The Best Wildsam Stories of 2025
Every year, the Wildsam team chases stories from the road that reveal something true—about a place, a past, or the way travel continues to work its magic on us. In 2025, those roads led us from high desert villages to submerged reefs, through ancient forests and open grasslands, along highways that double as time machines and backroads where the stars still outshine the streetlights.
These stories are some of the best we published this year: reported journeys shaped by local knowledge, slow miles, and the belief that understanding a place begins with paying attention. Together, they form a cross-country map of wonder—proof that whether you’re five days into a trip or five minutes from home, there’s always more to see when you travel with intention. Here's a look at some of our favorite travel stories from this year.
Southwest
The High Road to Taos
New Mexico’s High Road to Taos has been around for nearly a century, but even longtime New Mexicans still find new treasures along this stretch every time they take it. For newcomers and old-timers alike, the road is a very good way to get a lay of the land between Santa Fe and Taos—over and over again.
West
5 Days in California's Redwood Country
To see the full breadth of Northern California’s vast redwood country, you could take weeks. But a five-day jaunt from San Francisco to Crescent City takes you through the heart of the world’s most jaw-dropping groves of coast redwoods and giant sequoias and some fi ne examples of conservation in the country’s parks systems. Start at Mount Tam and wend your way up north through remote forest, along pristine coast and ethereal inland waterways.
Midwest
Natural Wonder in Nebraska's Sandhills
Nebraska's sprawling Sandhills region lacks precise boundaries. But everyone agrees that, however they're defined, they're a wonder: the country's biggest chunk of intact grassland, atop a huge reservoir, home to more than 300 vertebrate species.
Southeast
Finding the Soul of Diving in the Florida Keys
There’s something magical about the blue of the water in the Florida Keys. An intoxicating crystal color—sometimes aqua, sometimes a blindingly-bright turquoise—that entices you to stay, explore a bit and make yourself at home. Follow the story of how one diver discovered a whole new world beneath the waves.
Northeast
Historic Old King's Highway in Cape Cod
Route 6 runs from coast to coast, from Long Beach, California, to Provincetown, Massachusetts. The stretch that extends along the spine of Cape Cod is a road, obviously. It is also a time machine.
Road Trip Roundups
Road Trips That Reveal America’s Darkest Skies
We sought out the corners of the map where human-made light doesn't dominate. Follow the stars with us.
15,000 Miles of Americana
The ultimate (and we do mean ultimate) road trip to classic restaurants, old-time attractions, throwback culture finds and other retro delights of the American highway.
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