For These Classic Motorcycle Roads, Thank a Politician

Doesn't matter where you identify yourself on the spectrum, few are happy today with the political process. Believe it or not though, we do have something to thank politicians for. The roads we dream about riding--the most scenic, out-of-the-way slabs of beautiful, swoopy asphalt--were the result of political horse trading.

Consider this short list:
1) Cherohala Skyway
2) Needles Highway
3) Blue Ridge Parkway
4) Natchez Trace Parkway
5) Beartooth Highway

The Cherohala, for example, is a seductive ribbon of highway in the Appalachians bisecting the Cherokee and Nanthahala National Forests. It's magical 43 miles connects Robbinsville, NC in the east to Tellico Plains, Tennessee in the west. Construction began in 1958 and was completed nearly forty years later in 1996 at a cost of about $100 million. Beautiful, but hardly essential.

There's no particular purpose for US 212's run between Red Lodge Montana and Yellowstone's northeast entrance. This route which follows General Phillip Sheridan's trail over the Beartooth Mountains requires constant maintenance and is open just a couple of months out of the year. Practical? Hardly. But this 68 mile byway offers us a stunning ride through one of the most diverse and beautiful ecosystems anywhere. The same could be said for its nearby cousin, the Going to the Sun Highway or any of a thousand other such projects.

Be glad they were built when they were. In today's political climate, the chances any of these roads would be built is ZERO. As you stand at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer or enjoy a ride along some other lonely ribbon of road, offer a word of thanks to the politicians who made it possible.

A road to nowhere makes little sense to the average citizen, but we riders know just what to do with it!