Posted on 11/02/2012 1:22:09 PM PDT by GSWarrior
Anyone up for a drive over Red Mountain Pass?
Don't get carsick.
I love these sorts of videos, honestly. But one should mount the camera on the bumper closer to the pavement and drive well over the speed limit.
I don’t get it. (?)
I did it once on a bicycle.
Barely.
Sure is annoying when cars come from opposite direction and you have to scoot over into your OWN lane...it’s quite a ways down.
Trust me, you do not want to go over the speed limit on that pass. I drove it for 4 years. It is a beautiful drive.
;)
It was more fun back in the days when your radiator boiled going up and your brakes faded going down even in second or first gear.
I drove that pass once during a snowstorm... with a spouse who is terrified of heights.
She’s now my ex-spouse. That road trip wasn’t the cause, but it didn’t help, either. :-)
I too drove it during a snowstorm, met no one on the road except for snow plows.
Yup the Million Dollar Highway. Know it well. Grew up in Montrose. Have driven that road in every condition known. I always liked driving during the fall the best. Vibrant colors, etc.
Always honk when going through the tunnel! (Not the snow shed - the real tunnel just outside Ouray.)
One of my friends, Terry Kishbaugh, from first grade through high school was a snow plow driver was killed in an avalanche on that road. C.W. McCall wrote a song about it.
If you drive the road, give thanks for those who maintain it, and look for Terry’s Marker. It was there the last time I drove the Highway, but that was a long time ago.
Perhaps the video doesn’t do it justice but it actually looks considerably tamer than the drive on RT 1 between San Francisco and Point Reyes
I’ve been over Red Mountain a few times. Good weather only!
For some more thrills try Black Bear Pass, right off of Red Mountain. Yikes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av7y77ytDw0
“Black Bear Road, officially Forest Service Road 648, is a notorious jeep trail that starts from 11,018-foot (3,358 m) summit of Red Mountain Pass on U.S. Highway 550 (between Ouray and Silverton) to Telluride, Colorado. The Black Bear Road crests at Black Bear Pass, elevation 12,840 feet (3,910 m). The road descends over a set of infamous switchbacks as it navigates the heights above Telluride. The road passes Bridal Veil Falls, the second highest waterfall in Colorado. The road was made famous in a spoken word song by C.W. McCall of the same name.
Black Bear Road is open a few months of the year, from late summer (usually the last week of July) to early fall. The road is traveled only downhill from Red Mountain Pass—except for the annual Jeeper’s Jamboree in which travel is reversed for one day only. The start of the trail is marked along U.S. 550 with the famous sign that reads:
TELLURIDE ——>
CITY OF GOLD
12 MILES - 2 HOURS
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE
CRAZY TO DRIVE THIS
ROAD - BUT IT HELPS
JEEPS ONLY”
And I thought I was the only crazy one! We were on our honeymoon. There had been no snow in Ouray when we went to bed. We woke up the next morning to a glazed winter wonderland. No problem, I thought - I attached my new tire chains to all four tires and we started rumbling toward Durango. About 2 miles out of Ouray, we encountered the remains two semi trucks that had skidded off the road into a deep ravine. Not an auspicious start, but I kept driving. The road was coated with a thick smooth glaze, slippery as oiled ice. No snow for traction, it was just bare ice. No guard rails anywhere. Going around curves, I hugged the wall and did 2-3 miles per hour. It took all day to drive 75 miles to Durango, but the scenery was fabulous. We saw only one other car the whole trip; not even the plows were out.
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