At this point in the year, you have two options: you can whine about how summer went by too fast, or you can take a look at the calendar and make the most of what’s left of 2019. The way we see it, there are roughly 32 nonwork days left before we ring in 2020. That’s plenty of time to hit the open road and cram in some serious adventure before the earth turns one year older. Bonus: summer’s heat and crowds have dissipated. There’s even preseasonpowder to hunt. Gas up. It’s time for a road trip.
Best Road Trip for Early-Season Powder
Wolf Creek to Ouray, Colorado; 155 miles
While most ski resorts target Thanksgiving as their opening day, is a bit of an overachiever, often firing uplifts by Halloween. Itgets more than 400 inches of snow annually and has a reputation for being a magnet for early-season powder. Credit the high elevation (10,400 feet), north-facing terrain, and the fact that storms tend to linger and distribute an unfair amount of snow on the mountain. Last seasonthe resort opened on October 13, after a week of storms dumped 30 inches. It wasable to run three lifts and open almost 1,000 acres of terrain before the end of the month.
If the powder is deep, nobody will fault you for doing laps at Wolf Creek for multiple days in a row, but keep in mind that the same storms that drop pre-Christmas powder on Wolf Creek also set early-season ice throughout the San Juan Mountains. Head north through San Juan National Forest, where during most yearsyou can head into the backcountry and find safe ice climbingin classic destinations like Eureka Canyon, near Silverton, in late November. If you have the energy, schedule a couple of heli drops at , which will run its single lift and helicopter starting on November 24 if all goes well.
Detour: A soak in , near Ouray, is a must.
Best Road Trip to Bag Seasonal Unicorns
Gauley River, West Virginia,to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina; 280 miles
The drops 335 feet over 13 miles in a series of nonstop Class IV–V rapids. It’s big water at its finest, and it only runs for about a month every year. Hit one of the recreational releases that are scheduled from September to the middle of October, and you can choose a single-day trip on the Upper Gauley or double down and run the whole river, camping on a sandbar between the upper and more mellow lower sections.
When you dry out, move south to catch the 25th anniversary of , a legendary bouldering competition outside Boone, North Carolina (October 5). This is the only day all year that you’re allowed to climb the hundreds of granite boulders located on the side of this privately owned mountain.
But don’t worry if you can’t time it right for the event, because fall is prime bouldering season in the South, thanks to cooler weather and receding poison ivy, and Boone is a hotbed of problems. Head to 221 Boulders, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, for hundreds of bus-sizerocks scattered across several fields.
Finish the trip by driving farther south to Cataloochee Valley, inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for the , where giant male elk bugle and lock antlers for the attention of their lady friends. The rut typically hits its peak from mid-September to mid-October.
Detour:On your way south, swing through Asheville, North Carolina,to pick up the seasonal Cold Mountain, a winter ale released in November from .
Best Road Trip for Foodies
Freedom, Maine, to New Haven, Connecticut; 500 miles
In a perfect world, this culinary adventure will begin with apple-wood-grilled chicken at , a farm-to-table joint set in a restored gristmill next to a waterfall in Freedom. The restaurant is run by three-time James Beard–nominated chef Erin French, and it’s arguably the hardest reservation to score in the country. You have to mail French a three-by-five-inchnotecard that includes your contact info on one sideand something creative on the other, like a poem, drawing, or story. Theyreceived 20,000 cards last year for a 40-seat restaurant. Godspeed.
Continue moving south along the coast, stopping inWiscasset, Maine, for a lobster roll at Red’s Eats,which serves the freshest and sweetest lobster in New England. Grab an IPA at , in Charlton, Massachusetts, an hour north of Boston. If your timing is right, you can have your fill of bivalves at the , in Cape Cod (October 19–20).
You’re hugging the Atlanticfor most of this trip, so you can burn some calories by sea kayaking Acadia National Park, in Bar Harbor, Maine, or surfing Ruggles, the famous Rhode Island break.
The trip finishes with a tomato pie at in New Haven.
Detour: Go ahead and grab another pizzaat , also in New Haven, so you can settle once and for allwhich of these two legends has the best one in America.
Best Road Trip to Kiss Daylight Savings Goodbye
Utah’s Dark Sky Parks; 366 miles
The end of daylight savingson November 3 is a bummer. But less daylight doesn’t mean less fun. Make the most of all that extra darkness by knocking out a celestial tour of some of Utah’s darkest corners. The state has nine International Dark Sky Parks, more than any other state. Start in Moab, where you can take your pick from Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, or , each namedon the International Dark Sky Park list. We say opt for Dead Horse, where the prominent plateau, standing2,000 feet over the Colorado River, and a lack of mountains surrounding it make for a primo stargazing location. The park rangers often set up telescopes for the public.
Head south to remote , the first designated Dark Sky Park in the world. You could pick a lookout from the nine-mile scenic drive through the park, but you’re better off peeking atthe starlit sky from the 180-foot-long Owachomo Bridge.
Drive west to , where on clear nights, the Milky Way will form a pale rainbow from one side of the horizon to the next. The park also offers ranger-led astronomy programs 100 times a year.
A couple of dates to keep in mind when you’re planning this trip: October 22 promisesa massive Orionidmeteor shower between midnight and dawn, with up to 20 meteors an hour during its peak. On December 13 and 14, look up for the Geminidmeteor shower, which should shape up to be one of the best celestial events of the year, with up to 50 bright, white meteors an hour.
Detour: Swing through Park City to pick upa bottle of ’s seasonal Midwinter Night’s Dram.
Best Road Trips for Surfing… in the Midwest
Chicago to Sheboygan, Wisconsin; 148 miles
Minneapolis to Duluth, Minnesota; 150 miles
You want to get one last quick surf trip in before you wax the skis, but you live in the Midwest. The solution? Stick close to home, and keep an eye on the forecast. Surfing the Great Lakes, a.k.a. the Third Coast,is hit or miss during the summer, but when the north winds start roaring in the fall, the swells pick up. Duluth has arguably the best surfing in the middle of the country. Locals call it “the other North Shore.” Head to Stoney Point, where deep water and an offshore rock reef make for unusually large and consistentwaves. And it’s only two hours north of Minneapolis.
Sheboygan, on the west coast of Lake Michigan, has five miles of beach with multiple breaks to choose from. It’s not as consistent as Stoney Point, but waves get big when the wind comes from the northeast. The fact that it’s only one hour north of Milwaukeeand two hours north of Chicago make it the perfect spot for an impromptu Saturday or Sunday session. Just remember to pack a thick wetsuit and a high-volume surfboard—fresh water is less buoyant than salt water.
Detour: Jump 100 miles north of Sheboygan to Sturgeon Bay for an order of cheese curds straight from the source at .
Best Road Trip to Send It with Your College Buddy
Smith Rockto Otter Rock, Oregon; 300 miles
Grab that longtime friend who stuck by you through your Bob Marley and poetry phases,and get matching air-brushed tank tops, because this is the road trip you always wanted to take in college. Start by rebuilding mutual trust at , which gave birth to sport climbing in the U.S. in the mid-eightiesand has more than 2,000 routes to choose from now, all of which are best sent in the fall when temperatures are cool and skies are clear. The Dihedrals, a collection of steep arêtes, spawned the first 5.14 ever climbed in America(To Bolt or Not to Be), but it also has some easy climbs, down to 5.5. Snag a spot in the walk-in campground, the Bivy, and you’ll have the park’s best bouldering just outside your tent.
Trade rock for dirt by driving 125 miles north to Hood River, where offers more than 60 miles of cross-country and freeride mountain-biketrails in a dense system that’s easy to shuttle and lap. Connect Bad Motor Scooter with Grand Prix for 1.5 miles of flowy jumps and berms that drop almost 800 feet of elevation.
is a beginner-friendly beach break on Oregon’s central coast. Not only does the stategetits best surf in the fall, but it often sees its best weather, with 80-degree Indian-summerdays and typically rain-free skies. Otter Rock doesn’t have Oregon’s biggest surf, but it arguably has its most consistent, with a beach break that picks up size on swells from just about every direction. Bring your longboard to make the most of the two-to-four-foot surf.
Detour:Cut through Portland, hitting Breakside Brewing to load up on itsseasonal IPA on your way to the beach.
Best Road Trip to Escape Winter
Sedona, Arizona, to Mojave National Preserve, California; 380 miles
Dig this: Sedona’s winter temperaturestypically hover in the high fifties. That’s perfect mountain-bike weather, particularly when your favorite trails at home are covered in snow. You have more than 125 miles of singletrack to choose from. Skip the vertigo-inducing Hangover Trail, and opt for the more sensible Slim Shady, a 2.5-mile piece of flow that combines Sedona’s signature rock tread with the desert’s long-range views. You can easily use Slim Shady as the backbone for an all-day epic that takes in the .
You’ll need to rinse off after all that dirt, so , which runs for 67 miles between Hoover Dam and Davis Dam, is your next stop. Launch your kayak or SUP from Willow Beach Marina (ithasrentals) and paddle north to explore Black Canyon, a 22-mile-long gorge that hems in the northern section of the lake, squeezing the water to a narrow 300 feet wide at some points.
Keep moving west to the little-known , a massive 1.5-million-acre slice of desert that has the largest Joshua tree forest in the country, lava-tube caves, and the 650-foot-tall Kelso Sand Dunes. Even with all these superlatives, the highlight of the preserve might be the two-mile Rings Loop Trail, where you can climbup a slot canyon on iron rings.
Detour: Las Vegas puts on a hell of a fireworks show for New Year’s Eve. Find a spot far fromthe Strip, in Red Rocks Canyon, and you can see the pyrotechnics without fighting the crowds.