Summer travel – beware of US scariest highways

Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards’ California home was destroyed by a forest fire in 1993. Instead of rebuilding, the couple bought an RV and took to the open road, traveling across the U.S.

Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards’ California home was destroyed by a forest fire in 1993. Instead of rebuilding, the couple bought an RV and took to the open road, traveling across the U.S. and Canada for almost seven years.

The couple has since settled in Las Vegas, but they continue to take driving vacations and encourage others to do the same on their website, RoadTrip America, which they run through Flattop Productions, their small business. Sedenquist and Edwards estimate they’ve traveled over 650,000 miles.

To identify the nation’s scariest highways we sought advice from Sedenquist and Edwards, as well as from Marree Forbes (no affiliation with Forbes Inc.), who runs the site American Driving Vacations, and Robert Dolezal, author of The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips.

Angeles Crest Highway (California)

Located in the California interior, this highway heads northeast through the mountains from Los Angeles. Much of it is a two-lane road on which motorcycle and sports car drivers love to speed.

Highway 1 (Florida)

Outside of Key West this roadway turns into a two-lane bridge that crosses an expansive body of shallow water that reflects blinding sunlight. On top of that, “it’s really tough for the driver to stay focused because everything around you is so blue,” Sedenquist says. This stretch of highway is also troublesome during hurricane warnings because it is the only way out and gets packed with evacuees.

U.S. Route 50 (Nevada)

Called “The Loneliest Road in America” by Life in 1986, this Nevada highway is eerie because there is so little around it. “It’s not uncommon for more than 30 minutes to pass before you spot another car,” Dolezal says. “It brings out all those UFO and buzzard-circling fears, along with more reasonable ones about your car breaking down.”

Interstate 70 (Colorado)

I-70 through Denver has one of the highest passes on all the interstates, and its steep hills can be extremely slick in the winter. In bad weather “you just stay in your lane, don’t touch your brakes, and hope you make it to the bottom,” Sedenquist says.

Saddle Road (Hawaii)

Saddle Road winds through the Hualalai and Kohala Volcanoes, and much of it is comprised of only two very narrow lanes. To make things worse, some of its bridges are only one-way, meaning drivers must take turns crossing–but they don’t always follow this rule.

About the author

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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