Worst Downhill (or Uphill) You've Come Across

[BPTS]

North side of Red Mountain Pass in Colorado is sporty in the winter with 16,000# of broken truck swinging on the back of a tow truck that kept popping out of gear due to shot synchros.

[Busskipper]

Following....

[lenkerb]

Sea to Sky Hwy British Columbia....I swear the one road sign read 17% grade!!!

[rarebear.nm]

Originally Posted by BPTS

North side of Red Mountain Pass in Colorado is sporty in the winter with 16,000# of broken truck swinging on the back of a tow truck that kept popping out of gear due to shot synchros.

Yep, I'd agree to that.

[LarryinID]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

I thought this would be fun. Post the worst place you've gone through in an RV.

For me it was the Teton Pass Highway between Craters of the Moon and Jackson WY. Next time I'll take the more southern route.

I was heading east, and the uphill 10% grade wasn't so bad, likely because it's uphill. The downhill 10% grade was fairly nasty, but perhaps I was affected by my nervous wife.

Map of area:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4986.../data=!3m1!1e3

Sign showing grade and duration:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4992...7i13312!8i6656

Sorry but that’s an easy one. Of course I’ve done it hundreds of times.

Try the pass from Idaho City to Lowman...which I also do often with Class A pulling toad. Not as high but definitely more challenging. Wyoming has a few around 10,000 but for serious altitude try Colorado.

[Grapehound]

Mine would have to be a stretch of what must be a logging road from Route 321 in the Smokey Mountains east of Gatlinburg up through the mountains to get to I-40. The issue was not the altitude but the single lane gravel road with steep 180 degree switchbacks.

By the time we saw a "no trucks" sign it was too late; we were committed up the mountain.

The road is a series of switchbacks with no guardrails in a very rural part of Tennessee. Once we started up the mountains, we were on a single lane gravel road with no way to turn around.

I would bet the Tennessee locals would say we could never take a 33 foot fifth wheel up through those 180 degree steep mountain switchbacks but we did. If we had met a car coming the other way in most spots there was often no place to pass.

There was no guardrail on the outside turns, just treetops and a steep drop-off, and a steep ditch of several feet or more on the inside of these 180 degree switchbacks. We saw three bear cubs wrapped around a tree top partway up the mountain and had to drag a tree of the highway to get through. There were no mail boxes, no power lines, nothing.

It was white knuckle time for sure. It was Deliverance country.

My wife always refers to that trip as my big "shortcut" to I-40.

[TUCSONRAIL]

Yes, US 550 between Silverton and Ouray is always fun.

[brianchris]

Originally Posted by mlh2013

The Dohetry slide in Oregon on hwy 140, they launch hang gliders off of it. We came down it in 2018 really didn't know what we were in for, 2 lane and no rails. Truly a white knuckle drive for me.

Another vote for the "Dohetry slide" in Oregon on hwy 140! Scariest road I have ever been on! It took all my courage not to turn around and go 3 hours out of my way, to avoid that 5 to 10 minute drive (once I stumbled across it). The lack of any guardrails makes it very nerve racking! Below is a video (I didn't file that.....lol), but even that video doesn't make it look as dicey and terrifying as it is in reality!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igxv...Pj28A&index=10

[LarryinID]

Originally Posted by 450Donn

NE entrance into Yellowstone.

That would be Beartooth Pass. Yes, its a biggie.

[Busycakes]

Originally Posted by RVThere

The Hogback in Utah on Rt. 12. Two way traffic on two lanes, no shoulder, no guard rail, 1000 foot drop on each side and about a 14% grade! NO PLACE to go in an emergency...

https://youtu.be/OFr0YShDM1E

That was mine as well. The Teton pass ran a close 2nd.

[garywilson]

The gravel road from the asphalt going to the Buffalo River in Arkansas that seemed to go on forever.
Steep, loose gravel, pot holes, low tree limbs, single lane +4'.
Met another PU. Just a bit of a challenge!
Reminded me of the movie 'Deliverance'.

[robisinwa]

While in the SF bay area...

Wife: Well, Google maps is saying we need to go around and connect to this road to that road, to that road.

Me: Why not just go direct, looks like we can go thru this neighborhood and come right out where we want to be.

Two turns later... sign says 18% grade ahead. Yeah, I stop to the side and put the flashers on to take a look. Looks steeper than 18% to me with a 90 degree bend at the bottom! Ain't doing that!

Needless to say we now carry reflective traffic vests and traffic wand lights so traffic can be stopped behind us if I ever need to back up again in the middle of the road.

Note: Tenton Pass was a piece of cake compared to what I saw there in SF, though we did set our high temp alarm for the engine off on the climb up headed towards Jackson Hole. Didn't know I had one till that moment but thankfully we were near the scenic turn out at the top to let her cool down before heading down into the valley.

[RRBattani]

Originally Posted by yeloduster

I see Monument Pass mentioned...I am unfamiliar with Monument Pass. There is Monument Hill on I25 north of Colorado Springs. I think they mean Monarch Pass.

I grew up in northern New Mexico and Wyoming. My dad drove trucks when the trucks mostly had gasoline engines of less that 300 cubic inches and about 120 HP. They got up and down hills with gears. The trucks had no power steering, many with out air brakes. The brakes were almost totally ineffective at slowing a truck down. Gears were for slowing down. The brakes were for stopping from 10 MPH to 0 MPH. Truck driving was a job of high skill and even HIGHER DANGER. Downshifting while double clutching a heavy duty transmission was an art as much as it was a skill. Gears on the downhill side was the only way to control speed. If a driver failed to get into the next lower gear it could very well be a death sentence! Often on passes like Monarch Pass downhill speed was in the single digits! Up hill too!

I learned to drive in the environment of high mountains, narrow roads, steep grades and lots of curves. I was blessed to have a true expert as a teacher and mentor while I learned to drive.

So I have read this thread with interest. The passes of Wyoming and Colorado that are mentioned seem intimidating to those who's experience is land without mountains. To most of us who grew up in the mountains, the passes are just the way we get from here to there and we really don't think about it much. The skill to negotiate the passes is ingrained from a lifetime of riding with our parents and learning to do the mountain driving before we were aware enough to appreciate the danger!

Us country folks are more intimidated by city driving than by mountain driving.

Passes in Colorado and Wyoming that have not been mentioned that are intimidating to many drivers:

• Slumgullion Pass on Colorado State Highway 149
• Douglas Pass on Colorado State Highway 139
• Independence Pass on Colorado State Highway 82 32' length restriction
• The Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Durango US550
• Wolf Creek Pass US160
• Berthoud Pass US40
• Rabbit Ears Pass US40
• Dead Indian Pass Wyoming State Highway 296

I would rather drive any of the above passes than drive from Denver to Vail on I70. I70 is steep, curvy, heavily traveled and bumpy and is often stop and go traffic. Not a pleasant drive. It is like city driving and mountain driving combined.

I agree that avoiding these passes deprive you of some VERY spectacular scenery. See attached picture from the top of Dead Indian Pass looking west.

X2 on the Million Dollar Highway. It would be an adventure on a motorcycle, but in a 40' pusher pulling a car.......Never again.

[AirBossdavid]

Easy, highway 4 between port Alberti and Tofino, bc.

18% grade, and the only way to get a vehicle to tofino. Was under construction this summer when I went, single lane and in terrible shape. Had been washed out completely last spring.

Best addition was my Cummins had a hole in the hose from the intake manifold to the compressor, so I could only raise about 15 psi boost pressure. Normal is almost 40 psi, with 7,000 lb enclosed trailer on the back. Diesel pusher. Got as low as 7 Kms per hour on the steepest climb. Nerve wracking thinking of what I would do if it stopped completely.

Fixed the hose while there and managed 35kph on a similar grade with all the boost pressure.