Ark Propane Spill below Salida

[Mike Harvey]

Originally Posted by yetigonecrazy

ever driven hwy 550 from ouray to durango in the middle of the winter? (on the two or three days a week they manage to get it open, of course)

everyday for 6 weeks during the winter of 1996 (when it was open, as you said) sometimes with my beacon on, in the car.

but the difference is that road scares the shit out of everyone and everyone slows down. for some reason people drive the canyon like they are bullet proof. this despite the fact there are dark, icy corners, local traffic and very few places to pass.

when we were building the Pueblo park I drove that road 4 days a week, there and back, from October to March and I developed a acute hatred for that piece of highway.

[caspermike]

if that place even gets a little bit of rain, you better be watching for falling rocks. 3 years back i remember driving by a mustang that had it's front completely smashed into the ground from a boulder. and further up the road was more rock slides. nasty little road but its a beauitful one that's for sure.

[Caspian]

I nearly crapped my shorts driving that from Pagosa over to Ridgeway on that road headed for a hut trip, watching my newly-hitched friends behind me sliding all over the place. The conditions were pretty bad even by CO standards and I was so relieved to get to the bottom by the cliffside...where I came up behind a semi. He must have needed that big truck to carry around his huge brass ones.

[COUNT]

Since we've totally strayed off topic. Red Mountain Pass is F'n awesome! In a sketchy-fear-of-death kind of way. It only makes it better for me knowing that people have reportedly paddled the gorge down there. I'd love to see some pics from river-level of that baby.

COUNT

[TakemetotheRiver]

I agree- I've never come around a corner on any other road (or on a river) like the one just short of the first avalanche tunnel and felt my own mortality so acutely. It takes my breath away every time- Winter or Summer.

Originally Posted by COUNT

Red Mountain Pass is F'n awesome! In a sketchy-fear-of-death kind of way.
COUNT