Furthest apart places in the US where the ideal route involves little Interstate

[Ellie]

After becoming a roadgeek, I've taken to avoiding Interstates more in my travels as I often find backroads more interesting (especially if I've taken the Interstates before).

However, most non-Interstates aren't optimal for long-distance travel before, even if they do make a more direct connection (because of the speeds that can be achieved). Therefore, I'm wondering what the furthest apart places are where the fastest route does not mainly involve or use Interstates. Short sections of an Interstate are fine (Lafayette, IN to Toledo, OH would count for this, but no section of Interstate more significant than that).

[formulanone]

Denver to Dallas is 800 miles to city centers, about 220 miles of it is interstate (mostly comprised of I-25 in Colorado).

Minot to Laredo has almost no interstate mileage along 1600 miles, but it feels like cheating since it's almost entirely US 83.

Is that what you're looking for?

[NWI_Irish96]

Hammond, IN, to Henderson, KY: 272 miles, none on interstates
Merrillville, IN, to Wooster, OH: 309 miles, none on interstates

[DriverDave]

I'm going to guess some route along the longitude of Bismark ND between I-25 and I-35, where there's a lack of north-south interstates (if no interstates at all along the route are what you are asking). Las Vegas to Reno also comes to mind.

[JayhawkCO]

For an E/W, Greenbush, MI to just east of Wolf Point, MT is 1,242 miles and uses only 2 miles of I-35 in Duluth and I-75 for the Mackinac Bridge.

[GaryV]

My immediate first thought was Sault Ste Marie to Superior, 412 miles, no Interstate. Then I thought to extend it a little to the southeast, to Detour Village, and it's 449 miles. You parallel a section if I-75 while driving on Mackinac Trail, but never get on the freeway. It could probably be extended into north central Wisconsin to make it longer.

Jay's minimal freeway example above far surpasses that however.

[JayhawkCO]

For N/S, from the Canadian border north of Dunseth, ND to just north of El Indio, TX is 1,569 miles with only 8 miles on I-90 in SD and 2.5 miles on I-20 in TX.

For just a fun one, from Manley Hot Springs to Prudhoe Bay in AK is 494 miles, and doesn't touch any of the unsigned AK interstates. If you're not counting unsigned interstates for this topic, from the Homer Spit to Prudhoe Bay is 1,078 miles.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Denver to Dallas is 800 miles to city centers, about 220 miles of it is interstate (mostly comprised of I-25 in Colorado).

One can stick to US 287 for even less Interstate, the brunt of it coming after our beloved Limon .

[JayhawkCO]

Denver to Dallas is 800 miles to city centers, about 220 miles of it is interstate (mostly comprised of I-25 in Colorado).

One can stick to US 287 for even less Interstate, the brunt of it coming after our beloved Limon .

Whenever you make it to the U.S., I know which town will be your first destination after landing.

[Quillz]

If we can include international borders, you can drive from Los Angeles, CA to Prudhoe Bay, AK, and only have to utilize I-5 between Tumwater and the Canadian border. Rest of the journey would include US-101 (non-freeway outside of California and a short Washington stretch), and then BC-99, BC-97, YK-2 (almost entirely non-freeway). I believe some of the Alaska highways are "technically" interstates, but don't have the actual qualities.

Granted I'm not quite sure what "ideal" means here, so maybe I'm missing the point.

[Ellie]

Denver to Dallas is 800 miles to city centers, about 220 miles of it is interstate (mostly comprised of I-25 in Colorado).

Minot to Laredo has almost no interstate mileage along 1600 miles, but it feels like cheating since it's almost entirely US 83.

Is that what you're looking for?

Yep.

Granted I'm not quite sure what "ideal" means here, so maybe I'm missing the point.

"Ideal" in terms of travel time -- the route should take less or about the same amount of time as a route involving more Interstate travel.

[roadman65]

Panama City, FL to Montgomery, AL is 3 hr 25 min (176.8 mi) on US 231.

[Max Rockatansky]

Given I live in Fresno that can be lots of places.  Heading east into Nevada usually offers some fairly lengthy stretches devoid of hitting Interstate.  Right now if I were to head to Ely the most practical route I wouldn't hit Interstate at all. 

[roadman65]

Places along the US 101 corridor involve no interstates.  Many cities of importance line it where you need to travel the US Route there.

However US 101 is mostly freeway or expressway grade especially in the Golden State. In California ironically, only in SF, Eureka, or Crescent City your on suburban arterials. From what I understand that from the East LA interchange to Van Ness in SF, there are no stoplights on US 101 now.

Regardless the route of 101 overlaps no interstates along its three state journey.

[gonealookin]

I have driven from Lake Tahoe to Phoenix a number of times for vacations, usually for spring training baseball.

It's 743 miles via the Google Maps most direct route, which is the one I usually use.  That includes 37 miles on I-515 and I-11 from I-15 to Hoover Dam, 21 miles on I-40 east of Kingman, AZ, and depending on exact destination in the Phoenix metro area perhaps 20 miles on I-10, so that's just about 10% of it on interstates.

[roadman65]

From North Adams to Boston in MA, your on MA 2 that only overlaps a very short concurrency with I-91. 141 miles that would be, but cutting down to I-90 is longer mileage wise but the same time wise according to the GPS info.

So this maybe iffy as far as the ideal route, being you have a choice in the matter.

[webny99]

For an E/W, Greenbush, MI to just east of Wolf Point, MT is 1,242 miles and uses only 2 miles of I-35 in Duluth and I-75 for the Mackinac Bridge.

You can extend this even further by moving the endpoint further west. Greenbush, MI to Bonners Ferry, ID clocks in at just over 1970 miles and 31 hours estimated travel time.

[SkyPesos]

Neither will win any awards here, but a few starting in the St Louis area:

Festus, MO to Little Rock, AR: 313 miles on US 67. Part of the fastest route from St Louis to the Texas Triangle cities.

Wentzville, MO to Iowa City, IA: 220 miles on US 61/US 218.

The best St Louis to St Paul route I'm getting recommended by Google Maps only uses 113 miles of interstate (40 miles of I-64 and all of I-380) of the 531 total miles of this route. The rest uses a combination of US 61, US 218, US 63 and US 52.

[Rothman]

From North Adams to Boston in MA, your on MA 2 that only overlaps a very short concurrency with I-91. 141 miles that would be, but cutting down to I-90 is longer mileage wise but the same time wise according to the GPS info.

So this maybe iffy as far as the ideal route, being you have a choice in the matter.

MA 2 is the best route to Boston from as far south as northern Hampshire County or southern Franklin (e.g., North Amherst, Leverett, Shutesbury, etc.).

[Ellie]

Festus, MO to Little Rock, AR: 313 miles on US 67. Part of the fastest route from St Louis to the Texas Triangle cities.

Bit of a nitpick but this is sadly only the fastest route to Houston, not Dallas or Austin/San Antonio. Though, the trek through Oklahoma is miserable enough to consider doing this anyway, I suppose.

[ran4sh]

Weed CA to Ellensburg WA

And according to the truck company I used to work for, Columbus OH to Chicago IL . Not that I agree with that, because my ideal route for that is I-70 to I-65. But at least I got to see Lima OH lmao.

[SkyPesos]

And according to the truck company I used to work for, Columbus OH to Chicago IL . Not that I agree with that, because my ideal route for that is I-70 to I-65. But at least I got to see Lima OH lmao.

Hmm, now that you brought that up, I'm thinking how US 30/33 could be a great expressway routing between Chicago and Columbus via Fort Wayne, with some upgrades. US 30 is an expressway from I-65 to Fort Wayne, and US 33 is a freeway from I-270 to Bellefontaine. With either a 4-laning of US 33 from Bellefontaine to Fort Wayne or a new expressway that connects US 33 at Bellefontaine to US 30 near Lima, this could be sort of like a mirror corridor to the CKC, bypassing Indianapolis like how the CKC allows drivers to bypass St Louis.

[SkyPesos]

Festus, MO to Little Rock, AR: 313 miles on US 67. Part of the fastest route from St Louis to the Texas Triangle cities.

Bit of a nitpick but this is sadly only the fastest route to Houston, not Dallas or Austin/San Antonio. Though, the trek through Oklahoma is miserable enough to consider doing this anyway, I suppose.

I-44/US 69/US 75 is only faster than US 67/I-30 by about 10 minutes (which is not that much when this is a 10 hour drive anyways), but the US 67 routing still have a 2 lane section between Walnut Ridge, AR and just south of Poplar Bluff, MO. I'm expecting that to be upgraded to 4 lanes because of the Future I-57 designation before Oklahoma does anything on their part of US 69, which would make the US 67 routing for St Louis-Dallas more compelling in the future.

[Henry]

In my attempt to trace an old proposed extension of an existing Interstate, I decided to calculate the distance between Sacramento, CA and Cove Fort, UT (the current western terminus of said Interstate), and I got 654 miles via US 50 and UT 21. Maybe it was best not to build it at all because of how little traffic this route gets!

[pderocco]

The easiest way to define "ideal" would be fastest, perhaps according to Google Maps, which will, of course, steer you on to a lot of Interstates. But if you weigh distance over time, accepting slower roads that are still basically highways, you can find some nice long US routes that are sufficiently far from Interstates that you might actually prefer them.

For instance US-191 is 1720 miles, and multiplexes with I-10, I-40, I-70, I-80, and I-90 for 113.7 miles.

US-95 is 1564 miles, and multiplexes with I-10, I-40, I-11, I-115, and I-80 for 149.2 miles.

US-395 is 1300 miles, and multiplexes with I-580, I-84, I-82, I-182, and I-90 for 142.2 miles.

This is because the N/S Interstates are further apart than the E/W ones. There's probably an even better example around the 100th meridian, because I-25 and I-35 are so far apart.