The 8 Best Scenic Drives in Southern California

There are many miles of amazing scenic drives in Southern California to explore and in today’s post, I will just focus on 8 of the best ones I’ve personally explored.

Truth be told, it’s not out of the question that every single road in California could be considered a scenic drive because of how much beauty is in this state, but being that I have yet to explore all of them (which may takes many years), I’ll only mention the ones I have seen that have floored me and originally I began with 5 scenic drives, now I’m up to 8.

Here are the 8 best scenic drives in Southern California:

1. Mojave Desert scenic drive (50+ miles).
2. Angeles National Forest scenic drive (50+ miles).
3. Interstate 5 scenic drive (150+ miles).
4. Sequoia National Park scenic drive (40+ miles).
5. Big Sur scenic drive (30+ miles).
6. Kings Canyon scenic byway (40+ miles).
7. Park Boulevard, Joshua Tree National Park scenic drive (40+ miles).
8. Death Valley National Park scenic drive (over 60 miles).

Note: The image here says its 5 scenic drives, but I’ve since added 2 more, so we have 8 so far. Thus far, I’ve explored southern California at least 3 times so far and with each trip, I try to see more places and of course, explore more scenic drives, but so far we have these 8 that are incredible! Let’s start with the first one:

Mojave Desert scenic drive:

Best time to go: Year round, but I recommend November-February.

The first time I passed the Mojave Desert, I was driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. This was the first time I had ever gotten a major taste of what driving in the desert was like and from the very start of my road trip from Las Vegas’s McCarren Airport to Los Angeles, I had never seen such a drastic change in landscape as I did on this 6 hour drive I did.

Believe me, the first time you do this drive, you’ll see what I mean about that drastic landscape change and how awesome that experience is! Anyway, the Mojave Desert and the scenic drive there is over 100 miles long and has tons of spots you can stop at to hike, sight see or just enjoy the driving views, including driving into the actual Mojave Desert and exploring more spots there.

While I didn’t have much time to sightsee here, whether you’re heading from Los Angeles to Las Vegas or vice versa, this scenic drive is one of southern California’s best in my opinion. It’s accessible from Interstate 15 and and also a great way to do a day trip from Las Vegas.

Angeles National Forest scenic drive:

Best time to go: Year round

As my drive from Las Vegas was nearing Los Angeles, that crazy landscape change was beginning to take shape and the first major sign of this change came as I was nearing Angeles National Forest. In fact, the Interstate 15 drive from Las Vegas takes you through both the Mojave Desert and Angeles National Forest so you don’t have to worry about missing this amazing area of southern California.

The elevation changes in this region are astounding and you’ll have tons of opportunities to stop and see major overlooks and signs to enter roads that go deep into Angeles National Forest. Or you can elect to stay on the Interstate 15 drive to continue heading towards Los Angeles if you wish. Either way, this national forest area is stunning, green, with massive mountains and so much more than I can’t even begin to describe it’s beauty. You’ll just have to drive through this region to see what I mean!

Interstate 5 scenic drive up to northern California:

Best time to go: January-March.

While I’d wanted to see the California Coast when I entered Los Angeles, time was not on my side and the fastest way to reach my next destination was to head up through Interstate 5 which I thought would be a regular drive through the middle of California state.

Little did I know that some of the most beautiful nature and scenic drives I would end up seeing in the state and on my whole trip would actually be on this Interstate area!

Here are some notable spots on this drive:

• Pyramid Lake (amazing views).
• Green Mountains (insanely beautiful mountain ranges).
• Sequoia National Park (it’s not far from Interstate 5).
• 200+ miles of this stuff and more!

The pictures from this drive are just a small sample of the beauty on Interstate 5 that you’ll find and frankly, I’m glad I missed the coast and elected to explore this region of California. It was truly something!

Sequoia National Park (one of the most scenic drives in Southern California):

Best time to go: June-November

As I said, Interstate 5 gives you access to another road which takes you to Sequoia National Park and I elected to see this place as I was driving north when I was exploring California for the first time and as it just so happened, that first time ended up being a waste because the park was closed.

However a few years later, a return attempt was made to explore this park and it was a very successful one! Not only was I very impressed by Sequoia National Park, but the scenic drive in that park absolutely stunned me. The whole scenic drive may take you at least 2 hours to do, and if you decide to make stops to see the trees and other attractions there (which I highly recommend you do), then you’ll have at least a day’s worth of attractions to explore in this park. Not only that but there is also another connecting park to Sequoia which has it’s own equally good scenic drive that is on this list (further below).

Note: In my scenic drives in Northern California post, one of the drives you should take is road 1 by the Redwood trees, and there is also a popular article I wrote where I compare Redwoods vs Sequoia, both in regards to the trees and also the scenic drives there.

Road 1 in Big Sur (another great scenic drive in Southern California):

Best time to go: Febuary-November

I have been through Big Sur 3 times so far and each time I go, I find there’s so many more things I can do and see.

For starters, the very scenic drive on Big Sur is what I recommend any first time visitors do! It’s truly a remarkable scenic drive that’ll have you pass through at least 30 miles of insanely beautiful coastal road on the Pacific Coast, which also happens to be one of the most popular areas in all of California, let alone southern California.

Second, there are several stops along the main Big Sur scenic drive you can enter into, be it parks, side roads and so forth that I recommend you explore which further get you closer into the coastal areas. And as for hikes, camping and so forth, there’s plenty of spots in Big Sur to do this on. If anyone is wondering, that giant bridge you see is called Bixby Bridge and it is one of the most iconic spots you’ll find in the Big Sur region.

Kings Canyon scenic byway:

Best time to go: May-November

Remember that connecting national park to Sequoia I mentioned earlier? Well it’s called Kings Canyon National Park and there is one amazing drive there called Kings Canyon scenic byway.

I did the entire drive there when I visited this park which was also the very same day I visited and drove the entire Sequoia National Park scenic byway too (yes you can actually see both places this fast). Each of these scenic drives is completely different but both are astounding experiences, with views, many places to stop at on the way and more. I strongly recommend you explore both these parks, not just for their beautiful drives, but also because of all the hikes, views and more that you can see there. Considering all the other places on this list, both of these parks are a bit out of the way in south eastern California, but if you take at least 2 days to see both parks, you can totally see a ton of spots in each one and do the scenic drives there too, making for an unforgettable trip.

Park Boulevard at Joshua Tree National Park:

Best time to go: Year round

Another very underrated scenic drive in southern California in my opinion is Park Boulevard which is one of the main drives in Joshua Tree National Park. I explored it with a buddy of mine and it’s a great way to check out the park (well officially it’s one of the only ways to do it).

You’ll find many hikes and attractions on the way, Joshua trees everywhere and in our case, we were visiting this park to explore what is known as the Chasm of Doom hike which we had to find within the area.

But overall, this scenic drive is incredible and it’s close to Los Angeles as well, at around 2 hours west of it so if you’re visiting LA for a few days, this is a great place to explore for a single day.

One other thing I want to note is the sunsets in Joshua Tree are amazing and at the time we were exciting the park, I saw it fully and have to say there is something very different about the sunsets in Joshua tree vs any other place I have ever seen them at. It is stunning, but in a very different way.

Death Valley National Park (Road 190)

Best time to go: December-February

This is a new scenic drive I recently did in southern California and it’s amazing. Death Valley National Park is incredible on it’s own, but you can literally drive through some of the best spots in there by only staying on road 190.

More scenic drives will be added to this list!

Update: Here is a list of scenic drives to explore in Northern California! The list here is even bigger than the one in this article!