America's Scariest Roads?

A recent article written by Forbes.com's Tim Kiladze was featured on the Yahoo.com travel page earlier today. There's a couple of pithy comments in the article by Megan Edwards and myself. Check it out!

But the reason I'm posting this thread -- Is I'd like to know your thoughts about your own favorite America's Scariest Roads...

To get started, here are a couple of messages that have landed in my e-mail in-box today:

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David C. wrote:
"...Having been on 2 of your 5 "America's Scariest Highways" i have to wonder what planet your from?
Both I-70 and the overseas are anything but scary. Do you not have anything worthwhile to write about?
Why in the world does Yahoo publish this worthless blown out of proportion information?

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Ow! I like this one better:

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Joe G. wrote:
"...Hi, just ran across your site on Yahoo' s web page and thought you missed a few scary roads. In fact, the ones that were listed wouldn't be in my top twenty. I have more than 2 million miles as a truck driver and as such, have encountered many VERY scary roads. In truth, some of these scary rides were due to inclement weather, but even on a sunny day they would rate as formidable.

I'd like to list a few:
US 6 west of Denver from exit 205 to exit 216 of I-70. This bypasses the Eisenhower tunnel on I-70. I was forced to use this road whenever I was transporting hazardous material as the tunnel was off limits. Many, many switchbacks with no guardrails and will snow in August up there. Very treacherous but very beautiful also if you allow yourself to take your eyes off the road for 1 or 2 seconds at a time.

US 160 From I-25 at Walsenburg, CO west to Durango, CO.
Two high mountain passes greet you on this stretch which meant tire chains on almost any day from November thru April. Two lane road, well maintained, but going thru territory where a road was not intended by Mother Nature. Very scenic but I preferred to drive it at night so as not to see the steep drops at the side of the road. Much more soothing if you can't see where you can die if you blink your eyes

US 191 south from Rock Springs, WY, to Vernal, UT. This goes past Flaming Gorge Reservoir and right over the dam with the Green River about a thousand feet below you. This is when the fun is just beginning. Climbing up to the pass is exciting enough, but coming down gets close to pure terror if you have a heavy load. I think the first road sign informs you there are 13 switchbacks ahead and after each one tells how many are remaining. It's a pretty steep decline and it just goes on and on and on. I believe that I aged 5 years in that half hour. The next time I had to go to Vernal, I went 100 miles out of my way to avoid that piece of highway.

There are so many more to list but supper is ready. I'm retired now but I have a lot of pictures in my head to take to the next place.

If you've read this, thanks for tolerating me.

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So, jump in and share your SCARIEST ROADS!

I have driven quite a few, but by no means all, of the roads mentioned in the article or by commenters. I find the list interesting, but of course such lists are very personal. I didn't mind Oh My God Road at all, found it rather tame, in fact. My own three top 'scary' roads which, like Mark and Megan's, are scary for different reasons.

I-95 between Wilmington, DE and Baltimore, MD. Six to eight lanes of bumper to bumper, side by side 80+ mph traffic and everybody jockeying for position.

Mount Washington Auto Road New Hampshire. Dirt, narrow, steep, sheer drop offs with no guardrails on a mountain where hikers die pretty much every year when they get caught in the weather. At the top, the highest sustained wind ever recorded: 230 mph.

MT-200 Lewistown to Circle. Miles and miles of nothing. No towns, no service stations, no other traffic. Just badlands and the knowledge that this is Posse Comitatus country.

I saw that article on the Front page of Yahoo - and I've got to say, I thought there were some pretty poor choice.

I-70 through Colorado wouldn't even be close on my list, and quite frankly Mark, your "hope you make it to the bottom" quote was a bit more than hyperbole! An I-15 in California sees some fast traffic, but again, not what I would call scary. Its been decades, but I really don't remember US-1 over the Keys to be scary either - but I can see how that could make a list.

I'll have to think about the scariest roads....

.... hands down:

http://donandlindacasey.com/images/ShaferTrail.jpg
Photo: Don Casey

Shafer Trail in Canyonlands National Park.

Don't forget I didn't the write the article... I had no editorial control over what was eventually used in the article. As I've mentioned before, none of the listed choices of scariest road would ever have made my top 50 list if the roads were dry and and the weather was warm.

I have my top 10 -- but the majority of American road trippers will never have a chance to get to them -- since they are mostly off-road jeep trails.

But let's see your list...

Mark

I'd put the access road to the Mauna Kea summit on the Big Island at or close to the top of the list. It's gravel, many switchbacks, few guardrails, and if you go over, it can be +3,000' until you stop. Combine that with the thin air making everybody somewhat light-headed and the "locals" (the scientific community which lives at the facility's residential village at around 9,000') zooming back and forth from the 13,796' summit to their village, it's definitely a white knuckle drive and ride. I don't think my wife exhaled for the whole 2 hours from the village to the summit and back.

The "Saddle Road" which runs between the wet side and the dry side of the Big Island is somewhere on up there on the list, too. It runs through the 6,500' pass between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. It's paved, but very narrow, very steep, and follows the route originally laid out in the 1940s. Reverse-banked curves, decreasing radius curves, huge potholes, crazy locals shortcutting to and from Hilo to avoid the traffic-choked Ring Road, and throw some armored personnel carriers and M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks on the Kona side for good measure (several thousand acres of military training base around halfway down the Kona side).

Both the Mauna Kea access and the Saddle Road are public roads and are accessible by most any vehicle. All the visitor needs to do is ignore the numerous declarations on their rental contract which prohibit operating the vehicle on either or both, and he's good to go!

Foy

Received this one this morning:

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Russ H. wrote:
"...This morning I read about the scariest highways in America and I didn't see listed the actual "most frightening, scary, white knuckle highway listed! This highway makes 1-70 seem like a breeze.
Here it is...From Wikipedia:

Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 and is the highest continuous highway in the United States. Also known as Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway. It traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. It crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass (elev. 10,758 ft/3,279 m) and reaches a maximum elevation of 12,183 ft (3,713 m), near Fall River Pass (elev. 11,796 ft/3,595 m). Near the highest point on the road is another pass, Iceberg Pass (elev. 11,827 ft/3,604 m).

Trail Ridge Road is closed during the winter, and often remains closed until late spring or early summer depending on the snowpack.

I've driven this in a car, and on a motorcycle. Like the road up to Pike's Peak you just want to get back to flat ground once you've been on it. Add some ice patches and it's a thrill. As you climb in Altitude, you rise above low clouds. The switchbacks are a killer for sure. You are literally climbing over a real mountain. I have a sister in law that drove it once and never again. This is the scariest road in America. But hey, nice website!..."

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what about highway 375
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1.../rj_960202.jpg

It's not really very scary -- sorta of interesting -- here's a field report...

But thanks for the suggestion!

Mark

It is if you believe in alien abduction !!!! ;-)

Roads aren't scary, conditions can soon alter that though, but that's more to do with the weather than the road.

There are a few "interesting" ones I can think of though , especially when in a 30 ft RV !

In no particular order.

Priests grade, [CA120] the old road especially.

Trail ridge road in RMNP.

Loveland pass, US 6 Colorado.

Southern end of the Generals highway in Sequoia NP [198]. Recommended vehicle lenght of 22ft

And of course, The Moki dugway


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HdkUQGH63Q

The wife and DIL strongly disagree that there are no scary roads !! Lol

(I also put a copy of this video clip on this Route article...)

How about the Dalton? From watching Ice Road Truckers, that makes everything else look tame to me!

Yeah, many of the roads that have been identified as being scary -- are mostly scary because of the proximity of the passenger to the being on the cliff-side. The Moki-Dugway is a relatively easy gravel road to drive, for the driver, but if you're the passenger, sitting on the edge and your driver is enjoying the view... Well, it can be more of thrill ride!

Mark

What about UT-261 down off of Mulie Point? Admittedly, this is one that is scarier for the passenger than the driver.

--Jon

Tapper Avenue in Hammond, IN.

My mother-in-law lives on that street.

That made me laugh out loud. This has been a tough day and that was the perfect comment to break the icedam a bit!

Mark

Happy to be of service! I see you seem to be having some availability issues; in my current consulting gig at a huge healthcare organization (Thrive!) I can sympathize... I get to spend a half hour every morning at 7:30 reviewing yesterday's problems.

Anyway, back to the topic: scary roads. ANY road in California immediately following the first fall rains. Seems everybody forgets that six months of oil are going to come up off the pavement and it is slip-and-slide time. SLOW DOWN PEOPLE! Of course, come October/November nobody will remember this post.

At that time of year I try to put the 'vette away and drive the Expedition until we've had enough rain to wash all that 30 weight down the drains and into the bay/ocean.

In Las Vegas, we have another issue... After a long, hot summer of having the asphalt super-heated, ground temps on the streets frequently exceed 140 degrees (F), the top layer of the pavement oozes a very slight layer of oil that is then mixed with the local byproducts of traffic and if there's a hint of a late summer thunderstorm -- that gunk liquidfies and it is slicker than black ice....

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcorb2d

What about UT-261 down off of Mulie Point? Admittedly, this is one that is scarier for the passenger than the driver.

--Jon

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That's the Moki Dugway that Dave posted a clip of in post #11.

Surprised there's no mention yet of the Million Dollar Highway (Colorado 550 from Ouray to Durango). Long stretches of severe drop-offs, with the added bonus of regular semi traffic passing the other way.

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Roads aren't scary, conditions can soon alter that though, but that's more to do with the weather than the road.

There are a few "interesting" ones I can think of though , especially when in a 30 ft RV !

In no particular order.

Priests grade, [CA120] the old road especially.

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With you on that one, although I don't really find any roads that scary. My missus does though. She's already panicking about the Going-To-The-Sun-Road we'll be attacking in September. I keep telling her that it'll be so busy we'll only manage 15mph but she won't listen.

For me, the scariest thing about driving in America is the, er, local drivers.

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Originally Posted by Twilight

Surprised there's no mention yet of the Million Dollar Highway (Colorado 550 from Ouray to Durango). Long stretches of severe drop-offs, with the added bonus of regular semi traffic passing the other way.

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We drove that route once and didnt find it scary at all, just a nice road ;). Its impossible to find the scariest road, it all depense on who you are talking to..

I loved the Saddle Road on the Island of Hawaii. It is a bit bumpy and narrow on the Kona side, but no real problem if you just take it easy. The one way bridges are well marked and easily handled by being polite. On the Hilo side the road is wider, smooth and a delight to drive. Some rental cars prohibit driving on the Saddle Road, but my contract from Avis had no such prohibition.

I'll nominate Montana Highway 38, also known as Skalkaho Highway, to the list. MT 38 runs between Philipsburg in the Flint Creek Valley and Hamilton in the Bitterroot Valley. The pass is around 7,100' and is closed in winter. The upper reaches as it approaches Skalkaho Pass from east or west are gravel and completely without guardrails. On the Hamilton side, between Skalkaho Falls and the Pass, it's 800-1,000' down to Daley Creek below, no guardrails, and little else to stop you or slow you down if you go over. Pretty much a guaranteed Death Plunge. Oh, and there's active logging at any point in time, so one gets to share the road with downhilling log trucks. They only claim half the road, but the problem is they claim their half out of the middle. A couple of weeks ago, we traversed from east to west and a log truck was a few minutes behind us. We stopped to advise a young couple of the oncoming truck. Each was astride their own dual-sport motorcycle. The guy looked pretty shaken; his lady seemed about to burst into tears. We took an extra few minutes to enjoy the Falls and let the log truck pass, not wanting to wonder if/when he'd catch us and under what circumstances.

Foy

Wow, sounds like a great candidate for scariest.... GOOD WORK!

When I'm on logging roads, I always monitor the CB channels for the haul roads, Loggers call out their location and whether they are going up-hill or down about every mile or so. That informal system has probably saved my life at least twice!

A close family member (& his young bride) were killed in a head-on on such a road in Montana many years ago...

Mark

Mark,

That's just awful about your family's loss. I'm so sorry to know of it.

That very set of circumstance was a major reason why I was keen to install my son's old CB in the pickup before the trip. Trouble was: it pretty much stopped working once I arrived in Montana, and I was not in position to fix it or have anybody look at it until I emerged from the Rock Creek canyon via the Skalkaho Highway. That being the case, I was without "ears" all the way up and over the Pass and down the hairy side. I assigned my wife to "look out behind us" duty in order to keep my eyes out of the mirrors and on the roadway ahead, a chore she welcomed since she doesn't care for drop-offs before her.

Our friends and traveling companions were in their truck in front of us and we did have our FRS handheld radios, so we at least had the heads-up on uphill traffic. The guy in the log truck was stopped at the Pass and was busy checking tires and his chain binders as we passed. We were very surprised when he caught up with us minutes after we stopped at the Falls. This clearly was not his "first rodeo", and just as clearly any uphill traffic would have encountered him with little time to react, and with the drop-off on THEIR side. Pretty hairy stuff.

Foy

I just returned from a roadtrip where I drove on a good number of the scary roads that posters have listed. Since I drove a Toyota Sienna with no trailer I guess I missed the scariness of driving a huge RV, a semi with a heavy load, etc. Trail Ridge Road, US-6 across Loveland Pass, US-550 from Ouray to Durango, CO-82 across Independence Pass, Pikes Peak, Mt Evans, East Portal Road in Black Canyon NP were all interesting, fun drives with the no guard rails thrill factor. Slow down and use low gear if you want to live to enjoy another such drive. The drive I enjoyed most was Old Fall River Road in RMNP. It has plenty of loose gravel, hairpin turns and steep, unguarded dropoffs. I did take a good look at Shafer Trail Road (4WD only) in Canyonlands NP from above. That is a high pucker factor road. The scariest driving I did on the 4200 mile trip was on US-287 between Amarillo and Fort Worth in Texas driving in rain, smoke and fog with other traffic around me.

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

Sounds as though you had quite an eventful trip with some great 'driving roads'. Unfortunately we couldn't drive the 'Old fall river Rd' because of the RV restriction, nor did we have the time to rent a jeep to do the 'Shafer Trail', but both are firmly on my "to do" list, as is Independence pass, that was iced/snowed in when we drove through.

Enjoy the forums !

Renting a Jeep in Moab, UT is high on my list of things to do in the future. Canyonlands NP is amazing.
We did get a little bewildered late at night and ended up driving on Devil's Gulch Road near Estes Park in blackness. That was an interesting experience.

We took a month off in 1991 and drove from south Florida to Idaho and stopped everywhere between. The highlight was the Magruder Corridor through the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. AMAZING!!! We had an 89 Jeep Cherokee 4wd, which I never got to use in Florida and we were not used to the high elevation roads. My wife was frantic the entire drive. We camped one night amidst the fall elk hunters and ducked every time we heard a shot in the distance. The road itself was awesome. Right after we topped the highest point and started down a long single lane descent probably a mile long another truck was headed toward us. Since I was closer to a turnout I got to back-up for about 200 yards with a mountain on one side and sheer drop of at least 1000 feet on the other and a screaming person between. I backed into the mountain several times, but we survived. What a fabulous and scary drive.

I wonder if I've driven that road? I've been on some remarkably steep one-lane roads -- but it really sounds cool. I'm going to pull out my Benchmark and take a look. Thanks for the idea!

Mark

Howdy dbt94gt,

Well, you beat me to it by a few years. I am now starting to formulate plans for a traverse of the Magruder Corridor during July 2011.

I'd been faintly aware of it in prior years but was recently reminded of it by an article in the online edition of the Missoula, MT newspaper (Missoulian). Once I did some online research, I knew Magruder was the place for me come 2011.

It's got it all: over 100 miles between towns, a historic ranger cabin for rent, campgrounds in abundance, the put-in for the most highly-sought river-run in the Lower 48, insane 2-track shelf roads, the only road running between two giant wilderness areas (comprising + 3 million acres) and my personal favorite: a walk-in hot spring which itself borders one of the wilderness areas and is accessed by a 22 mile dead-end spur road off of the Magruder.

Mark: The Magruder Corridor (aka Magruder Road, Nez Perce Trail, Southern Nez Perce Trail, Montana Road, Idaho Road) runs west from Darby or Conner, MT (south of Missoula and Hamilton along US 93) to Elk City, ID. It starts within the Bitterroot NF and ends in the Nez Perce NF, passing along the divide between the Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness Area and the Frank Church/River of No Return Wilderness Area between the two NF units. We're looking to take the big F350 diesel on a weeklong cabin/camping trip and will include fishing the Selway and tributaries, driving to Burnt Knob (just google some pics of the Burnt Knob fire tower--unreal) and the long daytrip into the secret hot spring. We'll exit the west side and overnight at newly re-opened Red River Hot Springs before looping WAY back around to spend a second week back in the Big Hole.

That's a GREAT call, dbt94gt. People come from all over the country to run the Magruder. I'll be one of them before long.

Foy

Just found this thread.

As I read of all the 'scary' roads, I find that I have driven probably about half of them, and never knew that they were scary. I just drove them, like any other road.

How anyone can consider the James W Dalton Highway scary is beyond my comprehension. Such a well maintained gravel road in summer will be a breeze to drive. Not to be confused with the ice road in winter, which is a different story altogether.

But I was scared once.

It was my first visit in 2001. I was relocating a Suzuki Rodeo from Tuscon AZ to Putney VT. The office had given me a suggested route, printed off Mapquest. Needless to say, it was not long before I was bored with the Interstate, and looked for a scenic route. I had attained maps at the AAA and had my Rand McNally. At exit 352 of I-10, I chose 191 north.

At Clinton (I think it was) in an information centre, I picked up a hand printed sheet with the Coronado Trail (191) on it. I headed on up, having absolutely no idea what lay ahead of me. And by now, this little 'mickey mouse make believe fourwheeldrive' was starting to fishtail. (It belonged to a 16 year old who knew nothing about how to pack a car.) And the road got steeper and steeper, higher and higher. No roadside barriers, no nuttin'! I got to the point where I did not care on which side I had to drive, on this narrow road, I stuck to the mountain side. Stopped on a couple of ocassions to take in the view, and it was then that I saw the road ahead, way, way, below me.

In the 120 miles, and more than three hours to Eager, I saw three vehicles heading in the opposite direction. If I ever have cause to be down that way again, would love to have another go at it, and really enjoy it.

Lifey

Honestly, those articles can make anything look like "the most deadly", "the scariest", "the top 10" etc. It's all in the way it's written, which is in the eye of the writer of course. I've been on some of those "scariest" highways, and on some of "the most deadly".

Unfortunately, we lost a friend and his bride on a highway that isn't usually listed as a "deadly" highway. They were on their own side of the road when a trucker passed (illegally) another vehicle, hitting them head-on. They died instantly.

Deadly? Try I-5 in rush hour up in Los Angeles on a Friday afternoon, traveling southbound.



Donna