I was reading in a thread about the University of Arkansas and somebody mentioned the drive between Memphis and Little Rock is the ugliest drive in America. Haven’t been anywhere near there but I have a hard time imagining it is worse than a good portion of the drive between Salt Lake City and Reno.
Where have you driven that is a bit hard on the eyes?
There are two drives that we have had to do a lot that I think qualify as unscenic drives.
I-86 in western New York has a few places where you would say, “that’s kind of pretty.“ But mostly, I think it is pretty dull. Probably not as dull as either of the drives you listed, but given how many pretty areas there are around western New York that particular drive is way below average.
The other is I-70 between Indianapolis and St. Louis, especially the first half of that drive (up to about Effingham). It is extremely dull, and there is nowhere good to stop either. We made a note in our travel logs to make sure we stopped before hitting that stretch because we would be sorry if we didn’t. You think you can stop in Terre Haute, but it is the worst. The area around the highway smelled bad every time we were there, and every service worker we encountered at restaurants and gas stations was really surly.
I-70 from Denver to Kansas City. Goodness, it’s a boring drive especially after you pass through Hays, the last real town for awhile. The religious billboards are interesting/amusing though.
The Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey, and I70 in Indiana.
I-90 through all of Ohio. I know it is supposedly only 5 hours or so…but it feels like eleventy billion hours of flat nothingness.
This thread cracks me up.
Most of So Cal is horrendous. The 5, the 10, the 91, the 405, each is almost uglier than the last.
There are some redeeming snippets here and there, but that’s not what this thread is about. 
South of Chicago to W Lafayette- flat farm land and wind farms. Boring!!!
Texas. Anywhere in TX. The soulsucking drive across TX from AZ to GA to visit our son was death. The only upside was that the speed limit was mostly 80 (85?) mph, so I drove 90 just to get across as fast as possible. Thankfully, he recently moved to MD, so never again.
Also, the abyss between Phoenix and LA that is highway 10 is brutal.
The drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul to my alma mater, the University of North Dakota.
Eons ago the drive from Dallas to El Paso is pretty dull, but at least it’s empty. What I really hate is the endless line of fast food and little shopping centers that comprises so much of America. Everywhere looks the same. You could be anywhere.
I loved the drive between SLC and Reno (in terms of the views, not the ~7 hour duration) when D was in college. The salt flats are just stunning and the scale of the mountain landscape and the endless views after that are amazing. Perhaps the only downer is that there are four hours of those landscapes before you get back to the desert near Reno. It’s especially beautiful in the winter when the peaks are covered in snow.
We usually left early to drive back all the way to SF and I loved watching the sun rise as you ascend Pequop Summit (or on the way back, seeing the evening sun on the salt flats and salt lake with the Wasatch in the distance).
The portion of I-5 between the Grapevine and Stockton
I-80 between Reno and SLC. The salt flats are interesting, but not enough to make me dislike that drive
I-40, I-15, I-8, and I-10 through the desert. These routes get very boring after a while…
I-85 the entire way across SC is the absolute pits.
I remember driving I85 from Richmond to Durham and thinking will we ever see anything other than trees on both sides of the highway?
Keep driving south and you’ll see nonstop construction, and endless billboards for fireworks and adult novelty stores. Oh and giant confederate flags.
It has been awhile since I have made that drive on I-80.
I guess when one is around mountains on a daily basis it becomes easy to discount their appeal on a long drive in what seems the middle of nowhere.
I-85 is lovely compared to I-95. It goes through the worst of NC and that’s kind of the best of it. Go north or south and it gets more congested. It has the worst traffic of any road on the east coast that I’ve ever been on. It’s just horrible.
Avenue of the Saints between St. Louis and St. Paul.
We once took that drive through Kansas and it was very boring. But, we stopped at a burger place in the middle-of-nowhere Kansas. As we were sitting in a booth a kid about 7 yr old strolled by with a red wagon full of what looked like rocks.
He proceeded to bargain with the owner about the price of what I learned later were meteorites! Apparently they were everywhere.
I drive this stretch often. I like it after leaving Denver metro area, empty and flat. Boring is a whole lot better than ugly clutter imo. To me, I-70 gets so much worse in Missouri.
