From Darren Smith,
Your Guide to US & Canadian Parks.
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Catoctin Mountain Scenic Byway

The 38-mile byway provides access to two national parks, the state's highest waterfall, abundant hiking and biking trails, as well as historic downtown areas and Civil War sites. Home to Camp David, the nearby Catoctin Mountain National Park contains thousands of acres of federally protected land, including an extensive trail system and camping areas.

Start and Endpoint: From the Pennsyvania state line, south on US 15 and US 340 to the Potomac River at the Virginia state line.

For further information, contact: Tourism Council of Frederick County

Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway

The 85-mile network of routes that comprise this byway allows visitors to experience Colonial history, Revolutionary War battlefields, crossroad communities, rural farmland, water-based recreation, scenic vistas, and more. Situated along the Atlantic Flyway, it includes wildlife refuges and management areas that are major feeding and resting places for migratory and wintering waterfowl. Nowhere along this Byway is the visitor far from the tributaries that feed the Chesapeake Bay or from the Bay itself.

Start and Endpoint: The Upper Eastern Shore section of the byway runs from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. There are many main and secondary roads that lead to the byway, but starting at the northern or southern entrance will provide the most complete experience.

For further information, contact: Kent County Tourism Development Office

Historic National Road

America's first interstate highway, the National Road was built to to link the people and cities along the Eastern seaboard to those on the frontiers west of the Allegheny Mountains. Authorized by Congress in 1806, construction of the road began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811. The road reached Vandalia, then the Illinois state capitol, in 1839 and later was completed to the Illinois border at East St. Louis, opening a link to the water route of the Mississippi.

The Maryland section of the byway offers access to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, the C&O Canal, the 40,000-acre Green Ridge State Forest, and a number of cities including Baltimore, Frederick, Ellicott City, Hagerstown, and Cumberland.

Start and Endpoint: The 824-mile east/west route runs from Baltimore, Maryland, to the Mississippi River at the Eads Bridge in East Saint Louis, Illinois. It crosses six states: Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The 170-mile Maryland section of the road runs from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore west to the Pennsylvania state line near Keysers Ridge, including sections of Alt US 40 and MD 144.

For further information, contact: Maryland Scenic Byways

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