miles into Canada, and is lined by two roads, a main road that heads to the east and a secondary one to the west. Todd Starnes says to go west. It’s a small, winding road shunned by motorists who prefer the faster route to the east. You can follow it as far as you like and enjoy no traffic, rolling hills, great viewpoints, and picnic spots. Starnes bets his tour groups that if they see more than 10 cars during the day, he’ll buy the beer that night — and he rarely has to pull out his wallet.
On the outskirts of Yellowstone, in a desolate part of Wyoming near the town of Cody, you’ll find the Beartooth Wilderness. It's a million-acre expanse of forest and tundra, with 20 peaks reaching more than 12,000 feet in elevation. It’s also a great place to ride your bike, with challenging climbs and beautiful views of high alpine plateaus dotted with countless glacial lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls, and wildlife. The road takes you through mountain passes with climbs that can be challenging. From Cody, you head up to the west and south, then descend to the east and south — it’s the only road there, so you can only get lost in the moment.
If you get a chance to ride this road, says Todd Starnes, take it, especially in the early morning. (In fact, three sources told us that this was the perfect road.) You’re on a cliff perched above the crashing waves of the Pacific with views of the jagged coastline that appears to go on forever. You can start at either end and if you’d like more mileage and a taste of how the 1 percent lives, follow 17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach golf course and mansions to circle the point near Monterrey. Even though many cyclists in the area will tell you this ride is the local cliché, it’s still spectacular.
You’ve heard of an out-and-back loop, but this one is more like an up-and-back course. You’re at about 7,000 feet, so altitude is a factor as you ride through the Rockies to the Grand Mesa, a table-top geological formation that, Brad Barnard of Bicycle Adventures says, doesn’t look steep until you get to it — and then it looks ominous. The roads are smooth and low-traffic, and you’re traveling through pines, so it smells great, says Brad, “all you see is mountains.” Although if you look around, you might also see deer or raptors circling overhead, he says. The grade is mostly about 5 or 6 percent, although at points it hits 10 percent. “It’s the iconic Colorado road,” says Barnard.
This is a relatively unknown region in southeastern Massachusetts, but the biking is amazing. This road has almost no traffic, and it’s flat and predominately straight so you can really hammer if you want, says Jeanne Rummel of Great Freedom Adventures. The scenery is stunningly New England green farm fields, gray stone walls, brown thoroughbred horses, white sand beaches, and blue ocean, sometimes all seen in the same frame. The adjacent roads, including those continuing into Rhode Island to the west, are equally beautiful. You can start at Horseneck Beach State Reservation and head to Horseneck Road, so you’re moving from the beach near Buzzards Bay to farmland with cows, barns, fields — and on a clear day, you might see Martha’s Vineyard.
Not many people associate Rhode Island and great cycling roads, but Jeanne Rummel, owner of Great Freedom Adventures, lists Ocean Avenue in Newport as one of her favorite roads, thanks to “stunning ocean vistas on one side and Gilded Age mansions on the other.” The combination of wide, graciously landscaped lawns of mansions built by industrial tycoons the likes of the Vanderbilts and Astors, and the waves lapping the shore and boats sailing the harbor takes you back to a different time. Ocean Avenue, fairly flat with a wide shoulder, takes you around the Aquidneck Island from the Castle Hill on Ragged Point past Brenton Point State Park to Gooseberry Beach, with its sandy shores, to the Ocean Drive Historic District.
The Hudson Valley, north of New York City and close to the western border of Massachusetts, is, says Jeanne Rummel of Great Freedom Adventures, a “relatively undiscovered part of the state with world-class cycling routes. Shaker Museum Road has almost no traffic. It's flat with some rolling hills and it’s a straight shot with few tight turns or even intersections to slow you down. You’ll see old farmsteads, alpaca and horse farms, and even a large and picturesque sheep farm that produces award-winning artisanal cheese — worth a stop.
Mark Thompsen of Trek Travel recommends you do the descent on Oregon’s Highway 242, starting at the Dee Wright Observatory. Some riders prefer to start in Sisters for a longer ride that climbs a bit to Dee Wright and lets you stop at the lava rock formation to enjoy a panoramic view with your break — you’ll see snow-capped mountains and dense forests. Past the observatory, it’s all downhill until you hit the McKenzie River — on twisty, car-free roads that plunge down the forest.
This is an incredible ridge road that rewards you at the top of Gibraltar Mountain in the Santa Ynez Mountains, one of the few mountain ranges in the United States oriented east to west. If you’re in Santa Barbara, you’ll see the mountains looming over you — and you’ll want to ride up to see the view from the top. Mark Thompsen of Trek Travel notes that it’s the favorite ride of the company's president, who has “ridden everywhere.” The road up presents some steep climbs on switchbacks, challenging turns often preceded by climbs, and the pavement can be choppy, so there’s little respite until you reach a straight stretch. But each turn of the pedals brings you closer to the summit at Gibraltar, and the view of the bay, Goleta, and Santa Barbara makes the climb worth the trouble — as does the descent and a recovery stop at one of the many wineries in the region.
Mark Thompsen advises hitting the gradual 9-mile Maroon Creek Road to the Maroon Bells in the spring before the road is opened to cars. (It’s nice in fall as the aspens are changing colors, too.) After that climb, which passes the T-Lazy-7 Ranch and its horses, you’ll see Pyramid Peak come into view and know that you’re almost there to Maroon Lake, a pool of glacial water at the base of the famous 14,000-foot peaks. As Thompsen says, “it’s awesome.” And, of course, you can bomb back down to Aspen.
