GPS Non-Horror Stories

[Max Rockatansky]

A couple years back I had just clinched CA 135 and I found myself in Las Cruces.  My next target was former CA 176 which ended in Sisquoc.  Not wanting to backtrack all the way to Santa Maria I looked for a road over the ridge north of Las Cruces to approach Sisquoc from the east.  The road that popped up on my GPS was Cat Canyon Road which turned out to be a fun paved one-lane highway down Cat Canyon:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/G8rj405N18

[US 89]

Driving from Dallas to Taos last summer, Google Maps sent me over NM 120 between Wagon Mound and Angel Fire, I think because NM 518 was closed for wildfires. I assumed it'd be a fine road if Google was recommending it, and it showed up on my paper atlas as a minor road but a paved one nonetheless - so this sign was very low on the list of things I was expecting to see:



I had wondered why the Google estimated time was so long given the mileage but had chalked it up to simply being out of cell coverage for a long time (this had been an issue on my trip through central Idaho the previous month). At any rate, 120 turned out to be this awesomely scenic dirt road winding through the mountains of northern New Mexico:







It wasn't in the best shape, so I definitely wouldn't have been too happy if I were driving something without much in the way of ground clearance. But we were in a Subaru Outback, which handled it as well as I could have asked.