15 Great Drives That You Just Can’t Do Anymore

Some roads get wider. Others disappear under a lake, vanish beneath lava, or become the walking trail where you stop and think: People used to drive a car through here?

These 15 American drives really existed. What is gone is the original trip along the specific road, bridge, or through-route below. Plenty of the surrounding highways still welcome cars—but these particular windshield views belong to another era.

Devil’s Slide: California’s Former Cliffside Highway 1

• A former 1.3-mile stretch of Highway 1 south of Pacifica
• Pacific cliffs, ocean spray, and a notoriously restless hillside
• Now a paved coastal trail instead of a public motor road

The name was your first hint that this would not be a relaxing place to discover a fear of heights.

Old Highway 1 clung to the cliffs at Devil’s Slide with the Pacific spread below it and the hillside looming above. On a clear day, the view could steal the show. The geology occasionally tried to steal the road.

Landslides repeatedly interrupted the route. The Tom Lantos Tunnels eventually carried traffic through the mountain, and the bypassed pavement opened as Devil’s Slide Trail in 2014. The coast did not become less spectacular. Drivers simply stopped being the ones occupying this particular strip of it.

There is something wonderfully strange about the old alignment today: the sweeping highway curves are still recognizable, but the moving traffic is mostly people walking and pedaling. You can linger over a view that once flashed past the passenger window while the driver concentrated on keeping everyone on the continent.

What You Can Still See

Walk the official Devil’s Slide Trail for the former roadway, coastal overlooks, and interpretive displays. The modern Highway 1 tunnels remain the driving route.

Mosier Twin Tunnels: Oregon’s Lost Gorge Drive

• The original Columbia River Highway between Hood River and Mosier
• Rock tunnels and big views above the Columbia
• The Twin Tunnels segment is now a walking and cycling route

A modern highway tries to get you through a landscape efficiently. This old road seemed to want an introduction to every cliff.

The Historic Columbia River Highway was built to make a journey through the gorge an event. Near Mosier, that meant threading vehicles through two tunnels carved into the rock, with river scenery waiting outside. Imagine coming out of the shadows in an old touring car and finding the Columbia spread across the view.

The tunnels became a problem as vehicles grew larger and traffic became heavier. A replacement river-level highway took the through traffic, and the old passage was eventually filled. Its later restoration brought it back as part of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.

That second life is a gift: the tunnels and portions of the old road survived without becoming another stream of rushing cars. The curves still reveal how an early scenic highway worked with its surroundings. You just supply the horsepower yourself.

What You Can Still See

The approximately five-mile Twin Tunnels trail connects the Hood River and Mosier areas, with trailheads at both ends. It offers the tunnels and gorge overlooks on foot or bicycle.

Old Seven Mile Bridge: The Florida Keys’ Narrow Ocean Crossing

• The original Seven Mile Bridge alignment in the Florida Keys
• A railway bridge converted into an unforgettable motor crossing
• Replaced for through road traffic in 1982

Water to the left. Water to the right. An oncoming vehicle that suddenly looked wider than you remembered vehicles being.

The old Seven Mile Bridge delivered the Florida Keys in their most dramatic form: a narrow line of civilization stretching across an unreasonable amount of blue. It began as part of Henry Flagler’s railroad, then took on a second career carrying automobiles after the Overseas Railway era ended.

The modern bridge that opened in 1982 made the trip more comfortable. It also retired a driving experience that was equal parts tropical postcard and exercise in paying attention. You can still drive across the water here, of course—just not along the full original crossing.

The old structure remains beside its successor, a long, weathered reminder that somebody once looked across this water and decided a road belonged there. Pigeon Key adds another layer: a small island tied to the enormous job of building the original railway.

What You Can Still See

A restored 2.2-mile section from Marathon toward Pigeon Key reopened for walking and cycling in 2022. Enjoy that public section or visit Pigeon Key through its organized access options.

Rays Hill and Sideling Hill: Pennsylvania’s Abandoned Turnpike

• The bypassed Pennsylvania Turnpike east of Breezewood
• Two mountain tunnels retired from traffic in 1968
• A vanished chapter of America’s early superhighway era

An empty four-lane highway is peculiar enough. An empty highway leading straight into a mountain feels like the opening scene of a movie.

This was once part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the celebrated road that made crossing the state’s ridges feel like a leap into the future. Motorists swept along broad pavement, then squeezed into tunnels that could not keep up with the volume of traffic the road attracted.

Rays Hill and Sideling Hill were bypassed in 1968. The new route solved a bottleneck; the old one became a remarkable time capsule of concrete lanes, tunnel portals, and wooded hills. It is the sort of place that makes you imagine tailfins, picnic coolers, and a parent announcing that the next stop was absolutely the last stop.

Nature has been working on the pavement ever since. Grass and trees soften the edges, while the tunnel openings still look built for a procession of cars that never arrives. The modern Pennsylvania Turnpike is very much alive. This specific mountain crossing is the part it left behind.

What You Can Still See

The former highway is associated with the Pike 2 Bike trail project. Use designated public access and current local guidance; portions and conditions vary. The tunnels are unlit, and this is a walking or cycling exploration, not an abandoned road to try in your car.

Westside Road: Mount Rainier’s Drive Beyond Dry Creek

• The former motor route beyond Dry Creek in Mount Rainier National Park
• Forest, stone bridges, and glacier-fed river country
• The first three miles remain seasonally drivable; the rest does not

Rainier does not need to erupt to rearrange the neighborhood.

Its glaciers, streams, and steep slopes can move water, trees, and astonishing amounts of rock. Westside Road found that out repeatedly. What began as a scenic motor route into the mountain’s western country now stops ordinary vehicles at Dry Creek, about three miles from its junction with the park’s main southwest road.

Beyond the closure, the old road winds toward trailheads, forested slopes, and historic structures. Civilian Conservation Corps workmanship survives in the area’s bridges and stonework—a reminder of the care that went into making the mountain accessible without making the road the star.

Repeated flooding and debris flows from Tahoma Creek ended the longer public drive. The contrast is the story: careful human engineering beside a landscape that keeps delivering a fresh load of boulders. This was a real scenic spur road. A much larger proposed road around the mountain was never completed, and should not be confused with the drive visitors actually made.

What You Can Still See

Drive the open first three miles when the seasonal road is available, then continue only by the permitted nonmotorized means. The road beyond Dry Creek is used by hikers and bicyclists. Old stone structures and views of the changing river corridor make the journey worthwhile even after the car’s portion ends.

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge: Route 66’s Crooked Mississippi Crossing

• The old Route 66 crossing at St. Louis
• A mile-long bridge with a famous 30-degree bend
• Now a public walking and cycling crossing

Most bridges ask you to drive straight. This one inserted a plot twist halfway across the Mississippi.

The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge is famous for its 30-degree bend, an unmistakable kink in a long steel crossing above the river. For generations of Route 66 travelers, it was a memorable gateway between Illinois and Missouri—not the sort of bridge you mistook for the one in the next town.

It eventually became too narrow and outdated for modern traffic. A newer crossing took over, leaving the old structure in an awkward retirement before preservation and trail work gave it another purpose. It reopened as part of a bikeway in 1999.

The steelwork, the bend, and the broad river view still supply the spectacle. What disappeared is the ordinary public road trip across it: you cannot simply follow old Route 66 here in your family car. Special authorized vehicle events are a different matter, not everyday road access.

What You Can Still See

Walk or cycle the old bridge through the public greenway. As of October 2026, construction blocks the Illinois-side canal-bridge approach, so public access is from the Missouri side. From the deck, the river and distinctive water-intake towers make it easy to understand why this crossing stayed in travelers’ memories.

North Carolina 288: The Mountain Road Beneath Fontana Lake

• The former river road between the Bryson City and Deals Gap areas
• Mountain communities along the Little Tennessee River
• Much of the route was lost to Fontana Lake

The prettiest view from a reservoir overlook can also be a view of somebody’s old way home.

Before Fontana Lake spread between these mountain slopes, North Carolina 288 followed the Little Tennessee River and connected communities along what became the lake’s north shore. This was a lived-in landscape of homes, farms, and roads—not an empty bowl waiting for water.

Fontana Dam transformed it in the 1940s. The reservoir flooded much of the highway and cut the familiar road connections. A valley drive became a memory beneath a mountain lake, with surviving traces separated from the through-route people once depended on.

The story also explains the famous Road to Nowhere near Bryson City. That later, unfinished road was an attempted replacement. It is not the old NC 288, and its tunnel should not be mistaken for a tunnel on the drowned drive. The distinction makes the place more interesting: one road was lost, while the promise of another was never fully realized.

What You Can Still See

Fontana Dam and legal lake overlooks reveal the scale of the changed valley. The Lakeview Drive tunnel and North Shore trails tell the replacement-road story. Some old road remnants emerge or can be encountered in the surrounding landscape, but the original NC 288 journey cannot be restored by following them.

The Arrowhead Trail Through St. Thomas: Nevada’s Drowned Desert Stop

• An old Arrowhead Trail stop between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City
• A desert town overtaken by Lake Mead in the 1930s
• Exposed ruins today are reached on a walking trail

A town in the desert ought to worry about running out of water. St. Thomas had the opposite problem.

The Nevada settlement served travelers on the Arrowhead Trail, an early automobile route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Picture the relief of reaching buildings and familiar signs of town life after miles of dry country. This was a stop on a journey, not a destination people approached by boat.

Then Hoover Dam changed the map. Lake Mead began filling in 1935, and the rising water overtook St. Thomas. At high water, the town lay far below the lake’s surface. The old driving route through its streets had become part of a reservoir.

Lower water levels eventually exposed the site again. Foundations, steps, and the outlines of streets returned to daylight, looking almost ready for the rest of the town to reappear. But exposure is not resurrection. A visible road trace does not reconnect the original automobile journey, and today’s visitor route through the ruins is on foot.

What You Can Still See

The National Park Service provides a dirt access road to a parking area, followed by a trail to the townsite. Walk the exposed remains when conditions allow.

Texas 87: The Missing Coastal Link Between High Island and Sea Rim

• The former paved coast road from High Island toward Sea Rim
• Marsh on one side and the Gulf close by
• Repeated storm tides destroyed the direct coastal connection

On a map, it looks as if the coast ought to provide an obvious route. The Gulf has repeatedly declined to cooperate.

Texas 87 once offered a direct paved journey between High Island and the Sea Rim area, following a low coastal landscape of beach, marsh, and open sky. It was the kind of road where the scenery did not need mountains. The enormous horizon did the work.

But a road sitting that close to the water has very little room to negotiate. Repeated storm tides and erosion damaged the pavement until the coastal connection was lost. The remaining fragments are evidence of a highway, not a usable public paved through-route.

This is an especially easy road to misunderstand because Highway 87 still exists on both sides. The Bolivar Peninsula drive is real and open, and Sea Rim is still reached from the Sabine Pass side. What you cannot do is join those two experiences by cruising along the old coastal highway between them.

What You Can Still See

Visit the legal public beach and marsh areas at Sea Rim State Park, or enjoy the surviving Highway 87 on Bolivar Peninsula. To travel between the two, use the inland road connection. The washed-out stretch belongs to the story of this coast; a beach track is not a substitute highway.

Old Big Oak Flat Road: Yosemite’s Vanished Downhill Entrance

• The original descent from Crane Flat into Yosemite Valley
• Steep curves, stonework, and enormous granite views
• Rockslides ended the old motor route in the 1940s

Arriving in Yosemite should feel dramatic. The old Big Oak Flat Road may have taken that assignment a little too seriously.

Its narrow descent wound toward the valley with tight turns and a view that made the surrounding granite seem impossibly large. Early motorists shared a route with a stage-road past, where getting to the scenery was an adventure of its own.

A new Big Oak Flat Road opened in 1940, but the old descent briefly continued as a one-way scenic drive. Then a major rockslide destroyed its zigzag section. Further slides buried more of the alignment, and the old route never returned as a continuous motor road into the valley.

That is the road being remembered here. The modern Big Oak Flat Road still brings visitors into Yosemite; photographs of its open tunnels do not show a lost drive. The abandoned descent is an older, rougher ribbon on the mountainside, with surviving stonework and roadway fragments offering glimpses of how drivers once approached the same extraordinary valley.

What You Can Still See

Look across Yosemite Valley from established viewpoints and compare the landscape with historic photographs of the old descent. Surviving sections are part of the park’s backcountry and trail history, not a casual driving detour. For an actual arrival by car, use the present park roads and their current conditions.

Old Pali Road: Oʻahu’s Former Cliffside Crossing

• The superseded cliffside road below Nuʻuanu Pali
• A narrow crossing between Honolulu and Windward Oʻahu
• The modern Pali Highway carries today’s traffic through tunnels

The Pali view is spectacular from a lookout. Now imagine meeting it from behind the wheel on the old road curling around the cliff.

Before the modern tunnels, vehicles followed the original Pali crossing through a narrow mountain gap and down the windward side. The setting did most of the talking: steep green walls, a sudden opening toward the coast, and a road that appeared to have been fitted into whatever space the mountain was willing to spare.

The modern highway replaced that cliffside passage when the new tunnels were completed in 1960. Pieces of the old alignment remain, but the former through-drive is gone. Time, vegetation, and rockfalls have continued changing what was left; a 2019 landslide even damaged part of the old roadway above the newer highway.

Do not confuse the lost cliffside section with every road bearing the Pali name. Modern Nuʻuanu Pali Drive and the current Pali Highway are different pieces of today’s network. The vanished experience is the original motor route around the exposed mountainside before the tunnels took over.

What You Can Still See

Use the public Nuʻuanu Pali lookout for the great sweep of Windward Oʻahu and the mountain setting. Historic photographs reveal the old road’s remarkable line. Treat the abandoned cliff road as a historical subject, not an invitation to follow closed or damaged sections beyond the public viewpoint.

Chain of Craters to Kalapana: Hawaiʻi’s Lava-Buried Through-Drive

• The former coastal through-route from the park toward Kalapana
• Lava repeatedly buried the old road connection
• Today’s open Chain of Craters Road is a spectacular out-and-back

Some roads are closed by a gate. This one was closed by the island making more island.

Chain of Craters Road once continued along the coast toward Kalapana, joining a driving route between volcanic uplands and seaside communities. The journey dropped through changing landscapes before reaching a coast that was still being rewritten by Kīlauea.

Lava from the long Puʻuʻōʻō eruption repeatedly crossed and buried the road. Nearly nine miles of roadway were inundated, according to the National Park Service. Familiar places along the coast vanished as well. The ordinary through-drive ended under black rock rather than at a new interchange.

The surviving Chain of Craters Road remains one of the park’s great drives. You can descend toward the ocean and return the same way. What you cannot do is keep cruising through on the old coastal connection to Kalapana. Emergency-access construction in later years did not turn that old holiday drive back into an ordinary open public route.

What You Can Still See

Follow the currently open park road to its designated coastal endpoint for lava fields and ocean views. At Alanui Kahiko, a short official walk reveals an older road fragment swallowed during a separate 1972 eruption. That remnant is a vivid illustration of the larger story—not the same lava event that severed the later Kalapana connection.

Old U.S. 50: Colorado’s River Drive Beneath Blue Mesa

• The former U.S. 50 alignment through the Gunnison River valley
• Ranch country, fishing stops, and towns below today’s reservoir
• The highway was relocated before Blue Mesa filled

Today the water makes the view. Before Blue Mesa, the river made the journey.

The old U.S. 50 corridor followed a valley of communities, ranches, and fishing places along the Gunnison River. Travelers passed a human-sized landscape beneath enormous Colorado scenery: places with names, front doors, and a reason to pull off the road.

The Blue Mesa project changed that landscape in the 1960s. U.S. 50 and Colorado 149 were relocated, with the new alignments completed in 1964. The reservoir began filling in 1966. Iola and Cebolla were flooded, and Sapinero moved uphill as the water took its old site.

You can still enjoy a wonderful drive on U.S. 50 here. It is simply a different drive along a different relationship with the landscape. The old valley-floor journey was replaced by a road around a reservoir, and the lake’s basin names preserve communities that motorists can no longer pass through in the same way.

What You Can Still See

Use the present highway’s established overlooks and Curecanti’s interpretive stops to picture the river valley before the reservoir. Historic photographs give the water a different meaning. Any exposed remnants during low water are pieces of that former landscape, not a reopened stretch of the old U.S. 50 through-route.

Jasper Forest Road: Arizona’s Drive Among Petrified Trees

• The old First Forest–Eagle Nest Rock Road in Petrified Forest National Park
• A 1930s road through a remarkable fossil-wood landscape
• Closed to vehicles in 1965 to reduce petrified-wood theft

This road did not lose a fight with a flood or a landslide. It lost a fight with people who could not leave the souvenirs alone.

Jasper Forest contains an extraordinary concentration of petrified wood scattered through Arizona badlands. The Civilian Conservation Corps built a road into the area in the early 1930s, giving motorists close access to a landscape where fallen trees had turned to stone over immense stretches of time.

Unfortunately, close access made taking pieces easier. The National Park Service closed the historic motor road on October 8, 1965, to reduce illegal removal of petrified wood. A new overlook opened that same month, shifting the visitor experience away from driving down among the deposits.

The old alignment remains part of the landscape, but the ordinary automobile outing is gone. Even some of the landmarks that early visitors photographed, including Eagle Nest Rock, have disappeared through erosion. Here the vanished drive tells two stories at once: nature keeps changing its formations, and people sometimes need to change their habits to let a place survive.

What You Can Still See

Visit the present Jasper Forest overlook for the broad view. The park’s designated Jasper Forest off-the-beaten-path route explores the old alignment on foot. It is a chance to see the former road in context while leaving the petrified wood exactly where the next visitor can admire it.

Old U.S. 10 at Vantage: Washington’s Lost River-Level Crossing

• The former U.S. 10 approach and crossing at Vantage
• A Columbia River journey before Wanapum Reservoir
• The original bridge was relocated—not left beneath the water

Most old bridges retire in place. Vantage’s original bridge packed up and started a second career.

The old U.S. 10 crossing carried travelers across the Columbia River at a lower elevation, with approaches tied to the river landscape before Wanapum Reservoir existed. The dry hills, broad water, and steel bridge made a memorable break in a journey across central Washington.

The dam project required a new, higher crossing. The old route and approaches disappeared into the changed reservoir landscape, while the original steel bridge was dismantled and stored. It was later reassembled across the Snake River at Lyons Ferry.

That detail is too good to leave out. The drive at Vantage is gone, but an important piece of its hardware survived somewhere else. The modern Interstate 90 bridge carries today’s traffic high above the changed river landscape.

What You Can Still See

Enjoy the present Columbia River views around Vantage and Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, then compare them with photographs of the earlier crossing. To see the surviving old bridge itself, look to Lyons Ferry. It is a remarkable case of a lost drive whose bridge escaped the fate of its road.

Photo Credits

Collages combine separately credited photographs, cropped and arranged in Canva. Collage adaptations are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0; original photographs retain their indicated licenses or public-domain status. Photo positions refer to the large top image, lower left, and lower right.

Devil’s Slide. Top: Matt Biddulph from UK (CC BY-SA 2.0); Lower left: Dpalma01 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Lower right: Firstcultural (CC0).

Mosier Twin Tunnels. Top: Robert Ashworth from Bellingham, WA., USA (CC BY 2.0); Lower left: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives (CC BY 4.0); Lower right: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives (CC BY 4.0); Detail: Robert Ashworth from Bellingham, WA., USA (CC BY 2.0).

Old Seven Mile Bridge. Top: Ebyabe (CC BY-SA 3.0); Lower left: Schwerdf (CC BY 4.0); Lower right: Ebyabe (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Rays Hill and Sideling Hill. Top: Mr. Matté (CC BY-SA 3.0); Lower left: Mr. Matté (CC BY-SA 3.0); Lower right: Mr. Matté (CC BY-SA 3.0); Detail: Mr. Matté (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Westside Road. Top: NPS (Public domain); Lower left: NPS (Public domain); Lower right: NPS Photo (Public domain); Detail: Mount Rainier NPS (CC BY 2.0).

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Top: Wilke339 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Lower left: David Hinkson, http://www.trailnet.org/ (Public domain); Lower right: Unknown author (Public domain); Detail: Mpholohan (CC BY-SA 4.0).

North Carolina 288. Top: Tennessee Valley Authority / National Archives (Public domain); Lower left: Brian Stansberry (CC BY 3.0); Lower right: David Haas / Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress (Public domain).

The Arrowhead Trail Through St. Thomas. Top: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs (CC BY-SA 2.0); Lower left: Andrew Cattoir (Lake Mead National Recreation Area) (Public domain); Lower right: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs (CC BY-SA 2.0); Detail: Lake Mead NRA Public Affairs (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Texas 87. Top: gosdin (CC BY-SA 2.0); Lower left: John Perry (CC BY-SA 2.0); Lower right: Carol M. Highsmith (Public domain).

Old Big Oak Flat Road. Top: Brian Grogan / Historic American Engineering Record (Public domain); Lower left: Brian Grogan / Historic American Engineering Record (Public domain); Lower right: Brian Grogan / Historic American Engineering Record (Public domain); Detail: Brian Grogan / Historic American Engineering Record (Public domain).

Old Pali Road. Top: credited to Bernice P. Bishop Museum, R. J. Baker Collection (Public domain); Lower left: Kevin.Daniels (CC BY 3.0); Lower right: Photographer unidentified (Public domain).

Chain of Craters to Kalapana. Top: Jos-uit-boston at Dutch Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0); Lower left: Kip Robinson (Public domain); Lower right: Klaus Hagedorn (CC BY-SA 2.0 de); Detail: Jet Lowe / Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress (Public domain).

Old U.S. 50. Top: Chris Light (CC BY-SA 4.0); Lower left: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942; W.H. Jackson Photograph and Publishing Co (Public domain); Lower right: NPS Photo (Public domain).

Jasper Forest Road. Top: Andrew Kearns from Mill Valley, United States (CC BY 2.0); Lower left: Jeffhollett (CC BY-SA 4.0); Lower right: Andrew Kearns from Mill Valley, United States (CC BY 2.0).

Old U.S. 10 at Vantage. Top: Photographer unidentified; Henry F. Stowell Postcard and Ephemera Collection, University of Washington Libraries (Public domain); Lower left: Stratosphere (CC BY-SA 3.0); Lower right: Thad Roan from Littleton, CO, USA. (CC BY-SA 2.0); Detail: Thad Roan from Littleton, CO, USA. (CC BY-SA 2.0).