Durango to Montrose

One TV doc on US dangerous roads focused on the avalanche danger on US550. If that is the primary danger (real danger, causing deaths, as opposed to perceived), it shouldn't be ranked very high as a summer dangerous. I wonder if CO DOT statistics support the claim that this highway is dangerous.

Washington state has several highways that have high avalanche dangers. They close WA410 and WA20 during the winter to minimize the danger to drivers and road crews. And they have experienced crews to decide when to start the reopening work. US2 and I90 also have avalanche dangers, but those are minimized with passive (shelters, bridges) and active (cannons) methods.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2013/12/protecting-drivers-from-icy-roads-we.html
Blog by UW weather prof on protecting drivers from icy roads. While the focus is on what Washington has done, I bed Colorado has taken similar measures.

joe: I wasn't trying to be combative, I was just curious how many vehicles actually went over the edge. I know of a few places where there are still vehicles at the bottom of cliffs and just don't recall seeing any along that stretch of road. As you'll note, the end of my post was: "But as noted, it's all a matter of one's comfort with mountain driving."

Ken, I understand what you are saying. Off hand, I still remember removing the body of a crushed truck driver, that lost control of his vehicle by over heating his brakes. Strange thing is, he was reported to have stopped once, north bound, at the parking area up by the snow shed. Parked for a while to cool his brakes is the thought, then he headed on north obviously in too high a gear and again over heated his brakes. The S turns just before you get to Ouray, got him as his loaded trailer crushed his tractor cab up against a large rock which didn't move. Anymore the environmental laws require all wrecks to be removed, that run off the road, but some of the old wrecks are still there. We had to deal with several drug mules, coming up from the south border of the US, that had started using Hwy 550 as a preferred route north. I suspect some of these drivers had never seen snow, much less driven on it. We would call the DEA in Glennwood and they would send an agent or two to assist us. The wreckage would be winched up, loaded on a flat bed and hauled away. Of course the DEA doesn't release news reports on these situations. But most of that was winter time foolishness.

On one situation, we, the sheriff's department, was trying to reach a state road maintenance crew that had been in the area of major avalances up by the snow shed area. Four of us piled into a tracked vehicle, a Swedish Snow Track, to try and reach them. Up by the rock tunnel we got hit on the side by a somewhat small snow slide that started pushing us toward the edge of the highway but stopped prior to our going over the several hundred feet drop off. A quick vote was held in the vehicle and it was unanimous to turn around and head back to Ouray. Of the two crew members for DOT that were trapped, one died and the other was rescued a few days later as the large snow plows and dozers were able to clear Hwy 550.

Summer time, most of the problems were of the drivers that had anxiety attacks and froze behind the wheel. I know this sounds strange to experienced mountain drivers, but these anxiety attacks are just as real to them as if they really were in the danger they perceive at the time.

I was over Red Mountain several times this past summer as we spent a month in our RV at the local KOA campground. We towed our Jeep out and had a great time running the Jeep trails and eating at Handlebars restaurant in Silverton, a great place to eat. In that month I only managed to trash out 4 tires on my Jeep. LOL So as often I do, I came back to Florida with all new tires.

The summer before, we were headed to Silverton in the Jeep and on the San Juan County side of the Pass, headed down the Chattanooga Switch area, I cam around a somewhat blind curve, and there coming up the hill, north bound in the outside lane was an 18 wheeler with a scared driver. He had all of his driver side tires over in our lane and we were both going so slow, I could see the fear in his face and the death grip on his steering wheel. This was one time I decided to swerve and avoid a head on collision. So I took to the shoulder of the road, which there was one up against the side of the rock wall on our side of the road. How I kept from tearing off my passenger side mirror, I will never know. O'how I wished I had been in a patrol car that day, as that driver and I would have had a very serious conversation about his driving ability or lack thereof.

Second true story and remember, most of my true stories are. In the same area while I was living in Ouray, the Sheriff's Dept in Silverton called our county and asked to borrow someone from the Coroner's Office so the Coroner asked me to handle the case for them. Nothing special but a climber had been struck by lightning the day before and they needed it investigated and the body recovered and returned. Again, real early in the AM, I was driving a patrol car, a Jeep Cherokee this time, as I came around one of the blind corners, there in the middle of my lane rested the largest rock I had/have ever seen on a road. It was much larger than my Cherokee I was driving. It was blocking my lane and a foot or two of the outside lane as well. So I called dispatch on the radio and requested a DOT crew with a large front end loader to come more it.

If a large RV would have come around that same corner that morning, going any faster than I was going, a very good chance they would have ended up with a new very large rock hood ornament and possibly injury to the occupants. As experience mountain drivers know and understand, always be ready for the unexpected at any time.

Honestly, some of the truck drivers are the absolutely worst drivers on that road. Not all but some of them are also first timers on it. One story with somewhat a bit of humor, in the early 90s, GM was testing and doing some photo shoots of a new turbine powered 18 wheeler. It was all modern looking, tons of power and I was told they had about $750,000 tied up in the rig, including the test equipment in the trailer. They pulled up to the parking area by the snow shed on Hwy 550, to take some photos of the truck with the San Juan Mountains in the background. There was the truck, the photo vehicle, support vehicles, etc. all park there. The truck driver parked down at the far end of the parking area and got out, walked back to where the others were parked, so there wouldn't be anyone, but the truck in the photos. Someone noticed about this time, that the truck was slowly rolling backward, toward the cliff edge. The driver took off at a full run to try and apply the brakes, before the truck and trailer went off the 300 foot drop off. He almost made it. It took days for then to get all the wreckage out of the bottom of that canyon.

joe b. wrote:
Anymore the environmental laws require all wrecks to be removed, that run off the road

There was a big news story here in Dallas a few years ago about a guy that took a big Ford 4x4 SUV into the jeep trails above Silverton, and was lucky to get out as the rig fell off one of the roads.

He was upset that the vehicle was destroyed. However, he was even more upset that his insurance wouldn't pay the tens of thousands of dollars it took to get a heavy helicopter up there to pull the wreckage up to where a tow truck could get to it.

A miner, I knew from Silverton, was headed to Ouray late one summer evening in an open top Jeep wrangler. He didn't believe in wearing a seat belt. Just above the Idarado Mine on the switch backs, he dozed off and the Jeep ran off the road, ejecting the driver, who landed on the very edge of the shoulder, breaking his arm. The Jeep continued to roll down a few hundred feet. He too complained later, about the cost to get his Jeep removed from it's resting location. He only had liability insurance on the Jeep, I believe. Only time I can remember that not wearing a seat belt, saved a life. But numerous/most times, the seat belt was what kept people alive.

Another accident, of special memory, happened just north of the flat, Ironton area of 550. Four young girls, runaways from California, managed to run off the road late at night, crash into a tree, injuring themselves some, but also starting a forest fire, when the VW beetle hit the spruce tree and ruptured the gas tank up front.

BLM sent out a hot shot crew of fire fighters to put out the blaze. Our dispatch called out the ambulance service and a tow truck. We transported two of the girls in the back of the ambulance and two rode in the back of my patrol car. They were 15, 16, 17, and 18 years of age it turned out. Only the 18 year old had a driver's license and the three others were sure she was driving when the accident occurred. LOL Not a real cooperative foursome, in providing any information as to their names, addresses, etc. so we transported them from Ouray on north to Montrose, to the local hospital and notified the juvenile department of the state.

The four had been on the road for just over 2 years, following the concerts of the Grateful Dead band. There were two year old missing persons reports out on all of them. The parents in California were all notified, only the 15 year old's parents, wanted her back. The 18 year old was legal to be on her own, and the two middle aged girls, no one wanted back. Sad situation, it was. So the hospital emergency room stitched up their cuts, etc. All four were held in juvenile facilities till the court could make a decision. They had no car insurance so the 18 year old had those charges filed against her, as the reported driver.

They ended up getting a bill for the tow truck, the fire fighting crew, the ambulance run, the ER charges, etc. They were so mad that one of them wrote the Sheriff of Ouray Country, a very nasty letter about me and the other uniformed deputy there. Accusing us of all sorts of things, but mainly, much of the stuff they had told us they said, they had expected us to keep it a secret and we had no business repeating it to the juvenile court system. Plus the writer of the letter, said the ER did a terrible job sewing up the cut on her upper leg and it left a scar where it could be seen. I really had to laugh, as that cut was so high up on her leg, with clothes on, no one was going to see it. They did learn that when you tell a uniformed law enforcement officer anything, you have given up your rights to privacy. LOL

I had two daughters about the same age at the time, so these 4 girls really stick in my memory.

The removal also applies to aircraft crashes and removal of the wreckage from government lands. The widow of one deceased pilot, of a small plane crash, first thought to be in Ouray County, got a bill for tens of thousands of dollars to clean up the crash site. Three fatalities in that one.

We should all check with our insurance policies and road service contracts, if we have one, to make sure these extra costs will be covered in the unlikely event our vehicle ends up off the road somewhere.

I want to reemphasize that Hwy 550 is a beautiful drive from Ouray to Durango, in a vehicle a driver is comfortable and competent to drive over it. It is also known as the Million Dollar Highway. Some say it got that name because some of the road bed was built up our of old mine tailings that contained about a million dollars of gold per mile of road. Other say it got that name because many locals say they wouldn't drive that road in the winter time for a million dollars. LOL Some of the DEA officers, I have heard refer to it as the "Snow Highway" due to all the drugs being transported up it from the south.

Well I have driven 550 in my Class B and rank it right up there with the "Going to the Sun" and Big Sur drives. Ok it is third place in that list but very very lovely. Reasonable speed and attention to the road is all that is required. Unfortunately there are not many scenic overlook pull over sites, so like others have mentioned, the driver has to take quick peeks. Click on the pic for a better view of Red Mtn.

Having lived and camped in Colorado for almost 30 years we have tried to go everywhere and do everything. One thing I will not do is take my 30ft TT from Durango to Ouray via 550. I have taken it over almost every paved pass in Colorado with no worry or bother. We have camped in the Cortez and Dolores areas and just take Lizard head Pass up to Telluride and then over to Ridgeway. We have driven 550 a lot of times in all 4 seasons in just our truck or car. I have towed our TT to Alaska and Canada and back with no trepidations. Even went back to Canada this past fall. I just know my limitations and comfort zones and try not to exceed them.

A summer time hazard no one has mentioned is mud slides. This past summer after a long day of riding our atv's in Govenors Basin and Yankee Boy near Ouray, we were held up from getting back to Silverton where our 5th wheel was set up out at Eureka. We ran into a road blocked by a mud slide at about 5pm that was about 6'high by 2-300'wide. It turned out that it was one of 3 across 550 between Ouray and Silverton. As those familiar to the area will know, the alternative route is about a 5-6 hrs. drive. Hats off to the highway dept. who had equipment on site w/i an hour claering the mud. We waited it out and finally got to Silverton about 1am. As has been said, the mountains are beautiful but dangerous in many ways. You have to be on guard and prepared.

Back to the question....I will drive my dully and atv trailer between Silverton and Ouray but will not pull my 38' 5th wheel w/ atv trailer on that section. Durango into Silverton is all the mountain road I want with my rig. It's not the pulling.....it's the stopping part that's scary!

The last time I was in that area was in the fall. I was in a sport-ute and intended to drive some of the easier county roads. On a previous trip I'd taken the Animas forks route between Silverton and Ouray - in a 4x4 S10 pickup. But we encountered the remnants of a tropical storm, and had a wet night camped above Telluride. With continued rain, I choice to stick with the paved highways, driving north to Ridgeway, then south to Ouray and Silverton, ending up in Cortez for the night.

The same storm blocked the Burr Trail in UT with mud from Bullfrog Ck, necessitating a longer loop via Capitol Reef. But the recent rain added a scenic dimension to the south Utah landscape.

When it comes to storms disrupting mountain travel, there probably is no off-season. Last year's Big Thompson Canyon flood was in September, the 1976 one in July.

Yes, I see there are a few who warn everyone not to take 550...

I've done both ways a half dozen times with both a FW and a motor home pulling a van on a dolly.

If you use your gears and not your brakes, no problems. If you're confident in your abilities in an urban construction zone with narrow lanes and immovable barriers, then 550 is no problem.

The drive across Lizard Head is a nice alternative if you're a Nervous Nellie, and probably a wash time-wise when you consider the slower speeds on 550.