There are so many wonderful driving tours that it's impossible to offer anything like a comprehensive list, but here are just a few favorites.

The dramatic Kancamagus Highway (N.H. 112) cuts through New Hampshire's White Mountains between Lincoln and Conway. Nearby is the privately owned Mount Washington Auto Road, to the top of one of the tallest peaks in the east. The loop road in Maine's Acadia National Park is another beauty.

In the Mid-Atlantic, you can't beat Virginia's Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which continues south to North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains near Asheville.

Out West, driving doesn't get any more dramatic than it is along the California and Oregon coasts. In the Arizona desert, the drive from Phoenix through Prescott and Sedona includes huge red rocks and the cool oasis of Oak Creek Canyon. The desert's most spectacular scenery is in Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border in Navajo and Hopi country and the nearby Canyonlands.

In Colorado, a driving tour of the Western Slope follows the Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) across 11,008-foot Red Mountain Pass, an unforgettable drive. The San Juan Skyway, a 236-mile circuit that crosses five mountain passes, takes in the magnificent scenery of the San Juan Mountains, including some wonderful Old West towns. In Montana, the driving tour of Glacier Country puts you on Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park, one of the great summertime drives in the country. Over the border in Wyoming, the Beartooth Scenic Byway (U.S. 212) from the northern part of Yellowstone National Park east to Red Lodge climbs over 10,947-foot Beartooth Pass, from where you can see mile upon mile of Wyoming and Montana mountains.

Up in Alaska, one of the world's great drives begins in Anchorage and leads roughly 50 miles south on the Seward Highway to Portage Glacier; chipped from the rocky Chugach Mountains, the Turnagain Arm provides a platform for viewing an untouched landscape full of wildlife.

Out in Hawaii, the drive from Honolulu to Oahu's Windward coast on Highway 61 offers an unparalleled view down from the near-vertical Pali cliff. The narrow, winding Hana Road on Maui will reward your driving skills with wonderful seascapes.