Best drives in the DC / VA / MD Area

I'm looking for the best drives in the DC area, any suggestions? I've been hearing about Skyline drive but that seems far from downtown DC. Is it worth it?

Appreciate any leads

 

Don't do skyline, its $15 for all the deer you can hit, not worth the money! The blue ridge parkway is MUCH better and faster.

 

As Steve can attest there are some good roads in Northern Baltimore Co. There are good roads in Virginia too but the cops there are kind of a buzz kill. Howard, Montgomery, and points north also offer some nice driving. Going out northwest from DC into West Virginia there are some great roads.

 

An Easy newbie Drive from DC is take the GW Parkway past McLean to 495, cross Bridge and take first exit after the Bridge and bear to left towards Carderock. Follow that parkway to end and Take left on Macarthur. Follow that to River Road. At the T junction turn left. Take that all the way to the end and turn right before where it turns into a Dirt Road. Follow that into Poolesville. Turn left and then immediate left on Barnesville Rd. Its all good from there

 

The drive out Rt 55 from Haymarket is an awesome drive and then take Rt 613(I think) from the Plains over to Middleburg and then out Rt 50. back to rt 17 to I66. There are a bunch of great twisties and roads around this area. I can meet up and show some routes, I also have the directions from the FOW ralley if you want. I take the 360 out there all the time, its great!!!! Plenty of vineyards for stops along the way!

Robert

 

I agree with Robert. There are numerous fun roads out west.
Here is a link to a route that was set up by MarkR for a recent get-together:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&msa=0&msid=118254856468766963549.00000112724e47fe50ed3&om=1&z=9

My favorite road on that route was Blueridge Mountain Road (see Line 13 on the Google map above).

I found out about this May 19th ride on this fchat mid-atlantic thread:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150621

There are some good pictures of this get-together on the Lotus Elise thread at (starting on page 8 of that thread):
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36022&page=8

Also, I agree that there are quite a few police in Virginia so you need to keep your top speed reasonable. And remember that radar detectors are illegal in VA.

Enjoy.

 

Toggie,

Yes, radar detectors are illegal in Va, however, you can get around this ticket!
My best friend since 8th grade is a VA state trooper for 17 years and actually flies the helicopter and airplane(looking for speeders) now and shared some great info with me the other day. I was showing him my 360 and I showed him the radar detector antenna mounted on the front grill. His first thought was "no one will ever see it", then he said "second if they do, they will have to proof that it is connected to whatever mechanical device is mounted in the dash and that the signals imited are related to that device, they will never proof it". So the bottom line, make sure your radar detector is hard wired!!!!!
Very few troopers and even less county police have radar detector detectors, say that 10 times fast!! LOL!
Along those routes I very, very rarely see any police! Maybe in Fauquier county you need to be more watchfull.

Robert

 

+1, that was definitely the most fun section of the route.

Be advised that the roads have been re-routed a bit up near the Mount Weather site; my GPS is less than a year old and the road we were on didn't match its map.

 

While not a Ferrari driver (yet), I love Skyline Drive, but I recommend you try it in daylight first.

Entry point: Take I-66 West towards Front Royal, and take the first Front Royal exit and follow signs to get to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah.

Exit point: Take the Exit for Route 211 East to 29 East , heading back towards I-66 East towards Washington.

I've never tried the Blueridge Mountain Road, so I'll give it a shot!

~shahed
.

 

Toggie / Robert, everyone,

Really appreciate all the feedback, great leads. I think I'm going to try some of the routes this weekend and I'll report back to you guys. Lets hope the weather holds up!

Thanks

Kareem

 

What wfo900 said. Either side of the Potomac River.

Then, Old Georgetown Rd on the Va side. On the Md side DON'T MISS the road at the intersection of Mcaurthur and Falls. What I refer to as past the Old Angler.

Try to work in White's Ferry. It beats the hell out of the Veterans bridge. You will actually really enjoy it. Not to mention the open roads around there.


Happy trails.

 

RT 55 to Carter's Run, to 211...I ran these roads on my motorcycle the other day and it was really fun, full of twisties.

 

I was on Skyline today with my 325is and had a blast. I took Rt. 33 to the Swift Run Gap entrance of the National Park (Shenandoah). the only deer i saw/slowed down for were a couple of fawns off the road. Skyline offers incredible views (including a ton of overlooks) and windy, fun roads. Deer do pose a threat though, but most windy roads through the forest include deer. A higher-performance car on Skyline would be all the better. If you want to avoid the deer and enjoy a boatload of hairpins through the mountains, with even better views, take Rt.33 between Harrisonburg,VA and WV.

Baltimore County also offers some fantastic roads. I'm going back there tomorrow for a couple months and will post all the good ones, for I don't know their names off hand, it's been awhile. Most of the ones I am thinking of are in the northern part of the county.

Best regards

 

Check with Garnet Red Coupe.
He's the man, when it comes to good routes through Northern Baltimore and Harford counties.

Ask me how I know!!

 

I ride 55 to Carter's Run, to 211 on my motorcycle. Fun stuff and not too many cops until you get close to 211, then there are usually only some. If you want less people traffic though, go on a Monday or sometime during the week starting at like 10 or so.

 

go out to damascus/olney/germantown area.. their are alot of great quality roads you can go fast on.. one of my favorite local highways is nearby as well.. 70..

 

There was actually a group drive back in April in that area (sort of -- only three of us showed up and we did a truncated route to avoid the weather). See the previous threads for road ideas and a large map.

 

Some of the Local Porsche guys have planned a really nice drive this Sunday, I don't think they would mind a few F-cars tagging along... starts in Mt. Airy, MD and ends at the PB Dye Golf Club.

If anyone's interested PM for details..

Paul