America's Scariest Roads?

[berberry]

What would you nominate to a list of the most dangerous and frightening highways anywhere in the US?  To make it, I think, more interesting, let's assume that traffic on the road nominated is minimal.  If we're talking about a city freeway, then let the danger exist even on a Sunday morning at 4.  In other words, since by nature many of the threads on this forum are already about dangerously overloaded highways and freeways, let's please talk here about danger that exists even in the absence of heavy traffic.

I was fascinated by the History Channel's IRT series a couple months ago and was wondering how many roads in the US are, in any way, comparable to those Indian highways the truckers were driving.  Those roads looked a lot like the infamous Yungas Road in Bolivia (and I wonder if that'll be coming up on a future IRT series. I'll bet Lisa could handle it!)

I haven't done a lot of travelling in the western states, but the scariest road I've ever seen is there: the Oatman Highway in Arizona (part of the original U.S. 66).  I'm told that Utah and Nevada's Million Dollar Highway is even worse, but I haven't driven it.

[agentsteel53]

US-550 (Million Dollar Highway) is up there, but the absolute most inadequate road I've ever driven in the US is called the Leesville Road and it is in northern California (look up Leesville, CA on Google Maps, then head southeast).  It's shown on Rand McNally as a gray line, but it's one lane with 5mph advisory curves, no shoulders, you name it.  Shockingly, there's an old alignment of that road extant across the worst of the mountain pass - I did not drive that.

Speaking of old roads, old US-97 across Blewett Pass in Washington is pretty harrowing, as is old US-10 at the Montana/Idaho state line, but those roads haven't been particularly in service in ages, so I don't think they count for the purposes of this discussion.

I've heard the Pi'ilani Highway on Maui is pretty harrowing too, but alas I've never gotten to drive it since it was washed out the one time I was there.

[agentsteel53]

there are also all kinds of random dirt trails barely dug out of mountainsides that are very challenging drives... but for now let's restrict the discussion to roads that have been maintained in recent memory, and were intended for use by the general motoring public with a vehicle of no impressive clearance or traction.

for that, my vote stays with the Leesville Road.

[berberry]

...for that, my vote stays with the Leesville Road.

I guess a one-lane mountain road of the type you describe would be hard to beat in terms of scariness.  If I ever get to visit northern Cali I might just look that one up.  Would it be possible and/or fun to ride it on a bicycle?

The only one-lane, publicly-maintained roads I'm familiar with are in Washington County, Mississippi.  South of Greenville, there are one-lane sections of old MS Hwy 1 that are fun to drive, but they're not very dangerous.  It's delta flatland and you can see forever.

[J N Winkler]

I have looked up the Million Dollar Highway on StreetView and been unimpressed.  My perennial favorite for this particular distinction is NM 159 between US 180 and Mogollon.

[berberry]

I just tried "driving" the Leesville Road in the Google Earth Driving Simulator.  Very interesting road; I'd love to drive it for real!

[oscar]

I've heard the Pi'ilani Highway on Maui is pretty harrowing too, but alas I've never gotten to drive it since it was washed out the one time I was there.

It is (for the county route 31 segment through southeast Maui -- not the far tamer state highway 31 down to Wailea, which is a separate Piilani Highway segment).  But the county route 340 part of the Kahekili Highway along the northwest Maui coast is even scarier.  See my photo collections for both the Piiliani and Kahekili highways, and decide for yourself.  

[agentsteel53]

the Kahekili did not seem troublesome at all to me.  I drove every road on Maui except for the southeast Pi'ilani, and none were all that particularly bad, except maybe a few possible old alignments of 39 where the circle shields are, just because it's so forested and it always seemed like I'd go around the next curve and find the road had fallen off a cliff.

[algorerhythms]

I just tried "driving" the Leesville Road in the Google Earth Driving Simulator.  Very interesting road; I'd love to drive it for real!

How does that simulator decide what speed to go? I just tried it on a path that included a little side road and a major state highway, and it went faster on the little side road (23 mph) than on the state highway (10 mph).

[berberry]

How does that simulator decide what speed to go? I just tried it on a path that included a little side road and a major state highway, and it went faster on the little side road (23 mph) than on the state highway (10 mph).

Wish I knew.  If you try driving the Yungas Road, you'll notice that it goes ridiculously fast.  You can slow it down or speed it up x multiples/fractions of its default speed using the + and - keys.

The thing that irritates me about the simulator is that there's no easy way to control the routing.  You sometimes have to take small steps of a route in turn if you want to use an alternate roadway.

[realjd]

for that, my vote stays with the Leesville Road.

That's this one, right?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Leesville+,+ca&sll=28.002337,-80.608561&sspn=0.01402,0.01929&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Leesville,+Colusa,+California&ll=39.168001,-122.405119&spn=0.024754,0.054932&z=15&layer=c&cbll=39.169243,-122.40462&panoid=RkWibYl5UP8K_HX7b1Xc0w&cbp=12,136.7,,0,18.08

It's a good thing the Google car is small and not a big truck with those construction vehicles in the way!

While I was a passenger and not the driver in this case, I remember the Mount Washington Auto Road in NH being a challenging drive. There is no StreetView since it's a private road, but there are plenty of geotagged pictures in Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&sll=44.289206,-71.271228&sspn=0.045711,0.077162&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=&ll=44.289206,-71.271228&spn=0.045465,0.077162&z=14&layer=c&cbll=44.289206,-71.271228&cbp=12,0,,0,5&photoid=po-35658259

[cjk374]

The Pig Trail, AR Hwy 23 in northwest Arkansas, can get your attention quick if you let your eyes wander at the gorgeous scenery a little too long.  It's worth it!

[Kniwt]

I think my vote is for the Moki Dugway in Utah, which although unpaved is part of the state highway system.

Up there in Canadaland, I've wanted to drive B.C. Highway 20 to Bella Coola, where the legend is that the occasional tourist is too afraid to drive back up the mountain. Alas, I cannot speak firsthand to that.

[berberry]

I think my vote is for the Moki Dugway in Utah, which although unpaved is part of the state highway system.

Excellent choice!  I found a number of youtube videos covering that route.  It looks thrilling.

[ctsignguy]

I would nominate US 250 in central West Virginia...Posted speed limit is 55, but when i was on it a year or so back, i didnt go much fast than 45 the whole way.  (There were signs saying 'Speed Enforced by Radar', but i figured you exceeded the speed limit on some stretches, they wouldn't write you a ticket for speeding, but littering...as various loose pieces of your car would be littering the highway from all the guardrails and hillsides and trees you scraped....

[agentsteel53]

I would nominate US 250 in central West Virginia...Posted speed limit is 55, but when i was on it a year or so back, i didnt go much fast than 45 the whole way.  (There were signs saying 'Speed Enforced by Radar', but i figured you exceeded the speed limit on some stretches, they wouldn't write you a ticket for speeding, but littering...as various loose pieces of your car would be littering the highway from all the guardrails and hillsides and trees you scraped....

agreed.  US-33 is like this as well.

there are three types of advisory curves, and they are all signed in very distinct manners.

guardrail with no signage: advisory speed is 30.
guardrail with chevrons: advisory speed is 20.
guardrail with copious chunk missing: advisory speed is 10.

[mightyace]

^^^

I ran into some of that on US 219 head from I-64 toward Cass.  I did also take US 250 to head back toward I-81 later.

[corco]

My favorite is when you get to the Wyoming/Montana line on the top of the Beartooth Highway on US-212, crossing into Montana. There is a speed limit sign just after the state line that says SPEED LIMIT 70/NIGHT 65. There's no way in hell you're going more than 35 for the first 10 miles or so because of the road design, and if you do it during tourist season you're not going more than 20. There's not a stretch that's even long enough to accelerate to that speed until you're almost to Red Lodge

[mightyace]

There is a speed limit sign just after the state line that says SPEED LIMIT 70/NIGHT 65. There's no way in hell you're going more than 35 for the first 10 miles or so because of the road design,

More evidence of the absence of logic in speed limits.  In corco's example, that speed limit is much too high.  Then we have widenings of the road that have 35mph speed limits.

[Eth]

re: the various US highways in WV mentioned above:  portions of US 60 between I-64 and US 19 are also similar.

[Tarkus]

OR-242, the old McKenzie Pass Highway, is definitely among the craziest I've driven--had the opportunity to clinch it back in October (only the third highway I had clinched at the time).  The first few miles out of Sisters are okay, but then there's about 30 miles of 15mph hairpin curves along fairly steep drops with no guardrails, and striped as 2 lanes but barely enough room for 1 vehicle. ODOT closes it down in the winter, for good reason.

Bakeoven Road (yes, that's really its name) coming out of Maupin, Oregon is pretty bad, too--it's a "shortcut" from US-197 to US-97 near Shaniko.  I've not actually driven it myself, but have been in the passenger seat.  Badly paved and the first few miles are nothing but sharp, unmarked curves with no guardrails, climbing up out of the canyon.  They haven't even StreetViewed it yet.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[corco]

I was on 242 once during tourist season- I wasn't driving but I recall there being a ton of RV traffic, making that road even scarier.

[Jim]

I think my vote is for the Moki Dugway in Utah, which although unpaved is part of the state highway system.

Of the ones I've personally driven, this is probably the winner.  But even so, it wasn't really scary, just interesting and unusual.  Had I encountered much downhill traffic, I might have thought differently.

Here are my pictures of the experience:

http://www.teresco.org/pics/fourcorners-20030926-27/26/utah261.html

[hbelkins]

Excellent choice!  I found a number of youtube videos covering that route.  It looks thrilling.

Dear videographers: Please ensure that your camera is capturing the road scene and not two-thirds of your car's interior. TYVM.

[berberry]

Dear videographers: Please ensure that your camera is capturing the road scene and not two-thirds of your car's interior. TYVM.

This one's pretty good, and certainly conveys the scariness effectively.

From what I've been able to find about the roads mentioned so far, the Moki Dugway and the Beartooth Highway are so good they look like great vacation destinations in and of themselves.  I'd love to take the Moki downhill on a bicycle.  It'd be a much more affordable trip than going to Bolivia, where downhill biking on the old Yungas Road has become very popular (and something I'd very much love to do).  Does anyone ever bike the Moki Dugway?  Would it be relatively safe?