Hagerty's 2026 Road of the Year Is a 109-Mile Pennsylvania Backroad Almost Nobody Drives
Route 144 climbs through the Pennsylvania Wilds and descends a canyon along Hall Run Creek — a century-old lumber road turned recreation corridor.
Hagerty named Pennsylvania's Route 144 its Road of the Year for 2026 — a 109-mile north-south route through the state's mountainous north-central region that most drivers outside the area have never heard of, let alone driven. The road begins near Snow Shoe, a town of under 700 people, and climbs into the Allegheny Plateau and the so-called "Pennsylvania Wilds," a wilderness region larger than the entire state of Connecticut.
About 30 miles south of Snow Shoe, the road descends a canyon along Hall Run Creek — roughly six miles of tight curves — before finally reaching the West Branch Susquehanna River near the small town of Renovo. Originally paved nearly a century ago to connect lumber and rail towns, the corridor now serves hunters, anglers, rafters, hikers, and off-roaders more than through-traffic.
It's a quieter pick than Hagerty's Road of the Year selections tend to be, and that's arguably the point — a road that earned the honor on the strength of the drive itself rather than name recognition, in a part of the state most of the country has never had a reason to visit.
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