141: Best Scenic Drives in the National Parks

Exploring the National Parks

Dirt In My Shoes

Science, Society & Culture:places & Travel, Nature, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 653 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you love a drive that has you gasping, laughing, and pulling over every few minutes for “just one more” viewpoint, you are going to have so much fun with this episode. We’re sharing 15 of our favorite scenic drives across the national parks and how you can plan your own visit to each! In this episode, we cover: Our top 15 national park scenic drives, grouped into big bucket list roads, overlooked drives in popular parks, and hidden gems in lesser known parks Key logistics for each drive, including typical opening seasons, road lengths, and important vehicle size or road condition notes The hikes, overlooks, and viewpoints we love along these roads, plus the wildlife you are most likely to see How these drives fit into a bigger trip so you can plan your time around sunrise, sunset, and trail days Your task for today: Pick one of the 15 scenic drives from this episode and move it to the very top of your national park bucket list, then head over to the @DirtInMyShoes Facebook or Instagram page and tell us which drive you are most excited to experience next! Don’t miss the full show notes packed with all the links we mentioned so you can plan your adventures like a pro: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/best-scenic-drives-in-the-national-parks/ Planning your own scenic drive adventure? Episode 117: Favorite national parks road trips: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/favorite-national-park-road-trips/ Episode 23: Scariest national park roads ranked: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/episode-23-scariest-national-park-roads-ranked/ Episode 81: Insider tips for driving Going to the Sun Road: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/insider-tips-for-driving-glaciers-going-to-the-sun-road/ Dirt In My Shoes Itineraries: https://shop.dirtinmyshoes.com/ Master Reservation List: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/list/ National Park Checklist: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/national-parks-checklist/ Trip Packing List: https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/pack/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In the entire history of the Exploring the National Parks podcast, Ash has never come into my office while I was preparing and verified that I was making it fun enough.
0:16.0	Have I not?
0:17.2	No.
0:18.1	This was, and the reason she said that was because she had the idea that makes it fun.
0:25.0	I finally had a fun idea.
0:27.4	I'm just really proud of this.
0:29.5	Today's episode is all about our favorite scenic drives in the national parks.
0:36.0	And as she was thinking about it, she comes in and she says, John, I think that this one,
0:43.2	we could do a friends episode.
0:45.6	This could be about the show Friends.
0:48.5	She, Ash, loves this show.
0:50.9	And she came into my office to make sure I was doing it justice. I cannot execute on
0:59.6	the fun, but I did have the idea because I was writing down the different categories of scenic
1:05.1	drives. And I was like the way that I wrote down the categories kind of sounded like the
1:09.6	friends, how friends
1:10.8	titles their episode.
1:12.1	Uh-huh.
1:12.5	The one with this, the one with that.
1:15.5	And I was like, oh, that would be fun because we only ever talk about stupid nerdy things.
1:21.9	Let's get some pop culture in here that's a little more on brand for me.
1:26.6	Exactly.
1:27.1	So this, hopefully today, we'll have some fun and we will do the Friends TV show from the 90s
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dirt In My Shoes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dirt In My Shoes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.