An Awesome Autumn Appalachian Auto Adventure

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Sorted Twisty Road Summary

This page contains a sorted listing of all of the 'destination' roads we drove. The list is sorted in descending order of 'Overall Score' (as determined by my twisty road rankings, which you can learn more about here). Please note that if you are more interested in the driving experience rather than the overall experience, you'll need to focus on the 'Fun-to-Drive' rankings instead.
	West Virginia & Virginia - State Routes 16 Sophia, WV to Marion, VA Overall Score: 8.8 Fun-to-drive: 9.3	Two drives in one: the southern part of WV-16 and the northern part of VA-16. Two very different characters, too: Densely forested, hilly twisties versus open-valleyed, big-ridge-crossing twisties. The ridge-crossing twisties on VA-16, in particular, are not to be missed!

US-250 - Virginia & West Virginia

Staunton, VA to Elkins, WV

Overall Score: 8.6
Fun-to-drive: 8.3

A long, varied and scenic diagonal through-route through West Virginia and Virginia. Although it does have a few boring stretches, there is much beautiful scenery and periodic helpings of good twisties.

Virginia - State Route 311

Roanoke, VA to I-64 at VA/WV Border

Overall Score: 7.6
Fun-to-drive: 7.8

This route runs primarily through (or rather, across) scenic ridge-and-valley topography. More than 50% of the described route is actually not that twisty, but is scenic. The parts that are twisty are quite good, though, including one very tight section.

West Virginia - State Route 20

Buckhannon, WV to Elton, WV

Overall Score: 7.4
Fun-to-drive: 7.8

An interesting long-distance north-south route through hilly rural West Virginia. Densely forested in most places, runs through many little towns. has frequent and periodic good twisty road sections.

US-33 - Virginia & West Virginia

Weston, WV to Harrisonburg, VA

Overall Score: 7.7
Fun-to-drive: 6.9

A very-scenic east-west route across West Virginia and Virginia. Of the portion of this road that I've sampled, there are actually only a few good twisty sections... however, one of these sections is extra good!!

Pennsylvania - State Route 125

Tremont, PA to Shamokin, PA

Overall Score: 7.1
Fun-to-drive: 6.5

A ridge-crossing route in ridge-and-valley country. Decent twisties in spots, especially for Pennsylvania. Beautiful farm countryside in between ridge crossings. Speed limits drop anytime a curve in sight, however.

West Virginia & Virginia - State Routes 39

Mill Point, WV to Cedar Grove, VA

Overall Score: 6.6
Fun-to-drive: 6.8

Another ridge-crossing east-west route straddling the West Virginia - Virginia Border. Has periodic reasonably good twisties, but I found the experience marred somewhat by traffic.

Pennsylvania - State Routes 549

Mosherville, PA to Mansfield, PA

Overall Score: 6.4
Fun-to-drive: 4.9

A short, slightly-meandering pleasant highway through open Northern Pennsylvania farm country.

Pennsylvania - State Route 144

Galeton, PA to Moshannon, PA

Overall Score: 6.3
Fun-to-drive: 5.8

A medium-length north-south route through scenic forested uplands and wooded canyons of North-Central Pennsyvlania. Has some moderately pleasant twisties at places along it's course, but is hampered by unreasonably low speed limits.

West Virginia - State Route 72

Hambleton, WV to Dryfork, WV

Overall Score: 5.6
Fun-to-drive: 7.2

A short, very twisty, narrow, poorly paved backway in North-central West Virginia. That this is designated as a major state highway is a little surprising.

[ Introduction & Day 1 | Day 2 - Journeying South | Day 3 - Exploring West Virginia | Day 4 - Dragon's Tooth and Yet More Twisties | Day 5 - Final Twisties and Drive Home | Related Presentation: The Dragon's Tooth Hike | Ranked Summary of Twisty Roads | PA-549 | PA-144 | WV-72 | WV-20 | WV-16 & VA-16 | VA-311 | WV-39 & VA-39 | US-250 | US-33 | PA-125 | Road Rankings Explained ]

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