Thrillseeking Drives

[oscar]

I looked only at the bits between Ouray and Silverton, because those are supposed to be the worst parts of the Million Dollar Highway, and every segment I looked at--with the sole exception of an uphill length with climbing lane--had a shoulder on both sides.  Admittedly it was not wide (two feet at most, I would say), but it was there.

there is, however, no guardrail in a lot of places ... and a cliff drop past those two feet.

When I drove it in 1996 or 1998, you could also see wrecked cars that slid down the cliff.   Don't know if the wrecks got removed since then, but I hope not -- useful both as a warning and to enhance the thrill.

Three more candidates:

-- On Maui, parts of the Piilani Highway (CR 31) between Kaupo and Kipahulu/Oheo Gulch.  Mostly a one-lane road carved into the side of a cliff, with pebbles sometimes pelting your roof from above (something all the tourists going with the top down in their white rental convertibles must not have been warned about), and not enough guardrails to keep you out of the ocean.  You also have to share the road with wide tour buses, best not to go counter-clockwise in the afternoon when all the tour buses are going clockwise on their way back to central Maui after the stop at tourist-trap Oheo Gulch.

-- On the opposite corner of Maui, the county-owned part of the Kahekili Highway through Kahahuloa village.  Just as narrow and twisty as the Piilani Highway segment above, with better pavement but no lane striping and few guardrails to help keep you on the road.

-- FM 170 between Presidio TX and the west entrance to Big Bend National Park.  A real roller-coaster.

[J N Winkler]

Notwithstanding comments from Agentsteel53 and Thenetwork upthread, back in 2010 I dismissed the idea that US 550 could be nerve-wracking to drive.  In 2012, however, I drove the full length between Durango and Ridgway, including the portion between Silverton and Ouray that passes through the Uncompahgre Gorge and includes the corniche sections described above:



I still feel, though, that US 550--through visually stunning--was a much easier drive than is normally advertised.  This is largely because it is so sinuous that operating speeds are fairly low (generally no greater than 35 MPH), and therefore in a speed range where the typical motorist is prepared to accept much more lateral acceleration (and thus more variation from the hands-off speed for any given curve) than is the case at higher speeds.  The roads that are nerve-wracking to drive, though not necessarily thrilling, tend to be ones which combine fairly sharp curves with very high operating speeds.  As an example, a curve with a 70-MPH advisory speed on a freeway with a 75-MPH speed limit is a much bigger deal than a curve with a 35-MPH advisory speed on a 40-MPH road.

On the same trip I took US 160 across the Wolf Creek Pass and left those 10 miles feeling much more tense and amped-up than after the 82 miles on US 550 between Durango and Ridgway.

[texaskdog]

http://bit.ly/QRPv1R  the worst I've ever seen (hope it works)

[corco]

I agree with Winkler whole-heartedly on that. Mountain roads aren't that scary when the typical operating speed is low- they're far scarier when you can get up to a high speed on straightaways.

I don't have any street view or photos, unfortunately, but the Salmon River Rd east of Riggins, Idaho gets my vote. If there ever were a roadmeet in the mountains of Idaho for some reason, I would include it on the tour because it's a great road with some cool bridges further down. That said, it's a paved, one lane road for the first several miles with a healthy amount of traffic and blind curves, but enough straightaway that cars routinely get up to 50 MPH (despite the 25 MPH posted speed limit) with no guardrails. I've been involved in several near head-on collisions over the years as both a driver and a passenger driving down that road, just because people take the blind curves way too fast and there's usually not room for two cars to pass each other. I don't know of too many instances where people have actually had fatal collisions on the road, probably because there's not quite enough traffic for that, but I do know that there are a massive amount of very close calls, which makes it kind of a nail biting drive.

[hotdogPi]

http://bit.ly/QRPv1R  the worst I've ever seen (hope it works)

Connecting to the iTunes store

[agentsteel53]

yeah itunes is the worst ... something ... I've ever seen, that's for sure.

[jeffandnicole]

Here's my most thrillseeking/interesting drive:

http://goo.gl/maps/lXSA8

Going up Mauna Kea on the Big Island, Hawai'i.  The Visitor Information Station is about at 9,000 feet, and they advise that if you want to continue up, hang out there for a half-hour or so to get a bit acclimated with the altitude.  After that, it's a dirt road for about 5 miles or so.  The final few miles are paved, and the summit is a bit above 14,000 feet. 

Of course, there's no guard rail.  While on the dirt road, I felt myself slip slightly a few times.  I made to the top.  Sighed a huge sigh of relief.  Got out, looked up, and instantly got dizzy because of the lack of oxygen at the summit!  After I sat down for a little bit, I started to drive back down. Got back to the visitors station and mentioned to one of the rangers my trip to the summit.  He mentioned that the dirt road hasn't been graded in a month as the grader was broken!

Technically, this was probably against my rental agreement as well.

[texaskdog]

It was a road in the himalayas with one lane carved in the side of a mountain

The IRT show drove on some bad roads but they didn't seem all that bad on the show

[oscar]

Here's my most thrillseeking/interesting drive:

Going up Mauna Kea on the Big Island, Hawai'i.  The Visitor Information Station is about at 9,000 feet, and they advise that if you want to continue up, hang out there for a half-hour or so to get a bit acclimated with the altitude.  After that, it's a dirt road for about 5 miles or so.  The final few miles are paved, and the summit is a bit above 14,000 feet.

See some photos from my first two trips on that road (and Tim Reichard's later trip of his own), at http://www.hawaiihighways.com/photos-observatories-roads.htm  (I also went up at least once more on a later trip, but those photos haven't yet gotten out of my huge backlog.  The backlogged photos from my 2009 trip in the winter include one of a sign forbidding non-emergency cellphone use near the summit, to avoid interference with all the gizmos atop the summit.) 

The road tops out at 13,780' (confirmed by observatory personnel).  The summit is at 13,796 feet, but you have to hike down from the road then back up, not pleasant even when the summit isn't snow-covered.

Of course, there's no guard rail.  While on the dirt road, I felt myself slip slightly a few times.  I made to the top.  Sighed a huge sigh of relief.  Got out, looked up, and instantly got dizzy because of the lack of oxygen at the summit!  After I sat down for a little bit, I started to drive back down. Got back to the visitors station and mentioned to one of the rangers my trip to the summit.  He mentioned that the dirt road hasn't been graded in a month as the grader was broken!

Technically, this was probably against my rental agreement as well.

Only one rental agency will let you take its 4x4s up Mauna Kea (Harper's, the same company that rents vehicles to visiting astronomers).

I didn't find the drive particularly tricky, though it probably was better-groomed the three or four times I went there.  The 15% unpaved grade did force me to descend in second gear, low range to avoid brake failure.  (The Big Island has a 25% grade road where you must use first gear, low range, both to avoid brake failure and also to power your way back out of the valley.  See http://www.hawaiihighways.com/photos-Waipio-Valley.htm for more.)

[Alps]

Try driving the Saw Mill River Parkway at 70 MPH at night.

[kennyshark]

For sheer catharsis, try U.S. 441 (Newfound Gap Road) thru Great Smoky Mountains National Park after dark to Gatlinburg, TN after the following scenario:

- You've lost your rental car keys on the Clingman's Dome trail.
- Hitching a ride back to the ranger station near the Gatlinburg entrance.
- You see the last trolley to Gatlinburg.
- Local locksmith drives you back to Clingman's Dome.
- A Good Samaritan has left the rental car keys on the front seat.

[wphiii]

For sheer catharsis, try U.S. 441 (Newfound Gap Road) thru Great Smoky Mountains National Park after dark to Gatlinburg, TN after the following scenario:

- You've lost your rental car keys on the Clingman's Dome trail.
- Hitching a ride back to the ranger station near the Gatlinburg entrance.
- You see the last trolley to Gatlinburg.
- Local locksmith drives you back to Clingman's Dome.
- A Good Samaritan has left the rental car keys on the front seat.

441 is always sheer catharsis after the dumpster fire that is Gatlinburg.