NorthlanePhone navigation is built for getting somewhere fast. A road trip is the opposite. The apps will happily reroute you onto the interstate the moment a scenic two-lane road costs four extra minutes.
A GPX track fixes the line you actually want to drive. Load it into a dedicated GPS unit, an app like OsmAnd or Gaia GPS, or a CarPlay-compatible navigator, and you follow the route you planned, not the one an algorithm prefers.
It also works offline. Large stretches of Nevada, eastern Oregon, and the Alaska Highway have no signal for an hour or more. A downloaded track and offline basemap mean you never lose your place.
Our rule of thumb: route points every few miles on purpose-built roads, waypoints for fuel, water, and viewpoints, and a separate track for each driving day.