Whenever we’re in CO we spend most of our time on them but that’s generally just several weeks out of the year.
I used to drive the gravel Haul Road up to Prudhoe every other day. Each truck you pass has a windshield busted in a half dozen places. It’s just a given up there.
There’s not many months that go by without me driving on a dirt road. There’s tons of them around here - including some unpaved streets in town - and I’m always on them to go to our cabin, or the ski trail, or the bike trail, or whatever.
And we also have a long dirt driveway, but not sure if that counts.
I chose the “more than ten years ago” option but its really been closer to twenty; the last time was when I lived in South Dakota and that’s getting on to be a long time ago. It’s funny how much I miss the place, though.
I picked “5 years ago”, although it’s probably more recent than that. The last one I remember for sure was on Cat Island in the Bahamas, about 4 years ago I guess – we wanted to get to the ocean side of the island, and did, but only after driving on a dirt road for a length of time that would have seemed impossible on such a small island.
While we’re on the subject, I thought I would mention a rather improbable gravel road – the New London Turnpike, which cuts straight across Rhode Island from northeast to southwest. It used to go from Providence to New London, Connecticut; the upper and lower parts are gone, but the middle part is still there, and is still unpaved… probably not too different than it was in colonial times.
About 10 minutes ago taking my kids to school. We live down a dirt road with a few other far flung homes. The constant rain makes the most insane pot holes that have aready chewed through the bearings on my car’s front tires several times. Ya’ think they would grade the road at something of an ange so the rainwater would drain. In the summer the dust from the road lands all over the house. I can, however, hear any car crunching up the road pretty well. My teenagers don’t have a chance in hell of sneaking in or out without me knowing. (Heheheheh)
Four years ago I’d drive dirt roads every day, if I drove at all. It’s less frequent now, but hardly unusual.
It was only a few years ago that my county moved one of its road right-of-ways out of a stream bed. I don’t mean the road used to cross a stream. I mean it descended into the bed of a running stream, and then ran along that course for a while before emerging again.
Just a few days ago. I was in North Dakota for my mother’s funeral. We stayed with my wife’s folks in Devils Lake for a couple of days. They live in the sticks. They live on an unpaved road.
The road leading to Horseshoe Canyon in southern Utah. It was covered with powdery sand and many ruts and potholes. Very long and very difficult to drive on.
This has been a surprise. I didn’t realize roads like this are still so common.
We still have a lot of logging roads in the woods. A lot aren’t on any maps. Deer hunters use them. The last gravel road I drove was on a fishing trip.
The last time was the day we moved out of rural NE North Carolina to southern Maryland the last week of February this year. Before moving, it was a common but not everyday experience.