In fact, the area is so rich in musical history that U.S. Route 61, which runs Next stop is the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Here you can see some awesome artifacts, like Isaac Hayes' car or Booker T. No trip down the Blues Trail is complete without a stop at the Highway 61 Blues Museum.
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Also, King is buried in the back of the museum, so be sure to pay your respects. This is a very relaxed, local Southern restaurant that specializes in barbecue and burgers. They also do mean fried chicken and great ribs, and they serve beer to wash it all down. When you're ready to call it a night, head to the Natchez Grand Hotel. The location is phenomenal, on a bluff with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River.
The hotel is just a two minute walk from the casino, and a couple miles from Natchez National Historic Park. There's wifi and some suites have balconies and whirlpool tubs. There's also an outdoor pool and a free hot breakfast. To learn more about the history of the small towns along the Blues Highway, visit the Rural Life Museum.
This is an especially great place to stop if you're a history buff.
U.S. Route 61
There are self-guided tours across the acre living history Burden Plantation. This is a local favorite, casual dining steakhouse. The steak, beef tamales, and honey-covered drop biscuits are highly recommended, plus their bartender is an award-winning mixologist who crafts delicious cocktails! If you want a relaxing and peaceful stay, you can't get much better than the cottages at The Cajun Village in Sorrento, Louisiana.
There are rockers on the front porch and you could spend forever just hanging out for the afternoon. It's the perfect, laid-back, rustic Southern getaway. And once you cruise into New Orleans, you don't even have to go inside to listen to music By now, you should be an expert, so go ahead and sing along. For a great place to stay in NOLA, the Cornstalk Hotel is a gorgeous Victorian house that's surrounded by an iron fence that looks like cornstalks. There's loads of antiques and chandeliers, and free wifi so you can stream some blues music to enjoy in the privacy of your cozy room.
Upgrade to a room with a fireplace for extra charm. There's a 2, year old oak tree out front that adds to the beautiful ambiance of of the historic restaurant. The stuffed snapper is highly recommended, and if you can, get a seat in the intimate and romantic courtyard. Best time to travel down the Blues Highway: Since summer is high season for all of the towns along the route, spring and fall are the best times to travel if you're hoping to avoid high hotel rates, crowds, and the often-sweltering Southern heat.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Find Tours Click to find bookable tours and activities here. Ground Zero Blues Club. People tend to follow their stomachs through Louisiana, but history also runs deep here, evidenced by the array of architectural styles, historic downtowns and sites where lands and lives were gained and lost. Follow the theme into Mississippi, where indigenous settlements, a legendary battlefield and a parade of storied homes await. From the Quarter, take a paddlewheeler cruise downriver to the Chalmette Battlefield, site of the final battle of the War of Here, the stately and haunting Malus-Beauregard House will prepare you for the upcoming journey into Plantation Country.
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Take in views of the river as you pass antebellum plantation homes and remnants of the sugar cane fields that once sustained them. Beneath moss-draped oaks and Greek Revival-style columns, the 10 estates of Plantation Country are restored and open for tours. Evergreen Plantation offers a rare chance to see a working sugar cane plantation with 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 preserved slave cabins. Some properties in Plantation Country offer accommodations, perfect for a night's rest before you head deep into the Louisiana bayou.
Trade Plantation Country for Bayou Country in Houma, a region deep in the state known for its Cajun culture, colorful locals and, of course, swamps. Estimates indicate that southern Louisiana stewards nearly half of the wetlands in the lower United States, creating a landscape of cypress trees and wetlands, plus the alligators, turtles and hundreds of bird species they shelter. Tour the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge by airboat, canoe or even seaplane. The Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum downtown complements the swamp tour with exhibits on the area's connection to the water.
Nighttime beckons with tasty food and foot-stomping zydeco, Cajun and swamp pop music.
Ask friendly locals for their recommendation of hot spots and dance the night away. If your itinerary allows, catch a show at Acadiana Center for the Arts, known for attracting top-name musical acts. On you way out of Natchez, be sure to stop at Emerald Mound.
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The ceremonial mound, one of the largest in North America, rises more than The site dates to See 1,plus monuments and markers, from a restored Union gunboat to the Shirley House, which narrowly survived the battle, and a national cemetery. Living history programs run in summer.
61 Highway - Vicksburg
Peek at Confederate Gen. Both of these Greek Revival-style residences have war stories to share. Anchuca was a shelter for the wounded, and Cedar Grove was a cannonball target. Ask to see the affected parlor wall. Your final stop on this road trip is back in Louisiana in Shreveport-Bossier City, home to two historic districts: The Red River defines downtown and hints at former enterprises, including cotton. Sightseeing cruises, available April through November, reveal more.
Retract navigation Search form. Alaska Anchorage Fairbanks Juneau. Connecticut Hartford Mystic New Haven. From there, head west into Utah on state route until you hit Moab, then venture up US to the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail, where you can take a self-guided tour of an area where fossils of dinos like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Camarasaurus dot the landscape. Then head up to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry to see one of Earth's largest collections of dino fossils from the Jurassic era before venturing further north to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, which has life-sized models of a dozen and a half dinosaurs—including Utahraptor, which inspired the raptors of Steven Spielberg's cinematic masterpiece.
From there, it's a quick drive east to Dinosaur Quarry, where you can gaze over thousands of fossils, before heading back into Colorado and closing the loop. The whole trip runs around miles, but expect to spend at least three days navigating the highways and byways if you want to see it all. And if anyone in your road trip crew isn't as enthusiastic about dinos as you are, there are plenty of jaw-dropping Western vistas along the way to keep 'em occupied.
Most of New York state's well-known attractions lie along the broad eastern flank of the state, whether it's the Adirondacks in the north to the mighty metropolis of New York City in the south. But the Empire State's quieter western end has its fair share of charm, too. Few areas in America can compare to the pastoral beauty of the Finger Lakes region, an area famous for its wineries found in a rough triangle between the small cities of Rochester, Ithaca, and Syracuse.
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Starting in the latter, head down Interstate 81 to Cortland, the closest incorporated city to the state's center, before diverting onto state highway 13 and following it southwest to Ithaca, where you can walk the campus of Cornell University. From there, head north a few miles on route 89 to Taughannock Falls State Park, home of a mighty gorge that plays host to the towering titular waterfall, which sends water cascading down a foot drop—the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies.
Then keeping going northwards on 89, where you can eat and drink your way along some of the area's best distilleries, wineries, and eateries. Say, maybe our future of self-driving car road trips won't be so bad. Once you've reached the northern end of Cayuga Lake, swing west through Seneca Falls, then south along highway 96 to hit the quaint towns of Ovid and Interlaken, before swinging over to the coast of Seneca Lake and following route down to one of the most iconic spots in American motorsports: At around miles, this road trip can easily be knocked out in a day.
But the Finger Lakes are filled with enough interesting places to stop and explore that it's best to allocate at least two so you don't have to rush. The trip is best done in summer, when the weather is nicest, or fall, when the autumn foliage is in full effect. If you're looking for a road trip that all but comes with its own playlist, it's hard to beat the stretch of U. This road served as the central artery for blues musicians; many of the greatest names in the style's history—Muddy Waters, B. King, John Lee Hooker—either traveled the road or lived somewhere along it, while Bob Dylan chose it as the basis for the iconic album, "Highway 61 Revisited.
Head north out of Vicksburg and roll along the four-lane road through the delta until you hit Clarksdale, where fabled bluesman Robert Johnson reportedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of Highway 61 and Highway 49; legend has it the Prince of Darkness still walks those streets, looking to make a trade. Hellish encounters aside, Clarksdale is worth the stop to see the Delta Blues Museum alone—and since you're stopping anyway, might as well hit up one of the town's many clubs to hear some live music.
From there, it's less than a couple hours to Memphis—which is good, because you'll want to spend some time in this western Tennessee town. Hang a right just before you hit Interstate 55, and you'll find Elvis Presley's fabled Graceland estate. Once you tear yourself away from the clashing fashions of The King's home, drive a few minutes up the road to Beale Street, the downtown stretch where artists like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison all cut their recording teeth at Sun Studio. The whole trip—which is good any time of year but could be a tad steamy in summer—covers around miles, but it's best experienced over two days, with an overnight stay in Clarksdale.
After all, The Blues Highway may be many things The word "Texas" may not bring to mind great roads, but the rolling hills that give the south-central part of the state their name are wound tight with the sort of driving paths best experienced in a sports car. Start your Texas Hill Country road trip in Austin, an off-beat town that sometimes seems to have more in common with hipster enclaves such as Brooklyn or Portland; whether the folks who populate Texas's weirdest city are your cup of tea or not, however, it's worth taking some time there to check out the broad array of live music to be found.
U.S. Route 61 - Wikipedia
And should you stay past dark, be sure to watch the flight of hundreds of thousands of bats that live in the world's largest urban bat colony beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge. Then head west on U. Johnson and home to Pedernales Falls State Park, a perfect spot for hiking or relaxing on the broad, shallow rocks of the Pedernales River.
From there, drive west and a little south to the small town of Hunt, a mecca for kayakers and summertime swimmers thanks to its bevy of swimming holes, before venturing further west to the town of Rocksprings. If you missed the bats in Austin or if you were just blown away by them , head to the nearby Devil's Sinkhole, a natural limestone cave from which around 3 million Mexican free-tailed bats depart at night. From Rocksprings, head south on state route 55 to Uvalde, considered roughly the southern edge of Texas Hill Country and hometown of Lincoln spokesman Matthew McConaughey, before making a break east towards San Antonio.
Towards, not to; bang a left onto state road at Hondo to make your way to Bandera, known as the Cowboy Capital of the planet. The area is packed with working dude ranches where you can experience the cowpoke life for yourself, as well as the Frontier Times Museum, with a quirky collection of Western culture-related artifacts.