North Dakota

This is one of the least-visited states in the US, but that just means that there's less traffic as you whiz along. This is a place to get lost on remote two-lane routes and to appreciate the raw land's beauty. And don't forget to pause to marvel at the meadowlarks' songs.

Despite those seemingly endless fields of grain, the state's economy is tied to large oil deposits in the west. Soaring energy prices turned once-moribund towns like Williston and Watford City into boomtowns, with vast oil-field-worker encampments, roads clogged – and battered – by trucks, and constant parades of tanker trains.

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