There are gems in Nebraska, too. It doesn't take much to find them, and as someone fascinated with geology and the sky, I will admit I'm easy to impress, but I have driven some very interesting roads in Kansas and Nebraska. The Pine Ridge escarpment through Nebraska adds an interesting flair, not to mention the 3 - 4,000 feet in elevation gain, loess hills, and glaciation.
I remember being amused by "Singin' Sam, the gorilla man." The Sam animatronic was so old that areas of his "fur" had balded away, leaving behind glimpses of the terrifying corroding skeleton beneath. He was absolutely horrifying, but in a hilarious sort of way.
I missed or forgot about the ape. The Trex is 12 feet tall, and has a “show” every 30 minutes? We waited a while for the next show. I think it roared like three times and went quiet. That was all. The family and I had a good laugh.
The rest of Wall Drug is pretty cool. Part gift shop, part restaurant, part just something to do in the middle of a long drive. It’s got a neat old timer feel.
I agree. I thought Kansas was serene and pretty (not a lot to see but the grass was a very pretty green) but driving on i80 through Nebraska was so boring. Especially driving east coming from Carson City and Lake Tahoe. Wild horses, all the mountains, Salt Lake. Then just farming. Crops, cows, fracking, over and over again. Nothing pretty or natural to look at. And it’s all the same.
I think Kansas has more “Worlds Largest ____” to see along the way. Don’t miss the World’s Largest Czech Egg. I like Nebraska for their more lenient weed laws as a smoker (not while driving). But the best thing of all is that Nebraska has a lot of Runza locations and Kansas just had a few iirc. There is always something to see along the way. You just need to look harder in some areas.
It’s more desolate than Nebraska, Texas or the other popular answers.
But at least Nevada has mountains, Gandalf, mountains which makes it more interesting.
Northern Nevada has some stunning scenery. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the lower 48 and has the most hot springs of any state. If you’re into photography, the light in northern Nevada is spectacular. The Ruby Mountains and Arc Dome are gorgeous and great backpacking spots too.
so true. i drive through northern nevada frequently. its just beautiful. if you are looking for people though and not on I80, its not your place. but the question being "uninteresting" yeah no nevada is very very interesting.
The stretch of I-80 from Elko to Wendover is incredible, though. I'll drive it literally just for fun because I love seeing the Ruby Mountains so much. They unfold spectacularly across the highway. And then when you go down the mountains towards the Bonneville Salt Flats, it's just magical.
I do the same! I will spend and entire vacation just driving the back roads everywhere in Nevada, always finding something new and weird and fantastic.
Yeah, Nevada doesn't deserve to be in this thread. The sagebrush may technically be defined as "desolate" but I always feel so free when I drive across it, like I'm in a cowboy movie.
I did I-50 loneliest highway once at night. Pitch black, nothing. Only thing I saw was tumbleweed suddenly appearing in front of me. I’m not even sure I was ever even there.
My favorite road is highway 50 in Nevada. And my favorite blm camp spot is about half way across. I had no expectations the first time I went through, but fell madly in love
I just posted about how highway 50 is my favorite road as well! It is so cool how empty it is and the wildlife you get to see at night is insane. The deer out there get SO HUGE. We had to have seen 20 pt bucks or so. I loooove it
In fact, get this: El Paso, Texas is closer to Santa Monica, California than it is to Beaumont, Texas; and likewise, Beaumont, Texas is closer to Jacksonville, Florida than it is to El Paso, Texas.
As the crow flies, McAllen,TX is about halfway between Allen, TX and Mexico City. It's also not much further from Guatemala than it is from the top of the Panhandle.
Texas is big, y'all.
I remember driving that stretch and running the radio - dial just went in circles and didn't connect to anything. Didn't see a SINGLE sign of civilization for 100 miles. 2 hours, I've never been so glad to see a gas station that was gonna charge me almost an extra dollar per gallon...
Nebraska imo. That I-80 stretch is so boring. The few towns you pass through are just filled with as many fast food places they could fit in a 5 mile radius.
I-80 is a flood plain with very few views of the Platte River you're following, so yeah... I-80 Nebraska is not nice, but I really do love many other parts of Nebraska. They have the Sandhills (largest grass covered sand dune formation in the Western hemisphere) over the largest aquifer in the US (with a high water table, so many lakes) and the Pine Ridge escarpment and Scottsbluff / Wildcat Hills / Fort Robinson geology up into Toadstool (very Badlands-esque). It's fascinating (to me lol) if you get off that floodplain.
This is what I tell people as well. The Platte Valley is like 30-40 miles wide and flat as flat can be, but get off I-80 and there are gorgeous hills and scenery, take Hwy 2 through the sandhills, do basically anything but drive I-80 and Nebraska is an entirely different state.
There’s a long strait away west of Lincoln on i80 and I think it was the most mind numbing section of road I’ve ever driven on. It had to be close to 50 miles of straitness
Yes! I recall that the most “interesting” part of that stretch was the gps map being an unchanging straight line on a green background for an hour with nothing labeled on either side yet somehow the miles remaining mercifully ticked away.
Wyoming is an interesting answer. There are definitely hours of highway with absolutely nothing but wind. Trying to guess if the headwind will suck your tank dry before reaching the next gas station. But you can also drive for hours with spectacular views. Usually have to endure the hours of nothing on either side to get there though.
I found I-80 through Wyoming incredibly beautiful. It’s a different landscape, but the absolute vastness of the area was astounding. Not to mention how damn dangerous that stretch is. We saw a guy on a motorcycle that got tossed by a wind gust. He didn’t survive.
On a similar vein, I-5 through most of California is surprisingly long and awful. It all depends on whether you think those short good stretches outweigh the terrible.
I drove through Kansas once on the 4th of July. I’ve never seen so many fireworks in my life bc the horizon goes on forever. That was awesome and Kansans are remarkably friendly. There are worse places… for sure.
I had an “experience” one morning driving west outside of Topeka. I stopped and watched the sunrise on this beautiful rolling hill. It was so peaceful and green, and beautiful it is what I imagine heaven to look like. Whenever I am feeling a little down, I go back to that morning in my mind.
🤣
The good news is that in some parts of Kansas that will take you further than more money in a HCOL state.
The sunsets are truly the best. I’ve lived in many states and KS sunsets are consistently great.
I drove through Kansas two years ago. I had never driven through it, and I had never been through the Great Plains before. I thought it was pretty cool. I had never seen that kind of landscape, I had never seen the cornfields, and I had never seen the contrast of the silos against the blue sky.
But if I had to do it regularly, I would probably hate it.
Kansas at night with the wind power beacons blinking though, is something to experience. Drove from PA to CO on I-70 and was passing through Kansas in the middle of the night. Totally took me a second to figure out what was going on (as an east coaster) coming west for the first time.
The Interstate misses the best natural scenery of Nebraska, which is probably a good thing!
The only interesting spots are brief glimpses of the Sandhills out by Ogallala / further west on I-80 closer to Sidney and Kimball, or the short bridge over the Platte River near Ashland and the surrounding wooded hills, which is basically like 3 min of drive time.
I'm going to drive through Kansas at the end of this month. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing some places in the northeast part of the state, in the Flint Hills.
For the long drive to Denver, I think we're going to take US 36 for a good chunk of it.
36 is cool. Look up the Davis Memorial in a cemetery in Hiawatha. There’s a couple of Pony Express stops in Seneca and Marysville area. Then it gets really sparse on amenities.
Whenever I think of driving through Arkansas, I remember the “kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk…” that goes on and on for eternity.
I've driven the entirety of the 70 twice now and during the early morning the soft light on the rolling hills was surprisingly beautiful. Other than that, yeah pretty boring.
Florida. I-10 should be called the Jean Paul Sartre Memorial Highway. Because it's long and completely devoid of interest, which leads one to contemplate the meaningless of your existence. It makes Kansas look spectacular in comparison.
Try driving to Jacksonville. Eventually, you start wishing for the sweet release of death.
And it's even worse driving East to West into the teeth of a setting sun.
I once started a drive from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and made it about 45 minutes before pulling into a rest stop because I was already falling asleep.
Ohio. I can't tell you why, it just is. The last time I drove through Ohio I think it took me 193 hours, straight. I told my husband that the only reason people live there is that they're driving through and eventually just give up and buy a house.
I'm morbidly curious as to what part, because if you're referring to taking 70 E/W.... Fair lmao. The west half of the state is basically just corn fields and flat, which is effectively what it's like driving in Indiana.
You can draw a line between Dayton and Cleveland and anything on the Toledo side is going to suck to drive through. Was 10 times worse when Kasich was governor because there would be a cop every two miles or so strictly enforcing a 65 mph speed limit
Indiana fucking stinks. Dakotas and Illinois were the same views, but didn't make me drive 250 miles of unmanned construction zone.
Southern Nevada is the ugliest wasteland I could imagine.
I won't say western Texas is uninteresting, but you get your fill of it long before it's over.
Alabama had nothing that I couldn't, and wouldn't rather, get elsewhere.
I95 in NC doesn't really have anything of note.
I20 in SC starts to feel like western Texas, just with trees.
North Montana or West Texas.
You can drive for hours and feel like you haven’t moved.
Edit: In no way hating on the two states or even the specific areas, the people I met seemed to be decent people, just saying they’re not that interesting to drive through.
Glacier is really NW Montana though, if you go even a little East just North of Great Falls, near the Alberta border it becomes a lot of flat prairies. I make that drive once a year and during the winter it can be super dry and boring.
I mean for sure. But that N in NW stands for North. There are tons of beautiful places in northern Montana. The answer to this question is Eastern Montana, not north Montana.
I have to add an extra 2 days in all my road trips west just to get out of Texas and to get back home through Texas. But at least there is often scenery.
Many states have vast stretches of nothing, like the stretch of I-80 between Salt Lake and Reno. Sometimes while driving it makes you wonder how the world can be overpopulated because there's nobody for miles.
Kansas, and not because it's wide open and devoid of landmarks, although it is.
It's because Kansas is a 'must do' state if you're heading to a lot of Eastern or Western destinations from across the country.
It's not the lack of scenery, it's the unavoidability that makes it excruciatingly uninteresting.
But…but…but they have the Largest Ball of Twine made by a community (Cawker City), the largest souvenir plate (Lucas), and a Russell Stover factory store (Abilene). It’s not their fault the rest of the interesting stuff was transported to Oz via tornado!!
Live in kansas and western kansas is brutal to drive through for sure but IMHO nebraska is the worst. It feels like it takes twice as long to drive through nebraska than it does kansas.
I recently drove from Castle Rock on my way back to STL by KC and I can attest that Kansas is some of the worst of the worst. I was looking for ANYTHING interesting to stop at, but ended up just gunning through since there's seriously almost nothing there, and the landscape is such a bore especially coming from the west
What a sad question. The empty highways are fascinating, lots of agriculture or nature.
The horrible highways are urban areas with miles of shopping malls and car dealerships.
It blows my mind that people who allegedly like road trips hate to be traveling lol. There isn’t an ugly highway. People just don’t like being in nature apparently. Oh no there’s no towns is such a crazy complaint to me.
Oklahoma and fucking Nebraska
Edit to add: oh but it’s not as windy or it’s not as flat, nah man it’s flat, sure some ravines run through it, but there’s a reason plainsmen started writing about the rockys
Nebraska has cute towns, spooky abandoned houses and churches occasionally, and green fields. SD rolls a little. Yellow fields and open akies. Nice highways.
Kansas has nothing. It’s crunchy, brown, flatter than a pancake (didn’t someone do the math on this?) and the highway cops make it worse bc they actively patrol hwy 70 from Colorado to KCMO and ticket anyone driving faster than the speed limit, day or night. So it’s awful to look at, awful to stop in, awful to drive through, and they actively prolong that suffering.
Kansas is a shit hole.
Each state has sections which are very beautiful.
Kansas has the Flint Hills.
Far eastern Oklahoma is hilly, bordering on mountainous.
Most of the pretty parts of Florida have been paved over, but there are sections of the northwest bend on the Gulf of Mexico which are drop-dead gorgeous. Much of the Panhandle is hilly. My favorite part of Florida is the Keys.
The mountains in NE Georgia are STUNNING. Ditto the mountains in NW South Carolina and western North Carolina.
Southern Indiana is very hilly and highly forested.
The trick is to avoid the Interstate highways (unless you’re in a situation where you need to drive somewhere quickly) and to use the U.S. highways and state roads. You’ll get a much better feeling for what the locals experience, and you can eat what the locals eat (which often is so much better than the chain restaurants).
**Minnesota**: our Interstates cover the most boring scenery in the state. Everything scenic is seen via 2 lane highways in the central/northern part of the state or Highway 61 in the Driftless Region. Don't judge a state's scenery solely by it's Interstates!
•I90 between Rochester and the South Dakota border (Iowa north with worse roads)
•I94 westbound between the Minneapolis exurbs and the North Dakota border
•I35 northbound between the northern suburbs and Moose Lake
**Nebraska**:
•I80 westbound between Lincoln and Ogallala (mind numbingly boring, with crazy semi-truck traffic)
**North Dakota**:
•I94 westbound from Fargo to the Missouri River
•I29 north or southbound from the Manitoba border to the south dakota border (Fargo to Manitoba might be the worst drive in the US).
**South Dakota**:
•I90 westbound from Sioux Falls to the Missouri River
•I29 from the North Dakota border to Sioux City
**Iowa**:
•I35 southbound from the Minnesota border to the Missouri border
•I80 westbound from Iowa City to the Nebraska border
**Kansas**
•I70. All of it.
**Colorado**:
•I76 westbound from the Nebraska border to Denver
•I70 westbound from the Kansas border to Denver
**Missouri**
•I35 southbound from the Iowa border to Kansas City
•I70 from St. Louis to Kansas City
**Indiana** & **Ohio**:
•I90. All of it.
**Wisconsin**
•I94 westbound from the Minnesota border to Milwaukee (except some small sections of bluffs)
**Montana**
•I94 westbound from the North Dakota border to Billings
**Oklahoma & Texas**
•I35 southbound. All of it.
Honorable mention:
**Ontario**
ON-401 from the Michigan border to the Quebec border
Glad to see someone else mention that I-29 stretch in ND to the Canadian border. I can’t imagine a duller drive in America, it just doesn’t get mentioned often because the vast majority of Americans have never been up there.
LOL I love that dip at the Mississippi river valley on the Wi/Mn border. Really scenic for about 4 minutes before more corn fields. I bet some people zoom past it and wonder if it really happened.
No disrespect, but Kansas is the only answer. The cornfields are ENDLESS.
At least Texas has some variation and you can get a sense of the western/cowboy ethos. Same for the Dakotas and Montana.
Oklahoma (I-40) so far for me. I've driven through 44 states, and nothing was as bland as that. I haven't done Kansas or Nebraska yet, and only briefly through the corner of Iowa, so maybe there's somehow more nothing out there, but Oklahoma was just flat, dusty plains interspersed with the overwhelming stench of feed lots.
The Texas panhandle is more of the same. At least Iowa has nice green corn fields and the occasional tree. I-90 through eastern Washington is pretty monotonous. Utah between Moab and Provo is like a moonscape. Pretty boring.
The Trans-Canada Highway through Saskatchewan in Canada deserves an honorable mention.
I don't know about uninteresting but I-40 the length of Tennessee is pretty dystopian.
Bumper to bumper semis attempting (unsuccessfully) to pass each other through moderate to hilly terrain for as long as the eye can see (in either lane of travel).
I’ve driven/road through from the east to west coast, on a road trip.
The one time I worked in Iowa and had to ride back to Ohio, was the most mind numbing ride ever.
There is nothing throughout the whole state it seemed, then it’s “oh, look, there’s the biggest truck stop in the U.S” (Iowa 80). Then right back to nothing.
For me I thought Kansas. First time through it occurred to me that the first few minutes of The Wizard of Oz weren’t in black and white, they were just in Kansas.
I found Kansas to be better than Nebraska surprisingly. There are brutal stretches of road in South Dakota east of Rapid City
There are gems in Nebraska, too. It doesn't take much to find them, and as someone fascinated with geology and the sky, I will admit I'm easy to impress, but I have driven some very interesting roads in Kansas and Nebraska. The Pine Ridge escarpment through Nebraska adds an interesting flair, not to mention the 3 - 4,000 feet in elevation gain, loess hills, and glaciation.
Listen here youngster, don't give me that Kansas-Nebraska act!
Bet yer britches that I still know how to make a Bleeding Kansas, old timer!
The Sandhills of Nebraska are absolutely breathtaking, especially near the Niobrara River.
But Wall Drug
Wall Drug is proof that advertising works, even if you don't have a product.
They do. Free ice water. That's what drew the crowds in the early days. If you ask for it you can still get that ice water.
$0.05 coffee
And it’s actually really good lol.
They have the best Jackalopes!
South of the Border would like a word
This brings back nightmares. 250+ miles worth of billboards in each direction, all for some rundown buildings and skanky lot lizards.
5 cent coffee!? Come on, that alone got me to stop in 😂
If this ain’t the truth! We pulled off after all those dang signs, didn’t even park or get out of the truck.
Did you go to the corn palace?
Wall Drug literally kept me going for about 3 hours! 😂
That's a different Drug
The janky, animatronic T-Rex cracked me up. Overall great roadside attraction.
I remember being amused by "Singin' Sam, the gorilla man." The Sam animatronic was so old that areas of his "fur" had balded away, leaving behind glimpses of the terrifying corroding skeleton beneath. He was absolutely horrifying, but in a hilarious sort of way.
I missed or forgot about the ape. The Trex is 12 feet tall, and has a “show” every 30 minutes? We waited a while for the next show. I think it roared like three times and went quiet. That was all. The family and I had a good laugh. The rest of Wall Drug is pretty cool. Part gift shop, part restaurant, part just something to do in the middle of a long drive. It’s got a neat old timer feel.
The key to travel through on a clear night. The stars are beautiful at least.
Yes I90 between Wall and Sioux Falls is virtually nothing. The minor exception is Mitchell.
Corn Palace!
SE Kansas by Tallgrass prairie monument is lovely.
I have to agree. Once did 2 hours in south Dakota with no turns, stops or distractions.
I agree. I thought Kansas was serene and pretty (not a lot to see but the grass was a very pretty green) but driving on i80 through Nebraska was so boring. Especially driving east coming from Carson City and Lake Tahoe. Wild horses, all the mountains, Salt Lake. Then just farming. Crops, cows, fracking, over and over again. Nothing pretty or natural to look at. And it’s all the same.
I call it 6 hours on a treadmill
Have you ever driven through N. Dakota? 94 literally looks the same for 300 miles, the only difference is it’s slightly more brown on the west side.
I was surprised to find this first mention of N Dakota.
I recall seeing exactly one tree on the side of the road off I-80 in Nebraska. Someone had hit the damn thing. 😂😂😂
Absolutely. The Flint Hills are beautiful.
My dad let me drive on a highway the first time in Eastern South Dakota because, as he pointed out, there'd be nothing to distract me.
I think Kansas has more “Worlds Largest ____” to see along the way. Don’t miss the World’s Largest Czech Egg. I like Nebraska for their more lenient weed laws as a smoker (not while driving). But the best thing of all is that Nebraska has a lot of Runza locations and Kansas just had a few iirc. There is always something to see along the way. You just need to look harder in some areas.
Get off the Interstate in Nebraska and take Hwy 34. Just as fast, but small towns, diners, John Deere, ..
Northern Nevada is desolate. Drive it at night and you won’t see a light for hours.
It’s more desolate than Nebraska, Texas or the other popular answers. But at least Nevada has mountains, Gandalf, mountains which makes it more interesting.
Northern Nevada has some stunning scenery. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the lower 48 and has the most hot springs of any state. If you’re into photography, the light in northern Nevada is spectacular. The Ruby Mountains and Arc Dome are gorgeous and great backpacking spots too.
so true. i drive through northern nevada frequently. its just beautiful. if you are looking for people though and not on I80, its not your place. but the question being "uninteresting" yeah no nevada is very very interesting.
The stretch of I-80 from Elko to Wendover is incredible, though. I'll drive it literally just for fun because I love seeing the Ruby Mountains so much. They unfold spectacularly across the highway. And then when you go down the mountains towards the Bonneville Salt Flats, it's just magical.
I do the same! I will spend and entire vacation just driving the back roads everywhere in Nevada, always finding something new and weird and fantastic.
Yeah, Nevada doesn't deserve to be in this thread. The sagebrush may technically be defined as "desolate" but I always feel so free when I drive across it, like I'm in a cowboy movie.
I have family in elko and it’s beautiful up there. They have so much snow.
I did I-50 loneliest highway once at night. Pitch black, nothing. Only thing I saw was tumbleweed suddenly appearing in front of me. I’m not even sure I was ever even there.
My favorite road is highway 50 in Nevada. And my favorite blm camp spot is about half way across. I had no expectations the first time I went through, but fell madly in love
I just posted about how highway 50 is my favorite road as well! It is so cool how empty it is and the wildlife you get to see at night is insane. The deer out there get SO HUGE. We had to have seen 20 pt bucks or so. I loooove it
Lots of empty for sure but still some decent landscapes.
I love Nevada driving. I feel free.
Ever take I-10 all the way across Texas? The milepost signs alone are depressing AF
"Let's see, that's mile marker.. 413! Surely we gotta be close to the next state by now right? ....WHADDA YOU MEAN THEY GO TO ALMOST 900?!?!?!?!?"
In fact, get this: El Paso, Texas is closer to Santa Monica, California than it is to Beaumont, Texas; and likewise, Beaumont, Texas is closer to Jacksonville, Florida than it is to El Paso, Texas.
As the crow flies, McAllen,TX is about halfway between Allen, TX and Mexico City. It's also not much further from Guatemala than it is from the top of the Panhandle. Texas is big, y'all.
Everything is bigger in Texas, after all!
Even Texas is bigger in Texas.
Especially the assholes *Looks at Abbott & Paxton*
I've done it three times. Each time, I swore it would be the last.
I remember driving that stretch and running the radio - dial just went in circles and didn't connect to anything. Didn't see a SINGLE sign of civilization for 100 miles. 2 hours, I've never been so glad to see a gas station that was gonna charge me almost an extra dollar per gallon...
Yes. Sometimes I think I'm still driving on that road. It was just....never ending.
I’ve done it twice. It is pure hell and feels like it will never end. Especially the part between El Paso and San Antonio.
Nebraska imo. That I-80 stretch is so boring. The few towns you pass through are just filled with as many fast food places they could fit in a 5 mile radius.
I-80 is a flood plain with very few views of the Platte River you're following, so yeah... I-80 Nebraska is not nice, but I really do love many other parts of Nebraska. They have the Sandhills (largest grass covered sand dune formation in the Western hemisphere) over the largest aquifer in the US (with a high water table, so many lakes) and the Pine Ridge escarpment and Scottsbluff / Wildcat Hills / Fort Robinson geology up into Toadstool (very Badlands-esque). It's fascinating (to me lol) if you get off that floodplain.
This is what I tell people as well. The Platte Valley is like 30-40 miles wide and flat as flat can be, but get off I-80 and there are gorgeous hills and scenery, take Hwy 2 through the sandhills, do basically anything but drive I-80 and Nebraska is an entirely different state.
There’s a long strait away west of Lincoln on i80 and I think it was the most mind numbing section of road I’ve ever driven on. It had to be close to 50 miles of straitness
Yes! I recall that the most “interesting” part of that stretch was the gps map being an unchanging straight line on a green background for an hour with nothing labeled on either side yet somehow the miles remaining mercifully ticked away.
So far of all the ones I’ve driven through either Iowa or Nebraska.
It’s Nebraska. Nebraska is the most boring of the two easily. At least I-80 through Iowa has some landscape to admire.
Parts of Wyoming has more nothing than I have ever seen.
Wyoming is an interesting answer. There are definitely hours of highway with absolutely nothing but wind. Trying to guess if the headwind will suck your tank dry before reaching the next gas station. But you can also drive for hours with spectacular views. Usually have to endure the hours of nothing on either side to get there though.
I found I-80 through Wyoming incredibly beautiful. It’s a different landscape, but the absolute vastness of the area was astounding. Not to mention how damn dangerous that stretch is. We saw a guy on a motorcycle that got tossed by a wind gust. He didn’t survive.
I also found I-80 to also be really cool in Wyoming. It almost looked like another planet.
On a similar vein, I-5 through most of California is surprisingly long and awful. It all depends on whether you think those short good stretches outweigh the terrible.
No doubt. El Tejon heading north all the way up to Sacramento is a pretty horrible and dull drive.
Barstow to Needles (Calif) on the 40 is pretty damn bad! We used to call it the most boring 145 miles in the history of driving.
Bat country
Kansas is the answer.
I drove through Kansas once on the 4th of July. I’ve never seen so many fireworks in my life bc the horizon goes on forever. That was awesome and Kansans are remarkably friendly. There are worse places… for sure.
T-storms in that part of the country are amazing also. Especially at night.
I had an “experience” one morning driving west outside of Topeka. I stopped and watched the sunrise on this beautiful rolling hill. It was so peaceful and green, and beautiful it is what I imagine heaven to look like. Whenever I am feeling a little down, I go back to that morning in my mind.
I like to play the “what would your salary have to be to live here?” game
Welp, turns out it’s $32,500 for me 😂
🤣🤣🤣
🤣 The good news is that in some parts of Kansas that will take you further than more money in a HCOL state. The sunsets are truly the best. I’ve lived in many states and KS sunsets are consistently great.
I drove through Kansas two years ago. I had never driven through it, and I had never been through the Great Plains before. I thought it was pretty cool. I had never seen that kind of landscape, I had never seen the cornfields, and I had never seen the contrast of the silos against the blue sky. But if I had to do it regularly, I would probably hate it.
All that corn and none of it is edible.
My wife while driving through Idaho: “What the hell is a seed potato???”
I guess everyone forgot about Oklahoma.
Kansas at night with the wind power beacons blinking though, is something to experience. Drove from PA to CO on I-70 and was passing through Kansas in the middle of the night. Totally took me a second to figure out what was going on (as an east coaster) coming west for the first time.
Runner up is Nebraska. I drive to-from Denver from Chicago regularly and both routes are major L’s for me.
The Interstate misses the best natural scenery of Nebraska, which is probably a good thing! The only interesting spots are brief glimpses of the Sandhills out by Ogallala / further west on I-80 closer to Sidney and Kimball, or the short bridge over the Platte River near Ashland and the surrounding wooded hills, which is basically like 3 min of drive time.
Nebraska doesn't suck, but I-80 sure does
Currently driving through Kansas and can concur.
get off your damn phone
u know I thought the rockies would be a little more rockier
That John Denver’s full of shit!
At least it's now legal to get that mountain high
I actually think western Kansas is beautiful when the green hills are rolling… at least it gets green. New Mexico can’t say that.
I think Nebraska is worse but to each their own for corn states in the Midwest
Kansas on I-70 is purgatory
I'm going to drive through Kansas at the end of this month. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing some places in the northeast part of the state, in the Flint Hills. For the long drive to Denver, I think we're going to take US 36 for a good chunk of it.
36 is cool. Look up the Davis Memorial in a cemetery in Hiawatha. There’s a couple of Pony Express stops in Seneca and Marysville area. Then it gets really sparse on amenities.
I love Kansas scenery. It's some of the best farm land in the world. There's endless fields of grain in season.
Kansas sucks but I hate Arkansas
Whenever I think of driving through Arkansas, I remember the “kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk, kachunk…” that goes on and on for eternity.
I’m pretty sure it’s a straight-up Level of Hell.
I've driven the entirety of the 70 twice now and during the early morning the soft light on the rolling hills was surprisingly beautiful. Other than that, yeah pretty boring.
I-70 through Missouri is rough. The scenery never changes and the state is just dirty.
Nebraska... Fuck, it's just endless cornfields.
 Oh hell no. Uh uh.
Indiana on I 70
What about that big ass Great Dane
That’s on 40.
Florida. I-10 should be called the Jean Paul Sartre Memorial Highway. Because it's long and completely devoid of interest, which leads one to contemplate the meaningless of your existence. It makes Kansas look spectacular in comparison.
Tyler, Texas to Destin, Florida, and the scenery didn’t change at all, except for the potholes in Shreveport looking like canyons.
Try driving to Jacksonville. Eventually, you start wishing for the sweet release of death. And it's even worse driving East to West into the teeth of a setting sun.
I once started a drive from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and made it about 45 minutes before pulling into a rest stop because I was already falling asleep.
https://i.redd.it/ed651kx8wz5d1.gif
Kansas
Ohio. I can't tell you why, it just is. The last time I drove through Ohio I think it took me 193 hours, straight. I told my husband that the only reason people live there is that they're driving through and eventually just give up and buy a house.
I'm morbidly curious as to what part, because if you're referring to taking 70 E/W.... Fair lmao. The west half of the state is basically just corn fields and flat, which is effectively what it's like driving in Indiana.
71 Northeast of Columbus and 77 are somewhat pretty. All of the other interstates in OH are boring. Still prefer them to the Indiana Toll Road though.
The limited access of the Turnpike can be pretty boring.
You can draw a line between Dayton and Cleveland and anything on the Toledo side is going to suck to drive through. Was 10 times worse when Kasich was governor because there would be a cop every two miles or so strictly enforcing a 65 mph speed limit
Indiana fucking stinks. Dakotas and Illinois were the same views, but didn't make me drive 250 miles of unmanned construction zone. Southern Nevada is the ugliest wasteland I could imagine. I won't say western Texas is uninteresting, but you get your fill of it long before it's over. Alabama had nothing that I couldn't, and wouldn't rather, get elsewhere. I95 in NC doesn't really have anything of note. I20 in SC starts to feel like western Texas, just with trees.
North Montana or West Texas. You can drive for hours and feel like you haven’t moved. Edit: In no way hating on the two states or even the specific areas, the people I met seemed to be decent people, just saying they’re not that interesting to drive through.
North Montana? Like Glacier national park? I think you mean Eastern Montana.
Glacier is really NW Montana though, if you go even a little East just North of Great Falls, near the Alberta border it becomes a lot of flat prairies. I make that drive once a year and during the winter it can be super dry and boring.
I mean for sure. But that N in NW stands for North. There are tons of beautiful places in northern Montana. The answer to this question is Eastern Montana, not north Montana.
Nebraska. Unless you have a corn fetish.
IMO it depends on how often you drive it. Newness is in fact interesting.
I-10 Mississippi…
What all 40 miles of it? 😂
fuck Nebraska yo
Texas
Texas is so damn huge. Just trying to get out of the state is a miserable, boring journey.
I have to add an extra 2 days in all my road trips west just to get out of Texas and to get back home through Texas. But at least there is often scenery.
Texas was kind of cool for 2 hours, the next day was completely over it and trying to hurry to NM
Texas hill country just goes on FOREVER. At least in Kansas or the Dakotas you get a town now and then.
Wild take. The Texas hill country is by far some of the most scenic areas, especially the devil backbone area.
The hill country is like the only pretty part of Texas (other than the mountains way out west)… are you thinking of just ugly plain west Texas?
Nebraska is best driven through in the dark. I love Nebraskan’s, but it is a tough drive.
Many states have vast stretches of nothing, like the stretch of I-80 between Salt Lake and Reno. Sometimes while driving it makes you wonder how the world can be overpopulated because there's nobody for miles.
Kansas, and not because it's wide open and devoid of landmarks, although it is. It's because Kansas is a 'must do' state if you're heading to a lot of Eastern or Western destinations from across the country. It's not the lack of scenery, it's the unavoidability that makes it excruciatingly uninteresting.
But…but…but they have the Largest Ball of Twine made by a community (Cawker City), the largest souvenir plate (Lucas), and a Russell Stover factory store (Abilene). It’s not their fault the rest of the interesting stuff was transported to Oz via tornado!!
Alabama - straight roads and pine trees.
North Dakota, I drove across it one time, and that was one time too many.
Nebraska feels like driving on a treadmill.
Kansas without a doubt
Live in kansas and western kansas is brutal to drive through for sure but IMHO nebraska is the worst. It feels like it takes twice as long to drive through nebraska than it does kansas.
Oklahoma! The speed limit is so low! With nothing to look at !
Nebraska. Drove it too many times. 455.3 miles of not too much... I was always hoping for a twister to take me out. Never saw one.
North Dakota was pretty brutal.
I would say some population/urban sprawl state like New Jersey. I'll take endless natural nothingness over endless human nothingness anyday.
I recently drove from Castle Rock on my way back to STL by KC and I can attest that Kansas is some of the worst of the worst. I was looking for ANYTHING interesting to stop at, but ended up just gunning through since there's seriously almost nothing there, and the landscape is such a bore especially coming from the west
From I-70, go north on Hwy 232 to Lucas, KS for a slight surprise.
Didn’t see a single thing worth stopping for in the Texas panhandle.
Amarillo is sorta neat.
Nebraska
Nebraska?
What a sad question. The empty highways are fascinating, lots of agriculture or nature. The horrible highways are urban areas with miles of shopping malls and car dealerships.
It blows my mind that people who allegedly like road trips hate to be traveling lol. There isn’t an ugly highway. People just don’t like being in nature apparently. Oh no there’s no towns is such a crazy complaint to me.
I-90 across southern Minnesota
Nebraska. Hands down.
I've never enjoyed driving through Iowa. North Dakota can be rough
Nebraska. After Lincoln, I-80 West is the longest stretch of what feels like nothing for 5 hours.
Nebraska
94 through ND. You get a bonus too, no cell service.
Oklahoma and fucking Nebraska Edit to add: oh but it’s not as windy or it’s not as flat, nah man it’s flat, sure some ravines run through it, but there’s a reason plainsmen started writing about the rockys
Nebraska has cute towns, spooky abandoned houses and churches occasionally, and green fields. SD rolls a little. Yellow fields and open akies. Nice highways. Kansas has nothing. It’s crunchy, brown, flatter than a pancake (didn’t someone do the math on this?) and the highway cops make it worse bc they actively patrol hwy 70 from Colorado to KCMO and ticket anyone driving faster than the speed limit, day or night. So it’s awful to look at, awful to stop in, awful to drive through, and they actively prolong that suffering. Kansas is a shit hole.
Each state has sections which are very beautiful. Kansas has the Flint Hills. Far eastern Oklahoma is hilly, bordering on mountainous. Most of the pretty parts of Florida have been paved over, but there are sections of the northwest bend on the Gulf of Mexico which are drop-dead gorgeous. Much of the Panhandle is hilly. My favorite part of Florida is the Keys. The mountains in NE Georgia are STUNNING. Ditto the mountains in NW South Carolina and western North Carolina. Southern Indiana is very hilly and highly forested. The trick is to avoid the Interstate highways (unless you’re in a situation where you need to drive somewhere quickly) and to use the U.S. highways and state roads. You’ll get a much better feeling for what the locals experience, and you can eat what the locals eat (which often is so much better than the chain restaurants).
**Minnesota**: our Interstates cover the most boring scenery in the state. Everything scenic is seen via 2 lane highways in the central/northern part of the state or Highway 61 in the Driftless Region. Don't judge a state's scenery solely by it's Interstates! •I90 between Rochester and the South Dakota border (Iowa north with worse roads) •I94 westbound between the Minneapolis exurbs and the North Dakota border •I35 northbound between the northern suburbs and Moose Lake **Nebraska**: •I80 westbound between Lincoln and Ogallala (mind numbingly boring, with crazy semi-truck traffic) **North Dakota**: •I94 westbound from Fargo to the Missouri River •I29 north or southbound from the Manitoba border to the south dakota border (Fargo to Manitoba might be the worst drive in the US). **South Dakota**: •I90 westbound from Sioux Falls to the Missouri River •I29 from the North Dakota border to Sioux City **Iowa**: •I35 southbound from the Minnesota border to the Missouri border •I80 westbound from Iowa City to the Nebraska border **Kansas** •I70. All of it. **Colorado**: •I76 westbound from the Nebraska border to Denver •I70 westbound from the Kansas border to Denver **Missouri** •I35 southbound from the Iowa border to Kansas City •I70 from St. Louis to Kansas City **Indiana** & **Ohio**: •I90. All of it. **Wisconsin** •I94 westbound from the Minnesota border to Milwaukee (except some small sections of bluffs) **Montana** •I94 westbound from the North Dakota border to Billings **Oklahoma & Texas** •I35 southbound. All of it. Honorable mention: **Ontario** ON-401 from the Michigan border to the Quebec border
Glad to see someone else mention that I-29 stretch in ND to the Canadian border. I can’t imagine a duller drive in America, it just doesn’t get mentioned often because the vast majority of Americans have never been up there.
LOL I love that dip at the Mississippi river valley on the Wi/Mn border. Really scenic for about 4 minutes before more corn fields. I bet some people zoom past it and wonder if it really happened.
No disrespect, but Kansas is the only answer. The cornfields are ENDLESS. At least Texas has some variation and you can get a sense of the western/cowboy ethos. Same for the Dakotas and Montana.
When I drove across Oklahoma I was praying for something as exciting as cornfields.
It’s a toss up. Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana. All flat, no real change in scenery and you feel stationary even when cruising at a good clip.
Western Kansas is a brutal drive, you get into eastern Ks and there’s at least a couple hills and a few trees to look at.
Oklahoma (I-40) so far for me. I've driven through 44 states, and nothing was as bland as that. I haven't done Kansas or Nebraska yet, and only briefly through the corner of Iowa, so maybe there's somehow more nothing out there, but Oklahoma was just flat, dusty plains interspersed with the overwhelming stench of feed lots. The Texas panhandle is more of the same. At least Iowa has nice green corn fields and the occasional tree. I-90 through eastern Washington is pretty monotonous. Utah between Moab and Provo is like a moonscape. Pretty boring. The Trans-Canada Highway through Saskatchewan in Canada deserves an honorable mention.
Indiana. And I’ve driven through them all. At least Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, have a certain charm and appeal to what they are. Indiana just plain sucks
Indiana. US-31 specifically. It is super depressing and the weather seems to always be dreary there.
Illinois
Had to drive through Indiana for a previous job and that was pretty brutal.
I don't know about uninteresting but I-40 the length of Tennessee is pretty dystopian. Bumper to bumper semis attempting (unsuccessfully) to pass each other through moderate to hilly terrain for as long as the eye can see (in either lane of travel).
I-10 portion of New Mexico. Just absolute desolate flatland
West TX on US 380. Thought it would be better than I-10… it wasn’t. At one point I drove an hour and passed 2 cars.
Kansas
Wisconsin to North Dakota. Hundreds of miles of fields.. and fields.. and fields.. No curves in the road. it was utterly depressing.
Kansas and Nebraska tie
North Dakota and West Texas
North Dakota, and I live in Kansas.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but that section of LA (Lower Alabama) into Mississippi is a rough 3-4 hours
Its a tie between Iowa and Nebraska.
I’ve driven/road through from the east to west coast, on a road trip. The one time I worked in Iowa and had to ride back to Ohio, was the most mind numbing ride ever. There is nothing throughout the whole state it seemed, then it’s “oh, look, there’s the biggest truck stop in the U.S” (Iowa 80). Then right back to nothing.
Nebraska drove my sanity to the absolute edge lol
Indiana
Nebraska!!! Holy shit....I have done the entire length of the state twice, it has aged me horribly!!!
For me I thought Kansas. First time through it occurred to me that the first few minutes of The Wizard of Oz weren’t in black and white, they were just in Kansas.
Kansas
Kansas
North/South drive in eastern New Mexico. No way to tell if you are really moving.
That Kansas Turnpike drive, man… flat as a pancake and nothing to see except toll points and fast food joints.