Top 10 Sexiest Highway Interchanges in Phoenix
You'll never guess whose number four!
The SuperRedTan Stack Interchange in Mesa, as seen from US 60 West
If you know you know: Phoenix is home to some of the sexiest highway interchanges in the entire country. When friends visit from New York City in New York or San Francisco City in California, their iaws invariably drop at the sight of our quad stack exchanges and high-in-the-sky HOV lanes which sinuously curve around rows of landscaped mesquite and empty runoff catchment basins. We Phoenicians are so well endowed with resplendent freeway exchanges that it’s honestly a little embarrassing: sometimes I’ll opt to take the surface streets home just so my out-of-town friends don’t get too jealous.
Obviously, it comes up. Everyone is like “Ok Grif, these highway exchanges are all so sexy but which of them is the absolute hottest?” And once we clarify that they aren’t referring to the recent analysis by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which revealed that some of our streets hit 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, I tend to offer some flustered, non-committal response, seeing as heretofore I haven’t done the required analysis to confidently assert my position on the matter. But no more! I’ve put in the hours (and miles) and am pleased to present the definitive list of the sexiest highway interchanges in metro Phoenix.
#10: US 60 East to SR 101 North. In a state with only three highway tunnels, it’s a real novelty to get some shade on the road. Taking exit 176B, you’ll dip below grade and glide beneath not one, not two, but three sandy underpasses, each supported by ribbed concrete piers that are sure to make you blush. Merging onto 101N from the right, you’ll blow through two additional underpasses as traffic whizzes above you. Honestly the first time you take this exit it will be a total blur, and you’ll be halfway to Cave Creek by the time you realize what hit you.
#9: I-17 South to I-10 East: The Stack is famous around here: four levels of interstate highway converging in a concrete embrace just west of downtown Phoenix. It’s a hot take, but I think that exit 200A is the power bottom of highway exchanges: two lanes of traffic just putting in the work to bring city folk back home from Rim Country. As the ramp bends eastward, you’ll catch a glimpse of the graceful I-10 viaduct before being teased with the tips of our southern mountain peaks, perfectly framed by tightly trimmed palm trees and a Rafi Accident Attorney billboard. Welcome home.
#8: SR 143 North to Sky Harbor Boulevard: Exit 3-B off AZ 143 is a perfect circle, rising around a drainage basin resplendent with granite rock art designed by Arizona Department of Transportation's landscape architecture team. The beauty of this exchange is that once you lock in your steering wheel at the correct angle, you can just sit back and let geometry take over—that’s the cool thing about circles.
#7: SR 51 North to Loop 101: Not to be too literal but driving north into this three leg directional exchange evokes the feeling of heading headfirst into a vaginal anatomy diagram. Exit 15A heads east and Exit 15B west but none of this matters; before too long I’m sure we’ll see an Executive Order mandating that this interchange be redesigned in a manner less threatening to members of the current administration.
#6: Loop 101 South to Loop 202 East: Many drivers are overcome by a sense of ennui as they reach the southern edges of metro Phoenix and confront the fact that they’ll soon be leaving the metro highway system. But fear not, Exit 61C wraps you back around to the 202, an eighty-some mile carousel of asphalt that you can ride all night long. When possible I opt for the left exit HOV lane, as it keeps me a little further from the Northrop Grumman corporate office, which probably smells like farts.
#5: I-10 West to Loop 303 South: Why head west to Los Angeles when you can take Exit 124B in Goodyear, an arousing meditation on the quarter turn? Rising above the planned communities of the West Valley, you’ll be emboldened by the immensity of the concrete superstructure required to carry this single lane of traffic a full mile and a half up and over I-10 just to merge into a state highway that abruptly ends. So much space, so much material, but to what end? The confidence and swagger of this offramp is intoxicating.
#4: I-10 East to SR 51 North: While other exits in the Mini Stack are higher and wider, this downtown exchange is all about Exit 147B. Bearing right and then quickly jogging left, you’ll rise dramatically above the interstate and catch a brief glimpse of Four Peaks and Camelback Mountain, which evokes the same feelings as an unexpected wink from a stranger. Twisting downward past a eucalyptus grove, you’ll merge into 51 heading straight towards Piestewa Peak. Beautiful at all hours of day and night, this is the first interchange I loved.
#3: SR 60 West to SR 60 West: With so many alluring exit options, sometimes the sexiest option is to love the one you’re with. Nowhere is that more true than when heading west on Route 60 and blasting through the SuperRedTan Interchange. Three levels of red rock-hued ramps zig and zag above you at promiscuous angles, before symmetrically coming down and merging with both sides of the road like a hug. It’s tempting to lose yourself in the heavenly melange of stone and steel above you, but refocus your eyes down here, young traveler, for today we’re riding 60 West straight into the sunset.
#2: Loop 101 North to Loop 202 West: Admittedly a slow burn, transitioning off Loop 101 North at Exit 51A is a thing of absolute beauty. The ramp teases you with a slow rise before smashing you right up against a symmetrical ramp taking oncoming traffic southeast from 101 South to 202 East. Locking eyes with a driver heading in the opposite direction is a moment so completely flirty that I’m honestly surprised that they allow kids on this road.
#1: Loop 101 South to I-10 East: Perhaps it’s a bit saccharine, but there is a subtle eroticism to the way the 101 South ramp rises from the desert floor in Glendale before revealing a panoramic tableau of our fair city. Sweeping from south to east, drivers take in a full frontal of the Sierra Estrellas, South Mountain, Downtown Phoenix, The Superstitions, and Four Peaks, with North Mountain Park eventually settling into view on the drivers left. It’s a humbling reminder that while life can often be so hard, sometimes, on the road, things come easy.
Thanks for reading,
— Grif