Your Favorite US Route

[US 89]

I suppose I should elaborate a bit:

US 89: easily my favorite (hence my profile name). Closest to where I grew up (and only one to still serve SLC), easily the one I've been on the most throughout my life, ridiculously scenic for a lot of its route, and serves multiple national parks. I've clinched all of it from the southern terminus in Flagstaff up to Gardiner MT, plus another short segment on the east side of Glacier.

US 40: closest E/W main route to SLC, and served it directly until it was decommissioned west of Park City (). Used it all the time on short trips to the Park City/Heber areas from Salt Lake, as well as on several trips to Steamboat through the years. As it turns out, I have almost half of this route clinched - all of it west of Kremmling CO, several little bits and pieces in the Denver area, and then everywhere it is concurrent with I-70 east through the St Louis area.

US 19: of all the US highways through Atlanta, this one is probably my favorite. Some great scenic sections in north Georgia/west NC, and then it goes on up to Pittsburgh (a city I've never been to but would love to visit someday). I have it mostly clinched from US 80 through US 64, and if all goes to plan, I will have it through Asheville in a month or so.

US 64: I'm not really sure why I have an attachment to this, but I do. It keeps showing up on completely separate, unrelated trips I've taken over the years. I have it clinched from the western terminus at US 160 to US 550, then along its US 84 concurrency, then along its I-25 concurrency, then from Clayton NM to the Oklahoma line, then from OK 99 to I-44, then along its US 169 concurrency, then from downtown Fort Smith AR to I-540, then a little piece in Russellville AR, then along its I-55 concurrency, then a little piece at the I-65 interchange, then from TN 50 through the I-24 concurrency to TN 134, then another bit through Chattanooga, then from US 411 up the Ocoee River canyon a bit, then another segment from US 19 to Hayesville NC, then again from I-95 to US 13/17 in eastern NC. (See what I mean? That's 15 different segments, accumulated over about that many separate trips.)

[hbelkins]

I've always liked US 23. Part of the attraction of the route is that my cousin who played baseball for the Reds and Mets wore that number long before the world heard of Michael Jordan, but part of it is because of the scenery. I think it's an overall great road from Columbus, Ohio, to the point northeast of Atlanta where it leaves I-985 prior to the freeway's end at I-85.

Doug Flynn?

Yep. His paternal grandmother and my paternal grandmother were cousins and very dear friends. I've never met Doug, but I sure know his dad and knew his grandparents well. I absolutely admired Doug all my life until a few years ago, when the bloom came off his rose (no pun intended in reference to his former Reds teammate) over something. I used to proudly say I was related to him; sadly, I no longer do. But that still doesn't change my affinity for US 23, a route I've taken on many trips. (I was just on it Tuesday, in fact, attending a work function.)

[JayhawkCO]

Hard to pick a favorite.

US61 - Went through the first town I remember living in (Hastings, MN) and passes right through my dad's hometown (Lake City, MN)
US212 - Beartooth Highway is right up there with my favorite drives I've ever done
US163 - Monument Valley is awesome
US550 - Million Dollar Highway
US160 - My first visit to Colorado as a kid blew me away

Chris

[Bickendan]

US 26

[cjk374]

US 80, US 51, US 165 & 167 (near clinches), US 171.

[Roadgeekteen]

My favorite is US 2. I've only been on parts in the east but it's nice and wild and the rest of my route is on my bucket list. Honorable mention to US 302.

[achilles765]

1.  For sentimental reasons and as the first US highway I remember due to how ever present it was when I was growing up... US 51...from McComb to LaPlace this route was heavily used by my family and then by me when I started driving.  Also, though to a lesser extent, US 98...my high school was just off US 98

2. For its long-term presence and most frequent use in my adult life: US 90..  US 90 connects my old life in Baton Rouge (indirectly) and New Orleans to my new life in Houston... whether it's Old Katy Road, multiplexed with I 10, or the almost Interstate stretch through the bayous of South Louisiana... or as Tulane Avenue/Claiborne Avenue/Chef Highway...ive been on every stretch of this one from New Orleans to San Antonio.  Ive explored both the Business Route in New Orleans (among others), and the Alternate Route from Houston to Seguin.  Ive also explored large parts of its two child routes... 290 from its eastern terminus to FM 1488, and US 190 from Slidell to Deridder.

Other important routes include US 61 (Airline Highway, plus its referenced by my favorite musician in my favorite album: Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited), US 59 (Used it to get from Houston to Corpus Christi...use it often in Houston and live off of it as well...sadly I don't expect it to continue to exist for too much longer once Interstate 69 has totally taken over. I foresee it going the way of US 75 in Houston...into the history books)

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I guess I'll the fifth or sixth in this thread to say US 61 is my favorite.
Though, as a kid, US 322 was my favorite, having been born along US 322 in Mayfield Hts and lived 1,000 feet south of said road for my first 7+ years.

[Henry]

US 66 for the win! Yeah, it's been decommissioned for over 35 years, but even now, it still holds a special place in my heart, as it was the scene of many childhood road trips.

For the current routes, I really don't have a favorite there, but I've heard good things about US 101, aka the West Coast's Main Street.

[JCinSummerfield]

For favorite, I'll go with US-2.  For the one I'm one daily, I'll go with US-23.  For the most convenient, it's US-223.

[TBKS1]

Probably either US 70 or US 65, kinda hard for me to choose.

US 412 is pretty cool, I know a lot of people aren't fans of the violations but I think they're pretty unique.

[splashflash]

US 26. Big elevation changes in Oregon and passes by fossil beds in central Oregon.   Great concurrency with US 20 and US 93 too across southern Idaho.  Passes through Grand Teton National Park.

[Max Rockatansky]

Strange nobody has mentioned US 101.  Santa Barbara Channel probably is the prettiest freeway backdrop in the country and the Redwood Highway probably is the prettiest backdrop for an expressway.  That's not even getting to things like the Golden Gate Bridge and Astoria-Melger Bridge.

[index]

US 19 (including 19E and 19W), because of all the scenery and fun drives it has in the Appalachians. I really enjoy 19E heading into Tennessee descending down into Elizabethton, 19W's curves, corridor L with the scenery and the Gorge Bridge, etc. There's a lot of other parts I'd like to drive one day that I haven't yet got the chance to, even outside the mountains.

[Hobart]

US 52 is my favorite. It gives me great nostalgia, from driving through lovely Iroquois County, Illinois, on the way to a covered bridge festival in Parke County, to taking it to Dubuque. It cuts right through the driftless area and runs along the Mississippi, so it's very pretty. Plus, the Sabula Bridge, although terrifying, was very fun to drive over before they replaced it.

I also like how it goes against the grain. It runs diagonally from North Dakota to South Carolina, rather than going straight up and down like many other routes. It connects the parts of America nobody really cares about together, and I like that.

Plus, "52" is a good number. It rolls off the tongue almost as well as 66.

[SkyPesos]

US 52 is my favorite. It gives me great nostalgia, from driving through lovely Iroquois County, Illinois, on the way to a covered bridge festival in Parke County, to taking it to Dubuque. It cuts right through the driftless area and runs along the Mississippi, so it's very pretty. Plus, the Sabula Bridge, although terrifying, was very fun to drive over before they replaced it.

I also like how it goes against the grain. It runs diagonally from North Dakota to South Carolina, rather than going straight up and down like many other routes. It connects the parts of America nobody really cares about together, and I like that.

Plus, "52" is a good number. It rolls off the tongue almost as well as 66.

I remember being amazed in my first time visiting Charleston SC, and Minneapolis (on different trips of course) that the same highway connects those two points with my home city of Cincinnati, considering that they're diagonally apart.

Also interesting is what I call US 52's diagonal twin: US 62. They sort of form an X shape, as US 52 is NW-SE, and US 62 is SW-NE. It's the only E-W route to meet both the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Side note: is there a state with more x2 US routes than Ohio's 4 (22, 42, 52 and 62)?

[skluth]

US-6 is my favorite. There's something great about a highly unique single-digit number for a highway that traverses the middle third of the country. US-6 is America's road, but in a different way than US-66 is.

I have driven more miles on US-51 than any other numbered route, but 99% of those miles have been in Wisconsin. US-51 in WI is no Million Dollar Highway, but it's a lot more interesting than US-51 in the rest of the states it passes through. So it's not a route that I'm interested in driving the entirety of.

Jack Kerouac's On The Road starts with the narrator trying to hitchhike across the US on US 6 only to discover it's not a well-traveled long-distance route despite traversing the country.

I don't have a fave US route but if I had to name one (that still exists) I'd say US 41 which connects my original hometown to Miami, plus it was mentioned in an Allman Brothers song.

[wanderer2575]

US-24.  Maybe I'm biased because it's hometown so I've driven portions of that one the most.  It's also the only major-length US route I've clinched so far.  I took a weeklong vacation about five years ago specifically to drive it end-to-end in one trip.

[JayhawkCO]

US-24.  Maybe I'm biased because it's hometown so I've driven portions of that one the most.  It's also the only major-length US route I've clinched so far.  I took a weeklong vacation about five years ago specifically to drive it end-to-end in one trip.

And its western end is one of the most underrated scenic drives out here.  I thought it was surprisingly scenic in western Kansas too.

Chris

[WillWeaverRVA]

US 58 and US 460 are a couple of my favorite roads to drive on, period.

[formulanone]

I'll chuck in US 27, because it was a "mysterious" route for me until I got my driver's license. Probably not the most important nor scenic, but it sure sparked my curiosity.

[hbelkins]

US 58 and US 460 are a couple of my favorite roads to drive on, period.

I mentioned in another thread that I find US 58 east of the Danville area to be agonizing, but west of there, I really enjoy the route (with the exceptions of the segments between VA 16 and Damascus, and Bristol and Gate City). I don't even mind the two-lane part between Stuart and Hillsville.

I also really like US 460 as an alternate route to Richmond/Petersburg. Working west from Appomattox, I find it to be pretty scenic for a four-lane arterial. And the complexity of the interchanges between the old Christiansburg and Blacksburg bypasses isn't something you'd expect to see in that situation (same for the freeway network at Chillicothe, Ohio).

[CoreySamson]

Mine, out of lack of a better one, is US 59. Not because it's scenic, but because of its proximity and sentimental value.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I also really like US 460 as an alternate route to Richmond/Petersburg. Working west from Appomattox, I find it to be pretty scenic for a four-lane arterial. And the complexity of the interchanges between the old Christiansburg and Blacksburg bypasses isn't something you'd expect to see in that situation (same for the freeway network at Chillicothe, Ohio).

Yeah, I took US 460 to Roanoke (via US 360 and VA 307) and it was a really nice drive. If not for it being overcast I probably would've been late getting to Roanoke because I'd be taking pictures of the scenery.

[Harvestman]

Locally, US 52 and US 27.  Both are gorgeous scenic drives (especially 27 around Lexington, KY).