Tackling the roads of the West in style in BMW's 650i (pictures)

For much of this summer, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman traveled around California, Arizona, and Nevada on Road Trip 2012 in search of some of the most interesting destinations the region has to offer, and road-testing a 2012 BMW 650i Coupe.

Covering more than 4,600 miles, Terdiman visited military bases -- Navy, Army, Marines, and Air Force -- as well as famous monuments, world-class museums, former nuclear testing sites, muscle car manufacturing facilities, and much more.

Here, the BMW is seen parked on the side of the road on the world-famous U.S. Route 66, in California.

The BMW 650i, seen in front a B-52 at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The BMW 650i Coupe that CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman drove during Road Trip 2012 is seen in front of a mountain of Army unit insignia at Fort Irwin, otherwise known as the Army's National Training Center, in California's Mojave desert.

With the X Games going on in nearby San Francisco, CNET's Daniel Terdiman parked the 650i alongside an airfield (with a blimp in the background) in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

With the Pacific Ocean in the background, the BMW 650i Coupe is parked at a turnout in world-famous Big Sur.

The BMW 650i parked at Fossil Falls in the eastern Sierras of California.

CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman stopped to take a picture of the BMW 650i Coupe he was driving during Road Trip 2012 in front of the sign for Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, Ariz.

The "Welcome to Arizona" sign is seen behind the BMW in this Road Trip 2012 photo.

The BMW 650i is parked in front of the Immaculate Conception Church in Ajo, Ariz.

Parked alongside California's Pacific Coast Highway, the 650i is seen here with the entrance sign to Hearst Castle in the background.

CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman took this photograph of the BMW 650i during a Road Trip 2012 stop at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

The Solana Generating Station, one of the world's largest solar farms, in Gila Bend, Ariz., is in the background of this photograph. The 650i is in the foreground.