Texas Scenic Drives Overview

Rolling plains, dramatic canyons and mountains, and historical site after historical site all combine to give Texas a varied vista for the driver. You could drive miles of open road across Texas and never reach an end, and much of these roads will be scenic, even surprisingly so. This overview will give you a quick idea of what roads are particularly lovely drives, though.

Destinations to consider are grouped below by region. For detailed information, follow the links to any biking destination that interests you.

Scenic Drives in Big Bend Country - Texas

The Davis Mountains serve as a reminder of just how geologically complex West Texas is. The Davis Mountain Loop coils through mountains more lush than dramatic, while, by contrast, close to a canyon as it is, El Paso's Scenic Drive is as brashly, if beautifully, urban as anything in California. El Paso is also home to such historic drives as El Camino Rio and the Mission Trail.

For more rugged drives, Big Bend National Park is the better choice, if some of these roads are far too steep and winding for large vehicles.

Scenic Drives in Panhandle Plains - Texas

The Great Plains of Texas are home to a section of old and still-beloved Route 66, with Amarillo serving as a friendly gateway. Amarillo is also close to the gateway of the Palo, that deep gash in the land of cows and fields.

Lubbock is, similarly, a nice place to travel to Caprock Canyons, passing from the tableland of the High Plains to the stark reds and stippled greens of the sandy canyon.

Scenic Drives in Hill Country - Texas

If Hill Country's Devil's Backbone is more leisurely than it sounds, it's extremely scenic, as is the River Road. The Hill Country is brim full of scenic drives, really, with the Willow City Loop rounding through fields of wildflowers, and the Lost Maples, well, is lined with maples and is especially spectacular in the fall.

Austin is always scenic and winding through the Highland Lakes is just one drive of many. And as another of the many, the Bee Caves Road (if you drive it a little further out from town) is just one gorgeous view after another.

Scenic Drives in Prairies and Lakes - Texas

McKinney's Crape Myrtle Trails is named for the crape myrtle flowers lining both sides of the road, all whites and pinks and lavenders, blooming off of trees large and shrubside. The drive is gorgeous. FM 4, off Palo Pinto, is less dramatic and more historical, but is the very first official scenic roadway in Texas.

For something a little closer to the big metropolitan areas like Fort Worth, but still remote enough to be interesting, take the Trail of the Dinosaur through Dinosaur Valley State Park, and Cleburne State Park.

Scenic Drives in Piney Woods - Texas

The El Camino Real, or the Old San Antonio Road, is likely the longest scenic drive in Texas. What could be longer? It's also Texas's longest thoroughfare and lined with enough history to keep it exciting, starting down from the Piney Woods, past San Antonio and on. A drive from Daingerfield State Park to Caddo Lake is little less historical (winding right through old port town Jefferson as it does), and rather more green and swampy, or green and piney, depending on where you are on the road.

Scenic Drives in Gulf Coast - Texas

There are plenty of nice areas, especially around Corpus Christi and Galveston, to drive close to the beach. But the beach isn't all. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and areas close to Fulton, TX in general, are wooded instead of treeless sand. The largest oak in Texas watches over St. Charles Bay. It's gorgeous and a little different.

Scenic Drives in South Plains - Texas

San Antonio also has the San Antonio Missions Trail, an urban scenic drive that makes stop offs at four very historic missions, including the Alamo.

The Rio Grande Valley's patches of wild sub-tropical foilage, beasts, and birds can be wound through. Indeed, Rio Grande Valley State Park and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge are driveable, with all their exotic trees and animals found so rarely in the United States.

Texas Scenic Drives Search

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