Yahoo! Selects Detroit Road As The State’s Most Scenic Drive, Leaving Jojo (And The Rest Of The State) Puzzled

Yahoo!'s list of the nation's most scenic drives include staggering mountain vistas and sweeping frives along the ocean. But when it comes to Michigan, the web site left me a little cold when it selected Woodward Avenue in Detroit as the most scenic.

If you love seeing urban decay and strip malls, it's very scenic. But this state has so many beautiful roads with much better scenery. 

In a weird twist, Yahoo!'s state by state list of scenic roadways has left many Michiganders scratching their collective heads. While their reasoning for the selection may be intended to be a healing salve for Detroit, it sells our state short, as we have so many scenic drives that are more breathtaking, if not flat out gorgeous.

Yahoo! explains their choice this way:

Michigan: Woodward Avenue
Detroit’s Woodward Ave is more than just an important stretch of road in America’s cultural and economic history. Every year, over 40,000 of the world’s greatest cars descend on Woodward to take part in a 16-mile cruise to celebrate the automobile and raise money for charity. And over 1,000,000 people show up just to watch that scenery in motion.

What's even more injurious is that many in the Detroit metro consider the Dream Cruise to be such a giant pain in their tushes, and many plan their summer vacation so as not to be around when it takes place.

Here's three better scenic drives that Yahoo! could have selected.

1. Anywhere on M-22, but specifically from Arcadia to Frankfort.

Winding through the sand dunes of Sleeping Bear, this route provides stunning vistas of the Lake Michigan shoreline, before kicking out at Crystal Lake, one of the more stunning inland lakes in the north.

2. M-119 north of Harbor Springs, the 'Tunnel Of Trees' 

Rolling through Emmet County due north out of Harbor Springs, this trip in autumn is a red and orange fiesta of bright colors, combined with occasional glimpses of the bays of northern Lake Michigan.

And since those two are the obvious go-to choices, how about this local favorite:

3. M-37 (Alpine Avenue) rolling north through Newaygo and Lake County.

Yep, Alpine Avenue isn't all big box stores and traffic. Stick with it past the city and you'll be treated to rolling hills and magnificent river valleys as you head north into historic Lake County. The Pine River near LeRoy is especially scenic.