New places to photograph between Illinois and Arizona?

[louoates]

I often drive back to AZ every September and stop rather haphazardly to photograph whatever looks inviting. I have no real schedule and mostly drive along state and county highways. I have no set route and can deviate widely from a direct path.  I have a wide range of photographic interests from vast landscape panoramas to broken down shacks and cars. I travel with all my photographic equipment. I can stay anywhere that has a motel with a "no rats" sign. I'd appreciate to learn of any off-the-beaten path destinations that I have overlooked.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

National Geographic has two books that you might find useful: "Scenic Highways and Byways" and "State Parks of the United States".

[Robert Roaldi]

This is less specific advice than you might want, but I have lots of experience setting routes for car rallies using maps. I try to look for interesting drives, which often coincide with interesting places to photograph. Other than relatively expensive (and too numerous) 1:50,000 scale topo maps, if you can get a hold of some region maps of 1:250,000 scale that show regional and county roads, use the ones that curve a lot. When they veer away from the straight grid, it's usually because of hills, parks or valleys. If you're taking a roundabout route, may as well increase your odds.