OT: The Western Dragon
 

I have read all about the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Tail of the Dragon, and in the videos it looks like a ton of fun...and work! Here in Colorado we have our share of great driving roads, including the Western Dragon, which is 30 minutes from my house.

The Western Dragon is 31 miles long, including 341 turns, and has scenery that is out of this world (my profile pic was shot there). It took me about 33 minutes to complete. The halfway point is Echo Lake, which is also the entrance to Mount Evans. I will upload a video of that drive when Mount Evans opens. It is incredible.

Keep in mind as you watch this video that this is one of my top 5 routes. We have multiple "Dragon level" routes like this, depending on how long you want your drive to last. This is definitely one of my favorites, but it is far from the only option here.

Regarding this drive, a few comments. First, I got lucky and there was very little traffic. There were 3 vehicles in front of me the entire drive, and 2 pulled over to let me pass. The truck at about the 7 minute mark did not pull over, so you might want to forward about 3 minutes or so, although there are some good sections, even at slow speeds to see.

As far as my driving goes, there were a few times I crossed the double yellow. One was to pass when a Prius waved me around. Another was as I was coming into a hairpin and saw a big rock. In both of those instances, visibility was excellent, and risk was zero. The only real transgression was around a blind hairpin where I just took the turn wrong. I am not making any excuses. I was not happy about that, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again. I was lucky nobody was coming the other way, even though I was no more than a foot or two over the line. I don't want my fun to ruin someone else's life.

Hopefully you can see from the video that I wasn't driving too crazy. Mostly just enjoying those 341 turns, the engine and the scenery. Well, my wife was enjoying the scenery. I was busy.

Let me know what you think of the route.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...a0d1860167.jpg

You're late:corn:

Thank you for sharing , here is a good link for drives in the Northeast

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/best/?c=108
Be great thread for best driving roads

you're a lucky man to have that road nearby and to have a wife that doesn't mind being a passenger for spirited driving.

Nice, Rob! I'll have to give that a go sometime :)

From your video, the 'western dragon' looks like a nice road but no where near comparable to the Smokey's Dragon regarding curves and excitement. Also, even though the Smokey's tail is only 11 miles long, there are just as amazing roads with less traffic around Deal's Gap.

LOL technical difficulties!

I saw that. Good source!

She keeps me honest. :cheers:

Grant, you have to drive this road! Next time we are going to come from the other direction.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that they have totally different characters. At least from the videos I have seen of the Tail. Also, about the same turns into a 1/3 of the distance. That is going to show up! But I think both offer different, engaging driving experiences.

Looks amazing. Thanks for sharing Rob

A great late spring, summertime, early fall drive is HWY 14 out of Ft Collins to Walden, then HWY 125 to Granby. Not much traffic once you get a little ways up 14.

We have so many fun drives though.

I would agree that there are some better roads than the Dragon. I love the run along 28 going from the east end of the Dragon to Fontana Dam and then over towards Robbinsville.

I love the Cherohola (?spelling) skyway. Wish we could shut it down for a while and run it in both directions. A guy can dream

Great drive! I've done the first part of that, but need to do the whole loop. I need to make a list of runs to do this Spring/Summer.

Glad you liked it! I am going to create videos of all the drives eventually.

We could create a production company, spend some $$'s and shut it down for a video shoot. :icon107: