Most Interesting / Fun Road You've Driven

[Tango]

Not strictly a Fiat thing, but a driving thing: last week She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) and I took a week vacation in Arizona. We booked a room for our first and last night and otherwise we just wing it. Mid-week found us driving from Apache Junction, just east of Phoenix / Mesa across the Superstition Mountains to the Roosevelt Dam. The eastern half of this is upaved (dirt) with hairpin turns, no guardrails mostly and thousand foot sheer drops. After you get down the worst / best hill you see the wrecks of cars that didnt make it (or which thieves pushed over?). The scenery was incredible when you could risk tearing your eyes from the road. I think it is the most memorable drive (in a good way) I have ever had.

What was yours?

T

[ventura ace]

T,
I've been on that road and and had the same excitement that you described! We were in a rental car, and I'm glad for that. The road was washboarded quite a bit in places, and really gave the suspension a workout. The scenery and the thrill of danger was superb. We were there in the fall, when the leaves were changing color. The kids loved it, but I think it took a week to unfrazzle Maureen!

Alvon

[swifty2k]

I started a small driving club with a few friends...

Every Sunday we take local drives, with two overnight trips per year

The single most exciting thing I've ever done was drive the Cabot Trail



This thing is amazing... And if you can get to Cape Breton (Nova Scotia, Canada) then please... please drive this road... Two days of pure adrenaline, and breathtaking views!

In a couple weeks we're going to be driving the Gaspé of Quebec.(Google it if you've never heard of it... Amazing)

[Snoopy]

Years ago i tried to drive the Apache Junction with an rv (30 Feet long). After some miles we turn...

[mipstien]

Deals Gap, Hellbender, Cherohala Skyway.... just to name a few local roads. plenty more. blue ridge parkway too.
those are just the more driven roads close to us. being locals you get the best of those roads when they are not being driven by all of the people from out of town.

[Redline]

There are really too many in my area to pick just one, but my favourite weekend jaunt is to get up early on a Sunday to drive the Grimsel, Furka and Susten passes in the Alps south of Bern.

[BEEK]

1. the dragons back, hwy 321 near gatlinburg, fontana area.
2. us 19 north ga mountains from dawsonville to above blood mtn.

[Tango]

Years ago i tried to drive the Apache Junction with an rv (30 Feet long). After some miles we turn...

The rock walls of the Apache Trail bear witness marks from others who have gone through with RV's. From the quick glances I stole, some of the rock walls, especially on corners, overhang a bit. Had you kept going you would have reached a point of no return where you can't turn around anywhere. I said to my wife afterward that I didnt think the warning signs for trailers and RV's were big and blatant enough.

[Tango]

I started a small driving club with a few friends...

Every Sunday we take local drives, with two overnight trips per year

The single most exciting thing I've ever done was drive the Cabot Trail



This thing is amazing... And if you can get to Cape Breton (Nova Scotia, Canada) then please... please drive this road... Two days of pure adrenaline, and breathtaking views!

In a couple weeks we're going to be driving the Gaspé of Quebec.(Google it if you've never heard of it... Amazing)

I've done the Cabot Trail a couple of times, but with kids, dogs and tent trailer in tow. Watch out for moose! One of my most memorable nights was camped alongside that road beside the sea, reading by lantern light and listening to the sea boom against the cliffs. The campground is gone now, replaced by a big modern one in Cheticamp. We also did the Gaspe peninsula, but in September when the traffic is less. Wonderful people, awesome scenery, language no barrier.

[amsiegel]

It was either in a 1990 (or 91) BMW 735I on the autobahn in soutern Germany during my last month stationed there in 1991 or when I had to drop of the Sargent Majors suped up 91' Toyota from southern Germany to northern Germany via the autobahn. He yelled at me for getting there 30 min faster than he expected me to get therre. I never told him I stoppped and took a 25 min break at a rest area on the way.

[bajacalal]

I love driving and I love country roads... I consider myself fortunate to live in the foothills of southern California though highway 76 is a mixed blessing... it would be a perfect road for a Fiat except for the congestion, truck traffic, drivers who are well past their prime and drunks who are angry on top of being intoxicated after giving their paycheck to one of the nearby Indian casinos. Saturday nights are downright scary.

Mexico's highway 1 that goes from the border to the end of the Baja California peninsula (hence BajaCalAL) is my favorite so far though it's hazardous and I've never attempted it in a car that handles well. It's narrow and curvy and there are many miles that look exactly like the previous hundred miles but there are a lot of beautiful desert scenes, beautiful coastline along the Sea of Cortez, things you don't see anywhere else on the planet and there is something very magical about driving for 5 hours without seeing a gas station or power lines, going at least an hour without seeing another human being... It really puts things in perspective and makes you feel small, like the speck of dust that you are in an endless universe.

Off topic but, Amsiegel, were you stationed there when the Iron Curtain came down? I wasn't very old at the time but I remember that happening and something really touched me deep inside on November 9th of '89. I would have loved to see that happen firsthand.

[stefhahn]

Well, for me it is the Passo Di Spluga, I am driving down to Italy that way. It is not the most spectacular road as such - see here a photo from the summer (north side) -

as written above - it is very nice but normally not that spectecular, but one year I did drive it the first day after it opened - and hat up to 10ft snow left and right - did drive all these curves up to the border (Switzerland-Italy) without seeing anything - it was quite frightening, very special and extremely! spectecular.

ciao,
Stefan

[spidernut]

That's tough. Here are my favorites:

Best drives:

California Highway 1 from Pismo Beach to Monterey
Highway 49 around Lake Tahoe
Highway 49 from Coloma to Yosemite

Talk about beautiful drives in the spring through fall!!!

[Firezombie]

One summer a few years back I went to see some family that live in the Italian part of Switzerland (Ticino) I was driving up the along the Swiss Alps with my uncle. It was at least 35C (90F) that day, one minute sunshine, one minute heavy rain, we got to the top and it was icy and in the low 40F's What a ride!

[Tango]

All a flatlander can do is try to suppress the envy.