Top 5 most challenging conventional roads you’ve been on

[oscar]

Kolekole Pass Road caught my eye on maps of O'ahu.  I'm told Kolekole Road is available to access for anyone with a CAC card or form of DOD ID.  I'm told it's questionable in dry conditions for low clearance vehicles. 

I drove it via the Army base west to the pass, before security restrictions were tightened post-9/11. That part wasn't especially difficult.

The road west of the pass, through a Naval ammunition depot, was generally off-limits to civilians even pre-9/11, so I couldn't check that out.

[Max Rockatansky]

Kolekole Pass Road caught my eye on maps of O'ahu.  I'm told Kolekole Road is available to access for anyone with a CAC card or form of DOD ID.  I'm told it's questionable in dry conditions for low clearance vehicles. 

I drove it via the Army base west to the pass, before security restrictions were tightened post-9/11. That part wasn't especially difficult.

The road west of the pass, through a Naval ammunition depot, was generally off-limits to civilians even pre-9/11, so I couldn't check that out.

Assuming I stay gainfully employed and I return to O'ahu I'd like to give it a try.  The abandoned Farrington Highway looks like it would make for an interesting run or mountain bike ride also.

[oscar]

The abandoned Farrington Highway looks like it would make for an interesting run or mountain bike ride also.

The part between Kaena Point and HI 930 is manageable and even mostly driveable up to the stone wall near the point, but not scenic. The more scenie part to the southeast, between the point and HI 93, is interrupted by a few landslides, though I was able to carefully hike around the slides and reach the point. (I did that hike in early 2009, don't know if anything has changed since then other than my physical condition.)

[1995hoo]

The road that comes to mind for me is Sulphur Springs Road, which is the back way from Clifton Forge, Virginia, over the mountain to US-220 south of the Homestead Resort (which is where we were headed when we took that road). Almost no traffic, but lots of exceptionally sharp and steep hairpin turns where regardless of which direction you were going, you had to go around the outside of the turn (and hope nobody was coming the other way) because the inside of the turns were too steep and the front of your car would scrape the pavement (indeed the pavement had large gouges at a lot of the hairpins where vehicles had scraped). I'm glad I went that way once. I have no real desire to do so again, although GSV shows a VA-188 cutout in Clifton Forge just before the road that becomes Sulphur Springs Road passes under I-64, so if you're interested in cutouts you might at least want to check that out.

My wife would tell me to list the Moki Dugway, but I didn't find the drive to be very challenging. She was freaked out because she was seated on the side closer to the edge of the cliff and I refused her nagging to drive in the middle of the road instead of keeping to the right.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

The Dugway is incredibly easy, especially down hill if you ride 1st or 2nd gear.  The fact it was built for trucks speaks a lot to why it has such a level grade and huge switchbacks.  The dirt portion of AZ 88 was always closer to what I think people expect the Dugway to be like.

[NWI_Irish96]

IN 16. Just try and drive the entire route at once without falling asleep.

[zachary_amaryllis]

In no particular order:

• CO5
• Pikes Peak Highway
• Trail Ridge Road
• "Cottonwood Pass Road" - CR742, CR209, and CR306
• CO65 over Grand Mesa

I only have two, but I don't get out much.
Rabbit ears pass, descending into steamboat (best driven with a manual... an auto can get away from you quick)
Berthoud pass (long 45-50mph downhill straights with 20mph hairpins)

Bonus: they're both US 40.

I've driven trail ridge, and it didn't seem that bad to me, but I can see how it could be.

[Max Rockatansky]

I feel like Pikes Peak Highway is more difficult now that it's fully paved.  The dirt surface tended to help introduce some extra down hill resistance to speed.  I found myself using second and third gears a lot going downhill when I drove Pikes Peak Highway after it was fully paved.

[Rothman]

In no particular order:

• CO5
• Pikes Peak Highway
• Trail Ridge Road
• "Cottonwood Pass Road" - CR742, CR209, and CR306
• CO65 over Grand Mesa

I only have two, but I don't get out much.
Rabbit ears pass, descending into steamboat (best driven with a manual... an auto can get away from you quick)
Berthoud pass (long 45-50mph downhill straights with 20mph hairpins)

Bonus: they're both US 40.

I've driven trail ridge, and it didn't seem that bad to me, but I can see how it could be.

Back in the early 1970s, my mother got stuck behind a semi coming up Rabbit Ears from the west, I believe.  Semi came to a stop and she had a few minutes of wondering if it was going to roll back at her.

[hbelkins]

The road that comes to mind for me is Sulphur Springs Road, which is the back way from Clifton Forge, Virginia, over the mountain to US-220 south of the Homestead Resort (which is where we were headed when we took that road). Almost no traffic, but lots of exceptionally sharp and steep hairpin turns where regardless of which direction you were going, you had to go around the outside of the turn (and hope nobody was coming the other way) because the inside of the turns were too steep and the front of your car would scrape the pavement (indeed the pavement had large gouges at a lot of the hairpins where vehicles had scraped). I'm glad I went that way once. I have no real desire to do so again, although GSV shows a VA-188 cutout in Clifton Forge just before the road that becomes Sulphur Springs Road passes under I-64, so if you're interested in cutouts you might at least want to check that out.

I missed that one, because I must have taken a wrong turn and didn't get to the I-64 underpass, but there are gobs of VA 188 cutouts in Clifton Forge.

Has anyone mentioned Beartooth (US 212)?

[US 89]

The southern Appalachians have some shockingly windy hairpin roads posted as state highways. Georgia's SR 180 comes to mind in particular, but nearby US 19/129 and SR 60, SR 348, and SR 17 are up there as well.

There is also the road up from US 178 to Sassafras Mountain in SC. That one has a few less hairpins than some of the examples in Georgia, but it might be one of the steepest roads I've ever been on.

In my experience, a lot of mountain roads out west are actually less technically challenging than some of these eastern ones. The western mountains are bigger, so the views are better and the roads through them are longer, but in general I don't think the terrain is nearly as rugged as it is in the east.

[Dirt Roads]

Magnolia Rd coming into Paw Paw, WV was a challenging one.

Great find!  There are numerous challenging roads throughout the Mountain State, but few of these are in the Eastern Panhandle. 

I worked on numerous projects on the old B&O (CSXT) in that area, but never took that route.  We could use the railroad right-of-way on either the Magnolia Cutoff (which wasn't a continuous trail) or on the Low Grade (which was still in service back in those days).  After the Low Grade was abandoned, that right-of-way was converted to a road along the river grade (aptly named Low Line Road).

[Dirt Roads]

• NC 197 heading out of Vilas, NC is pretty twisty and narrow. The whole way on it especially on the curves I thought I was going to clip something.

I think you mean NC-194, which would also be on my list.  The section from Vilas to Valle Crucis is windy, but nothing like the climb up out of the Watauga Valley west of Valle Crucis up to Banner Elk.  There's been a bunch of reconstructions due to landslide damage since the first time I drove this, making the route much easier today than it was 20 years ago. 

In the same area, but not quite as tortuous is NC-184 up to Beech Mountain.  Nothing but hairpins straight up the mountain, all with heavy ski traffic when covered with snow and ice.  I love passing Jeeps turned sideways with a minivan.

[FrCorySticha]

Has anyone mentioned Beartooth (US 212)?

No one has, but it's an incredible drive, especially when it's not quite crowded with RVs.

[epzik8]

US 30 between Chambersburg and McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania with its hairpin turns.

Sparks Glencoe Road in the same-name Maryland area for similar reasons.

[1995hoo]

The road that comes to mind for me is Sulphur Springs Road, which is the back way from Clifton Forge, Virginia, over the mountain to US-220 south of the Homestead Resort (which is where we were headed when we took that road). Almost no traffic, but lots of exceptionally sharp and steep hairpin turns where regardless of which direction you were going, you had to go around the outside of the turn (and hope nobody was coming the other way) because the inside of the turns were too steep and the front of your car would scrape the pavement (indeed the pavement had large gouges at a lot of the hairpins where vehicles had scraped). I'm glad I went that way once. I have no real desire to do so again, although GSV shows a VA-188 cutout in Clifton Forge just before the road that becomes Sulphur Springs Road passes under I-64, so if you're interested in cutouts you might at least want to check that out.

I missed that one, because I must have taken a wrong turn and didn't get to the I-64 underpass, but there are gobs of VA 188 cutouts in Clifton Forge.

....

Located here. You wouldn't find it unless you were actively following the obscure routing back there. Worth posting because, aside from it being a cutout, it has another oddity you don't generally see in Virginia. (For those who might need help, compare it to the other cutout at the opposite end of the same block.)