Aerial Tramway (exit at Highway 111) will whisk you
nearly to the top of 10,800-foot-high Mount San Jacinto
(760-325-1391; pstramway.com).
Go prehistoric The towering concrete dinosaurs at
Cabazon (951-922-0076; cabazondinosaurs.com) were
built as an attraction beginning in the 1960s and immortalized in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Now they stand next to
a creationist museum.
I- 81, Strasburg
to Roanoke,
Virginia
Here in the Shenandoah
River valley, the sloping
Blue Ridge Mountains to
the east and the Alleghenies to the west are some
of the oldest mountains
on the earth. Unlike the
in-your-face grandeur
of those upstart Rockies,
this topography’s gentle
magnificence unfolds
almost unnoticed, like
the black-eyed Susans
and cosmos that line the
roadside in summer.
ALONG THE WAY
Go underground This is
cave country—the rocks
beneath those undulating
hills are honeycombed
with caverns. Most fa-
mous is Luray Caverns,
with its Great Stalacpipe
Organ, which taps out
tunes on the massive
rocks (540-743-6551;
luraycaverns.com).
Study uncivil history
The sobering story of 1864’s Battle of New Market (Exit
264)—which threw young cadets from the Virginia
Military Institute up against Union troops—is told at the
Hall of Valor Museum (866-515-1864; vmi.edu/museum).
an elevated highway—plus a look at the impressive Jersey
City skyline, which gives New York’s a run for its money.
ALONG THE WAY
Sneak up on Lady Liberty From the New York City side,
Lady Liberty is a squint-worthy distant figure. But from
the vantage point of Jersey City’s Liberty State Park (Exit
14B), barely more than five football fields away, she seems
close enough to touch.
You can also catch a ferry
to Ellis Island and the
Statue of Liberty from
the park, avoiding the
crowds across the
Hudson at the Battery
(201-915-3400; liberty
statepark.org).
Be like Babs Right
near Liberty State Park
is the grand, old Central
Railroad of New Jersey
Terminal. You’ll recognize it as the spot where
Barbra Streisand boarded
a tugboat for Manhattan
in Funny Girl.
COLD COMFOR T Snow clings to the banks of the Colorado where the
river and I- 70 squeeze through striking Glenwood Canyon.
I- 75, Naples
to Broward
County, Florida
This 80-mile shot
through Big Cypress
Swamp is called Alligator
Alley: Gators loll in the
canals beside the road
(and sometimes on its
shoulder). But the superstars of the wild around
here are the endangered
Florida panthers. Barely
100 roam free.
I- 78, Newark Airport to the Holland Tunnel,
New Jersey
Heading for the Holland Tunnel from I-95 in New Jersey,
you’ll enjoy a breathtaking view of lower Manhattan from
ALONG THE WAY
Hit the boards The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, just
northeast of Naples ( 15 miles east of Exit 111), features a
2.25-mile boardwalk (239-348-9151; corkscrew.audubon
.org). Keep an eye out for the occasional bald eagle.
Skip the beach The road stops short of Fort Lauderdale
at Weston (Exit 15), where among the cookie-cutter
homes, at Peace Mound Park (1300 Three Villages Road),
there’s an 800-year-old Native American burial mound. ;
