Long time readers know I hate interstate highways. These boring roads prevent one from seeing America. Yesterday my policy of driving the backroads of our country paid off in spades, but first you need to know the back story …
Two years ago while driving home from the Grand Canyon to northern Minnesota, I decided to cut through the mountains from Arizona to SW Colorado. I had no idea what the scenery was like, and advance research had not yielded any “must sees”. By chance we ended up in Durango, Colorado and that is how this story begins. In Durango we learned of the Million Dollar Highway. On our first trip we only were able to drive a small portion of the road, and then vowed we would be back. Yesterday we fulfilled that promise.
The Million Dollar Highway (US Hwy #550) takes one up and over the summit of Red Mountain, but in-between there are enough hairpin turns and exhilarating downhills to last a life time. The Million Dollar name comes from the time period when the road was built. Huge money was spent getting a road through the mountains. During our stay in Tucson we kept monitoring the weather in Durango, hoping we would get a clear sun / low wind forecast. We struck pay dirt! Arriving in Durango we learned from our waiter at dinner that we were very lucky. A huge avalanche had closed the road four weeks earlier, and only a few days prior after 20 days of clean-up had the Colorado Department of Transportation (CODOT) been able to clear all the snow, broken trees and boulders from the highway. Apparently somewhat down the mountain this winter there had been over 350 inches of snow, but more on the summit. Spring melt means avalanches. During our drive on the highway we often passed CODOT trucks which were monitoring current avalanche conditions. Hwy #550 had many gates which could have been closed to prevent access. Thankfully all traffic was were allowed to proceed!!!
Here are two video screenshots courtesy of the Arizona Department of Transportation (annotations are mine). This is the highway we drove and was closed for 20 days resulting from the numerous avalanches.
- Follow this link to watch a video taken by CODOT. The passenger in the heleocopter actually captured the two biggest avalanches on video … the second triggered by the first. The most amazing footage starts at the video’s 1 minute mark. Maximize the video for the best effect!
My pictures and video from atop one of the mountain passes. The three images combine to show the vista we could see from the mountain pass. In the video I scan the same in real time.
Looking back at Red Mountain … site of the huge avalanches (and a video of our descent into the canyon)
