You Hog The Road On Mountain Passes

My wife and I, today, drove from Durango to Grand Junction, CO.  Although most drivers we encountered were cautious and seemed like good mountain drivers, others were not.  While driving on the cliff side, no shoulder, no guard rails, drivers approaching who were on the mountain side hugged and sometimes crossed the double yellow lines around curves.  This gave us cliff side drivers no room for error.  Some of the cliff side road was somewhat undermined or came into the road.  So sometimes we had even less than "no shoulder".  If you had a brain you'd know that it's far less dangerous scrapping the side of the hill than making the oncoming car drop 300-500 feet down into the canyon below.  So if the hill is on your side favor the white line on your right so those coming in the opposite direction, cliff side, can favor the center line.  Three other dangerous situations we encountered was the car passing us in a no passing zone, another tailgating us and several cars , at one point, swerving into my lane to avoid hitting several small rocks on the roadway in their lane.  Where did they expect us to go, over the cliff so they don't hit small rocks?  Stay in your lane and adjust your speed so you can stop for any obstructions.  Just stay out of the cliff-side lane until it's clear of cars.
Coming back, going South, was a bit less disconcerting as more of the time we were on the hill side instead of the cliff side.

The first pass is Molas pass, 10,910 ft, in the San Juan Mountains.  The pass is traversed by the Million Dollar Highway, U.S. 550Starting a few miles North of Durango to Silverton.  It is one of the higher passes in Colorado and they say it is less intimidating than Red Mountain Pass, 11,018 ft., from Silverton to Ouray on the same highway, U.S. 550.  I say wrong, wrong.  If you're easily intimidated I'd suggest you go through Telluride, especially in the winter.
Red Mountain Pass was closed for seven weeks due to a rock slide.  Although just recently re-opened, at the worst point it is down to one lane.  Of course that lane is the one on the cliff side.  The good part is that the cliff is so far down that you would have time to make the Sign of the Cross and maybe a short prayer - before you hit bottom. 




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