on TN/NC border. My friend was driving and he said he was getting worn out. I asked him why, he did not have power steering. 
This was around 1983. People come from all over the world to ride or drive the road. Peak times are summer and fall.
Only curves? No sheer half-mile drop-offs, road-spanning holes, giant mud pits, and rebel gunfire? Easy.
I drove it once, and thought it was a fairly ordinary mountain road. But I met a car coming up, all decked out, like a bat out of hell. Got to the bottom, and there were a bunch of studio trailers, apparently they were filming a picture that day.
Time for a little parochial “it’s better where I come from” - ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the road to Hana.
Actually, I’m not a huge fan of the road to Hana - it is exhaustingly narrow and curvy, and the driver doesn’t get to relax because they have to stay alert the whole time.
My dad and I drove the road to Haha and agreed afterwards that if we ever did it again we’d take a tour. It was the blind curves(my dad honked before each one) and the one way bridges that annoyed us.
heh there’s some roads in Utah and colorado that are nothing but 2 lane roads with 1k plus foot drops … every so often you’d see these little bridge-like squares off to the side for overheated cars and turnarounds …after going up one side and down
I was so dizzy that when we hit the bottom i had my uncle stop the truck and I opened the door and basically fell out on the ground and just sat there for 10 minutes and i wasn’t the only one with the same reaction and I was talking ot the rest stop guys and they had stories about cars that blew their brakes out and the like … apparently my reaction was mild the usual response is to fall out and then barf for 20 minutes …
I also remeber being told those roads were just old explorer/horse and wagon trails
It was funny tho that when I complained Kansas was boring as hell my uncle said " well we could go back to Utah" … and I told him where he could go, how to get there and what he could do with himself once he arrived … he laughed and laughed
But what was scarier was the flippin trains on tracks barrelin up and down in some spots … one i counted was 100 cars long … uncle seen that and he said "that would be a hell of a time for one of those tracks to give … even worse of a spot for a train robbery eh?
I didn’t drive it, but I rode a minibus both ways on Bolivia’s famous “Road of Death”, and didn’t even know about before making the trip. That’s the one where they drive on the left, so the driver can hang out the door to see how his wheels are to the 2,000 drop.
Agreed and agreed. I drove it once, did not enjoy the experience; also actually being in Hana is a but of a letdown. Then you have to drive it again all the way back! Note: car rental companies generally frown on using their cars for this trip.
Thousands of YouTube videos of this road. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ridden it on my motorcycle. First did it about 20 years ago, and it wasn’t very busy back then. There was a crusty gas station at the southern end of it at the time. in the 2000s the internet made this stretch of road FAMOUS, and everybody came to run it. At some point the gas station remodeled into a bit of a motorsports resort, complete with a restaurant and hotel rooms and a shop full of souvenirs. Roadside photographers frequent the area now, sitting on the road shoulder and taking pics of you as you cruise by and posting them on the internet for you to buy later (see for example https://www.killboy.com/). People sometimes push the limits a little harder in an effort to make a good photo; as a result, these roadside photographers occasionally capture action shots of a crash in progress. On weekends, the gas station and hotel parking lot is crammed with motorcycles and sportscars - and so is the road itself. These days, I don’t mind riding the gap on a weekday when traffic is down, but weekends are scary; there’s just too much traffic, too many people anxious to run their fastest pace yet.
With 318 curves in 11 miles the road itself is, as you might expect, nonstop second-gear curves. If you’re riding a heavy-ish motorcycle (i.e. liter or larger) at any sort of sporting pace, you’ll work up a sweat pushing it around. Part of the appeal is that there are no crossroads, and so there is no cross traffic to worry about (although there are pullouts for slower traffic). Part of the UNappeal is that there is only one official passing zone, and sometimes you get stuck behind inconsiderate motorists who won’t use the pullouts. If you’re lucky, you can sometimes get past them immediately after a hairpin turn, when you’re in a low gear (good accel) and have a little bit of straight road ahead of you with no oncoming traffic. Another part of the unappeal is the occasional dipshit truck driver who insists on running the gap with an 18-wheeler instead of taking the much longer detour. There are signs warning semis to take the detour, but some still try to run the gap. Even with a skilled truck driver, most of the turns are so tight that it’s impossible for big-rigs to get through without completely blocking the oncoming lane, often in blind turns (example). There have been some hideous wrecks because of this, and occasionally a less-skilled trucker gets stuck, blocking the road for hours.
Wrecks (especially by motorcyclists) are a daily occurrence in Deals Gap. In the gas station, there’s a board covered with photos of past crashes (including one cop car that screwed up while chasing a bike), and in the parking lot there’s a “Tree of Shame” on which a vast array of shattered motorcycle parts is hung.
If you really want to run the gap, I recommend visiting on a weekday if at all possible. Hug the fog line on blind turns, and if you’re a rider, wear full gear. Good luck.
I’ve been through there twice and NEVER again due to severe nausea. Third time will NOT be the charm as it will not happen.
I loved the road to Hana. All I remember is “Ho hum, yet another picturesque waterfall. Don’t bother even looking.”
I was on a similar road on the island of Martinique. It was a minor road that traversed the island, and I got on it by mistake. I was horribly lost and didn’t know where the road led. One lane, and if another car came, one car had to back up to a place where they could cross. There was often a shear cliff on one side and a shear drop on the other. I felt like I was trapped in a Wile Coyote cartoon. But the views, if I could take my eyes off the road long enough to see them, were spectacular.
I was on a similar road on the island of Martinique. It was a minor road that traversed the island, and I got on it by mistake. I was horribly lost and didn’t know where the road led. One lane, and if another car came, one car had to back up to a place where they could cross. There was often a shear cliff on one side and a shear drop on the other. I felt like I was trapped in a Wile Coyote cartoon. But the views, if I could take my eyes off the road long enough to see them, were spectacular.
Unless things have changed since 2008 the road to Hana is fine for rentals. It’s the back way that’s not.
Another good road to ride is the “Iron Mountain Highway” (also route 16A) in South Dakota. It advertises "17 miles, 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtails, 3 tunnels, 2 splits, and 4 Presidents (it’s close to Mt. Rushmore). Very scenic and the road is in good shape, but you better believe you pay attention while driving.
I’ve ridden up and down the tail of the dragon a few times. As a motorcyclist, it’s fun. But it’s an open road and there’s that ever-present fear that around that next blind curve is an idiot driver or truck crossing the lane. It doesn’t matter if you can ride like Rossi - if that happens, your number is up. So I got my requisite draggin’ knee on the dragon pic (there’s usually photographers set up along the route) and moved on to the Cherohala Skyway, which IMO is faster, more scenic, and more fun to ride.
I’m driving Arizona Highway 89A between Jerome and Prescott this Friday. I wish I had something a little sportier to drive than the Ford Fusion I have reserved. It used to be Highway 79, I was told it got that number because of the 79 curves in the road. My father in law was born in the town of Jerome and said the road was gravel when he was growing up. It had no guard rails and could really be scary in the winter time.
Anyone else here driven the Nürburgring?