20 Great Roads

Just came across this while surfing. Great photography. I have actually been on a couple of them. I think we can all appreciate these.

http://matadortrips.com/photo-essay-the-worlds-most-spectacular-roads-vol-2

Mmmm...Stelvio and Gotthard....

I'd add the old Saddle Road, Big Island Hawaii to the list. Caution: Driving on it may void your rental agreement.

Many were great, but I'm confused by the 7 mile bridge. BORING, other than the RV that was blown into the water at the approach.

erohslc wrote: I'd add the old Saddle Road, Big Island Hawaii to the list. Caution: Driving on it may void your rental agreement.

I've always wondered why that is. When I was a helicopter crewchief we flew over the big island and Saddle Road road countless times and it always looked perfectly fine (from the air) to me. Why does it void a rental agreement?

"As shown in the photos below, some parts of Ala Mauna Saddle Road, including segments not yet bypassed, are very narrow with rough pavement edges, that make head-on collisions a real problem. Dense fog, as moist air rising upslope from the coast meets cold air rolling downslope from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, can make for dangerously low visibility. The road west of mile 41.5 is also not well reflectorized for night driving. The road had an accident rate 80% higher than the Hawaii average for two-lane rural highways, though the recently-opened bypasses of some of the worst sections hopefully will lower that statistic."

From here.

Those look like pretty incredible drives. I would add the (locally famous) "44 hairpins" section of the Trans-Sumatera Highway between Bukittinggi and Lake Maninjau, Indonesia. The only problem is it's usually full of overloaded lorries crawling up it at 3 MPH. (I don't seem to have any pics of it on my Photobucket, I'll upload some when I get the chance.)

mistanfo wrote: Many were great, but I'm confused by the 7 mile bridge. BORING, other than the RV that was blown into the water at the approach.

Boring from a driving standpoint but a beautiful scenic drive.

In reply to devilboy: The western part from Kona to the State Park on the plateau is rather rough:

It is a famously bad and dangerous road despised by most rental car companies, which generally prohibit tourists from taking their vehicles on the road (Harper's, in Hilo and Kailua-Kona, is the most notable exception), making this highway perhaps the only paved state highway in the United States that is open to motor vehicles but off-limits to most rental cars. The road was built as a gravel road during World War II to provide access to an Army training area in the Big Island's interior, and also as an inland evacuation route if Japanese forces attacked the Big Island. The road was paved in 1949. At least the western ten miles feels like it hasn't been maintained or improved much since.

It's basically one lane, with some crumbling 1/2 lane paving added onto each side. Lot's of little one lane bridges; the convention is that downhill traffic has the right of way. It's narrow enough to be nicknamed the 'straddle road'.

But it's really not that bad, just have to use some common sense. I had a rented Altima, and no issues. Beatiful views and scenery, interesting to see hilly, craggy sheep farms when you look up, and then look down at tops of the clouds, and see the deep blue Pacific peeking through.

The eastern leg down to Hilo is new 2-lane, but winds, dips, and changes like a snake. Very exciting 'at speed', you cannot relax for a moment. The surrounding 'ah-ah' lava desert with patches of fountain grass is unearthly.

Carter