A scenic drive’s reputation for beauty can be paradoxically self-destructive. Once a route becomes famous for stunning views, it can attract enough vehicles that the scenery is experienced through the windshield of the car directly ahead.
Traffic transforms some routes from contemplative experiences into automotive queues, where forward progress depends on the vehicle ahead and opportunities to stop or linger become harder to find during peak hours. Weekends can be particularly challenging, while weekday travel and early starts often provide a better experience.
These roads have become victims of their own fame.
Pacific Coast Highway, California
What was once a contemplative drive through coastal scenery can become heavily congested during busy weekends and summer periods, particularly around major population centers and popular coastal stops. Popular pullouts can fill quickly, while sections of the highway may experience stop-and-go traffic during peak travel periods.
Malibu Canyon Road, California
This scenic route connecting the San Fernando Valley with Malibu can become heavily congested on weekends and during periods of good weather. The canyon’s limited road capacity can produce significant backups, particularly when beach traffic and recreational travelers converge.
Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles
Once primarily a winding scenic route with relatively quiet overlooks, Mulholland Drive now attracts large numbers of motorists seeking views and photo opportunities. Traffic can become inconsistent on weekends, while limited parking at popular overlooks makes stopping difficult.
Big Sur, California
The dramatic coastline of Big Sur attracts heavy visitor traffic, particularly during summer and holiday periods. Parking at popular pullouts can fill early, and traffic delays can increase when vehicles slow for viewpoints, road work, or other congestion along the route.
Mendocino Coast Drive, California
This coastal route can become significantly busier on weekends, with visitors competing for limited pullout parking and recreational vehicles moving slowly through portions of the highway. The resulting clusters of traffic can take some of the solitude out of the coastal experience.
Napa Valley Wine Country Drive
The scenic roads through Napa Valley can become congested on weekends as wine tourists, tour buses, rental cars, and rideshare vehicles converge on wineries and popular viewpoints. Traffic is particularly noticeable around the valley’s busiest towns and winery corridors.
Sonoma Coast Highway, California
This coastal drive experiences heavier traffic during weekends and summer travel periods, particularly near popular beaches, viewpoints, and narrow sections of the highway. Limited parking at scenic stops can compound the congestion.
Crater Lake Rim Drive, Oregon
The drive around Crater Lake becomes busy during the short summer season, particularly on weekends. Popular overlooks can fill their limited parking capacity, creating slow-moving traffic as drivers search for spaces and stop to photograph the lake.
Mount Hood Loop, Oregon
The roads around Mount Hood can become congested on weekends, particularly during summer recreation and winter ski periods. Traffic can build near viewpoints, recreation areas, and sections where road capacity is limited.
Skagit Valley Tulip Drive, Washington
During the spring tulip season, roads around the Skagit Valley become exceptionally busy as visitors arrive for the fields and photo opportunities. Traffic backups and crowded parking areas can turn what was once a quiet agricultural drive into a much slower experience.
Columbia River Gorge Scenic Drive, Oregon/Washington
The Columbia River Gorge attracts heavy weekend traffic, particularly around waterfalls, viewpoints, and other popular recreation areas. Crowded parking and slower traffic can make it difficult to experience the route at a leisurely pace.
Cascade Loop, Washington
This mountainous scenic route experiences increased traffic during summer and fall weekends, with popular viewpoints and recreation areas creating localized congestion. Narrow mountain sections can make delays more noticeable when visitor numbers rise.
Million Dollar Highway, Colorado
The dramatic route between Ouray and Silverton can become busy during summer and fall, when scenic travelers, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, and tour groups converge on the highway. The mountain road’s narrow sections can create slow-moving clusters during peak periods.
Trail Ridge Road, Colorado
The highest continuous paved highway in North America attracts heavy traffic during the limited period when it is open. On sunny summer weekends, popular overlooks can fill quickly, and slow-moving traffic can develop along sections of the mountain road.
Beartooth Highway, Montana
This spectacular mountain route has a short operating season, concentrating visitors into a limited portion of the year. Summer weekends can bring significant traffic, particularly around popular overlooks and narrow sections where vehicles have limited opportunities to pass.
Icefields Parkway, Canada
This famous Canadian route can become heavily trafficked during summer, especially around popular viewpoints and attractions. Tour buses, rental cars, recreational vehicles, and private vehicles compete for limited parking at some of the most popular stops.
Sea-to-Sky Highway, Canada
The highway between Vancouver and Whistler experiences heavy weekend traffic, particularly during ski season, summer recreation periods, and holiday weekends. Its importance as both a scenic route and a transportation corridor means recreational traffic shares the road with regular commuters and local travelers.
Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia
This scenic coastal route becomes significantly busier during the summer and fall, particularly when autumn foliage attracts visitors. Traffic can slow around popular overlooks, villages, and sections where the winding road limits passing opportunities.
Okanagan Parkway, Canada
The roads around British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley can become congested during summer weekends as vacation travelers and day-trippers head toward lakes, wineries, and recreation areas. Traffic can move in slow clusters around the region’s busiest destinations.
Kansai Mountain Drives, Japan
Popular mountain roads around Japan’s Kansai region can become crowded on weekends and holidays, particularly during autumn foliage season. Narrow roads, popular viewpoints, and tour buses can create slow-moving traffic and make spontaneous stopping difficult.
Alpine Routes, Switzerland
Switzerland’s famous Alpine passes, including the Gotthard and Simplon routes, can experience significant weekend traffic during summer. Narrow mountain roads, seasonal travel patterns, and high visitor demand can produce backups at particularly scenic sections and approaches to major passes.
Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Austria
This famous Alpine road attracts heavy traffic during its limited summer operating season. Weekends can bring large numbers of cars, motorcycles, and tour groups, with congestion particularly noticeable around viewpoints and parking areas.
Col de l’Iseran, France
As one of Europe’s highest paved mountain passes, the Col de l’Iseran attracts considerable summer traffic when the route is open. Popular scenic sections and limited parking can become crowded during weekends and periods of good weather.
South Island Drives, New Zealand
The scenic roads around Queenstown and toward Milford Sound can become heavily trafficked during peak travel periods. Tour buses, rental cars, and private vehicles share roads with limited capacity, while popular pullouts can fill quickly.
Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina/Virginia
The Blue Ridge Parkway can become particularly crowded during fall foliage season and on busy weekends. Visitors slow down for mountain views and pull into overlooks, while increased traffic can turn sections of the parkway into a slow-moving scenic procession.
Skyline Drive, Virginia
Skyline Drive becomes especially busy during autumn, when visitors arrive to see the changing foliage. Traffic can back up around overlooks and popular entrances, while limited parking makes it difficult to stop spontaneously during peak periods.
Cherokee Parkway, Tennessee
The scenic mountain roads around the Great Smoky Mountains can become crowded on weekends and during fall foliage season. Traffic slows around overlooks and photography areas, while narrow sections can create bottlenecks when visitor numbers rise.
Going-to-the-Sun Road, Montana
This famous Glacier National Park road has experienced enough summer demand that the park has implemented vehicle reservations, shuttle services, and other traffic-management measures during busy periods. Popular sections can become extremely crowded, making advance planning essential.
Redwood Highway, California
The Redwood Highway attracts substantial visitor traffic, particularly during summer and on weekends. Tour buses, recreational vehicles, and sightseeing traffic can move slowly through portions of the route, especially around popular redwood attractions and scenic stops.
Route 1 Coastal Maine Drive
Maine’s coastal roads become significantly busier during the summer, particularly on weekends and around popular coastal towns. Recreational vehicles, vacation traffic, and visitors stopping at shops and viewpoints can produce slow-moving traffic through the busiest sections.
Overseas Highway, Florida
The Overseas Highway can become a significant bottleneck during weekends, holidays, and peak travel periods. The Keys’ limited road network means there are few alternatives when traffic builds, while bridges, narrow sections, and concentrated tourist areas can amplify delays.
The Paradox of Scenic Routes
The most beautiful drives are subject to a frustrating logic: their fame can undermine the very solitude that made them attractive. As word spreads about stunning vistas and scenic landscapes, visitation increases until popular roads and parking areas struggle to handle the volume.
The result is a scenic experience that can involve more braking, searching for parking, and waiting than leisurely driving.
For travelers with flexible schedules, the simplest solution is often to go early, travel on a weekday, or visit outside the busiest season. The scenery hasn’t necessarily changed.
The number of people trying to see it at the same time has.
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