Desert Highways Worth Driving in America

The American desert is home to some of the most striking roads on Earth, and the problem with choosing among them is that the distances are vast and the conditions unforgiving, so the driver must pick carefully and prepare seriously. The highways that are worth the effort deliver a landscape of rock, sky, and emptiness that no other part of the country can match.The top of any list is the drive through Monument Valley, where the road runs among the towering buttes that have defined the American West in film, and the seventeen-mile loop is one of the most photographed drives anywhere. Close behind is the Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada, a straight ribbon across the empty basin-and-range country near Area 51, and the stretch of Route 66 across the Arizona and New Mexico desert, where the old road and its fading towns carry the romance of the American road trip.The practical rules for desert driving are not optional, because fuel stations can sit a hundred miles apart, cell service vanishes, and the heat and the light are relentless. A full tank before every long stretch, water carried in the car, a route shared