Who Has the Best Driving Directions?

When we learned we were moving, one of the first things we considered was our driving route. We'd driven from Florida to Alaska during our last PCS, and we loved going through Canada so much that we knew we'd want to do it again on the way out. Beyond that, we didn't know the best way to get from AK to LA. Who gets us there faster? Who takes us past the most interesting locations?

The various map websites don't give uniform results. Here's some of the results we got with a starting location of "Anchorage, AK" and an ending destination of "Shreveport, LA":

• Mapquest: 4,117.14 miles, crossing from Canada into the U.S. at the Minnesota border.
• Mapblast.com: 4,174.3 miles, crossing into the U.S. at Montana.
  
• Google Maps: 4,261 miles, same directions.
• Yahoo Maps: 4,278 miles, same directions.
• Rand McNally: 4,413 miles, same directions.
• Maps.com: 4,498.33 miles, same directions.

I haven't compared the various websites to determine why they're showing such a dramatic difference in driving distances. I can believe some slight nuances in distance, but 320 miles difference between Mapblast and Maps.com seems very off.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we have two options: travel halfway across Canada to Minnesota, and go directly south to Louisiana, or go as far as Edmonton, turn south, and head southeast through the midwest United States.

The first option will be 100 miles shorter and take us near the Mall of America, which could make for some fun shopping. However, none of us have been to the midwest before, and the second route takes us very close to Yellowstone National Park. We've decided to go that way for the thrill of camping in one of the most famous parks in the world.

Anyway, consider running your driving route through several search engines to see what you come up with. If you're in a hurry, you'll want to go the shortest way. But if you're adventurous, you may want to go off the map!