Traveling Scenic Highway 89- Number 1 Driver’s Drive in the World

Don’t you wish that just once you could travel the most scenic driveway in the United States? So, hold onto your hat and buckle up, because surprise- you’re now traveling National Geographic’s Number 1 Driver’s Drive in the World!

National Park Highway U.S. Route 89 (US 89) a north-south Numbered Highway, is sometimes called the National Park Highway, since it links seven national parks across the Mountain West.U.S. This United States Numbered Highway currently has two sections, and one former section, which before 1992, ran south of Flagstaff, Arizona to the Mexican border at Nogales. At that time, Hwy 89 was a border-to-border highway from Mexico to Canada. The southern section runs north for 848 miles (1,365 km) from Flagstaff to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section runs for 404 miles (650 km) from the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park, through Montana, ending at the Canadian border. Unnumbered roads through Yellowstone connect the two sections.The highway adds a mystique of historical interest by following historic routes used by Native Americans, explorers, and pioneers, adding a layer of historical interest.

Arizona & Utah From Arizona’s Saguaro National Park, 89 follows the east rim of Grand Canyon National Park, before traveling through Zion’s and Bryce Canyon National Parks, then through Utah’s Wasatch Front to northern Utah. In addition, 14 other national park areas, mostly national monuments, are also reachable from this backbone through the Colorado Plateau, Wasatch Mountains and northern Rockies. National Geographic named US Route 89 the No. 1 Driver’s Drive in the world.
Wyoming. After traveling northerly through Utah, Hwy 89 travels through Northern Utah’s Logan Canyon, bordering Bear Lake’s western shore, before reaching Montpelier, ID. Traveling east from Montpelier, the highway meanders along the banks of Salt River, before entering the beautiful Star Valley, south of Smoot, Wyoming.
Passing northward along Wyoming’s western Idaho border, US 89 travels through Afton, Star Valley’s largest town, then through hamlets Grover and Auburn, continuing through Thayne and Etna, on its way to Alpine, Wyoming. Alpine is the site of the confluence of three mighty rivers; the Salt River, Snake River and Greys River converge there, before being checked at Palisades Dam in Idaho’s Swan Valley. through the rugged and scenic Snake River Canyon, US 89 snakes (pun intended) its way on to Jackson Hole, and Grand Teton National Park. It then enters a lesser known park, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, before entering Yellowstone Park at Yellowstone’s South Entrance. US 89 is the backbone visitor highway for both Grand Teton National and Yellowstone National Parks.

US 89 and other U.S. Routes are officially discontinued through Yellowstone Park, but some commercially produced maps show these highways running inside the park along its unnumbered roads to the Wyoming–Montana state line. Hwy 89 then re-establishes itself on its path to Glacier National Park, then across the Canadian border into Waterton Lakes National Park before joining Canada’s Highway 2 to Calgary and Banff National Park.

Sources: Wikipedia Search 6/26/25, Highway 89; Google search 6/26/25