This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but there’s a short section of UT12 called Hogsback Ridge that probably scares a few people.
Wow I went and checked that out at Google maps and went around it. Chaos.
The road up Pike’s Peak is interesting.
I’ll call that and raise you with the Moki Dugway, heading north out of Monument Valley on UT 261. This is what it looks like as you approach it. Your brain just tells you “There is no freaking way the road goes up that’” but it does. Better yet, the road is all loose gravel.
I have had a similar pants-shitting fear while driving on 580 to San Francisco. I’m used to it now, though.
I used to live in very rural Tulare county, CA. Central Valley, right between Bakersfield and Fresno. Tulare is famous for Tule fog. It’s a very thick seasonal fog. There is an approximately 5-mile access road between the highway and the small town in which I lived. It was a 2-lane road with absolutely NO overhead lights, except at the 2 stop-sign intersections. I used to work 3 nights per week until 12:30 in the morning. There is nothing scarier than that road in Tule fog at 1 AM. It’s a 50 MPH speed limit, and I’d have to go 15-20. Mornings after, there would always be a few dead critters on the road, though I never hit any.
Joe
Yes, I think I’ll seriously avoid that. Yikes!
Hogsback Ridge looks scary too. I’ll probably also avoid the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam as well.
Came in here to say this. I believe you’re right about the Boulevard having the dubious honor of two of the deadliest intersections in the world, not just country. Even a nun met her Maker after a hit-and-run while trying to cross that road a few years ago. The craziest thing I’ve personally witnessed on the Boulevard was a stretch limo who got in the wrong section of lanes. He got pretty far before he realized his mistake… when a wall of cars came barrelling at him from over a hill. I think that limo needed to be hosed out afterwards.
The only urban highway that I’ve driven on that I refuse to drive on again is the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago between roughly exit 50A and the Stevenson.
I’ve been onhundreds of twisted, windy, narrow rural roads that made me unable to sleep that night. There’s no point in trying to list all of them, so I’ll just list the latest: a stretch of Missouri 68 between I-44 and Salem. And that’s the improved 68.
I’ve never had fear of any road do to it’s geography or conditions. It’s other people that scare the shit out of me.
I just came back from doing the Manali-Leh “highway” in early October 2009–250 miles of fairly high road in Ladakh, at a bad time of year. Also drove over the Khardung La–at 18,000 feet one of the higher motorable passes in the world. Parts of both roads can be in poor repair, although I’ve been on more dangerous remote jeep roads in both the Himalayas and the Rockies. Manali-Leh actually was not as bad as I was expecting although we did see a handful of wrecks, and at one point took a shortcut straight downhill from Tanglang La just under 18,000 feet.
For sheer terror of driving, some of the back roads of India are the most nerve-wracking for me, even when they are paved and level and straight. Not uncommon for an oxcart to be coming right at you on the wrong side of the road (not that there is a correct side) while an overloaded truck on each side is overtaking you and you are overtaking a motocycle with an entire family of 5 on it. Reminded of driving around Tanzania, except with way more vehicles. I’ve been quite a few places in this world, and civilized roads like the Amalfi coast (which I have also driven) don’t even come close to the developing world.
Lots of sites like this one show some nice photos: http://www.uniquescoop.com/2009/05/most-dangerous-roads-in-world.html
I used to like in Bakersfield and the advice I got in the office was to roll down my windows at intersections and listen for cars coming since there was no way I could see then and they wouldn’t be able to see me. The fun part was people were still driving 50 through that stuff.
Fun side note I worked at the top of a hill so occasionally the fog would be the right height that is would only be a foot or two high and it was interesting to see it flowing across the road but not be able to see into it.
The worst thing about driving across Hoover Dam is the traffic. Still, you might prefer that to the bridge that’s being built to bypass the dam.
Are you any better at walking on tall things? The tour of the dam is pretty cool.
Oh hell no. I got maybe 30 feet out on the Golden Gate and had to turn back. The Mass Ave bridge kind of freaks me out too.
Wolf Creek Pass, in Colorado, at night, during a blizzard. That’s probably the closest to death I have ever come. I almost wish I had pictures or video or something to show just how terrifying that experience was.
I don’t know the name of the road, but it’s in the mountains between Denver and Aspen.
I’m scared of heights. Really, really scared. And here we were, on top of the Rocky Mountains, blithly running alongside a drop so steep that there were clouds below us. I think I kept my eyes shut and whimpered most of the time.
Then the parents made us get out at the top to admire the view. Which is pretty nice, if you’re not actually there. The rest of the family actually posed for a photo right at the edge. Me? I was busy picking wildflowers, and Not Looking.
Independance Pass. Highway 82. It’s the other way, Aspen to the east, that is really scary, because you’re on the dropoff side of the road.
Back roads in Ecuador. They don’t have bridges. They have wheel lanes. The lanes are just a little wider than tires. Your aim must be perfect.