Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Million Dollar Highway

In Colorado, there is a road called the Million Dollar Highway.

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about it. It certainly seems like a dangerous stretch of road. I need somewhere - preferably in Colorado nearish to a ski resort [there is skiing in Silverton on one end of the Million Dollar Highway] where a certain couple could drive along it in the winter and slide off the side, preferably into water. [Yes, the term evil does come to mind *sigh *]. Does the Million Dollar Highway fit the bill? If there's no water at the bottom [preferably not too close to Silverton], can I pretend there is [it is an AltU after all]?

I'm working on editing my NaNo fic and I want to make sure I have some details right before I post it. This is important to the first post so I definitely can't post till I get this figured out. I think the first 7-8 posts are just about ready to go but after that some major revisions are needed [that may need to be referenced in those first posts], but I'm hoping to get it doneish and posted soon[ish].

Any help is appreciated .


There's another modern picture here about 3/4 of the way down the page.

There's another good one here , but it won't let me post it.

TIA .
Carol

It looks like (and I think the captions say so) that there is a river at the bottom.

I'm not familiar with Colorado at all but seeing as I grew up in the western part of Austria, mountains and dangerous terrain is very familiar to me. After having seen the images you linked to I can only say that it's very unlikely - hillsides this steep are almost a guarantee that someone will be seriously injured and the car in question would almost certainly flip over a couple of times.

I believe you have the right idea in principle but the terrain you think about would rather make this into a news article about a fatal car accident than the beginning of a fictional story. If you think about some miracle that driver and passengers are alive and unhurt that's okay for you in a story but the reality is somewhat grim - and I know that because there have been plenty of similar fatal accidents over the years in my area.

Make it a rainy night, a relatively short hillsize of 50 to 100 yards and not too steep so a car can sort of 'glide' along safely on the wet grass but steep enough so persons cannot walk back up the hillside (have you ever walked uphill on wet grass?). It's unlikely someone will notice them if the weather plays against them so whatever plot devices you have in mind, they'd proably work here too.


edit: I obviously didn't read your post with enough attentiveness because I totally missed the issue of the winter season. This will possibly enable you to lengthen my suggested hillside and make it a bit more steep but it changes nothing about your Million Dollar Highway.

A snowy landscape can actually be more secure on those types of roads because of how roads are cleared. Snow plows usually shovel the snow over the side of the road which can create a buffer of dense snow that can stop your car from leaving the road, naturally depending on the angle of impact, speed, weight of your vehicle, etc. That fact coupled with slower driving on so obviously dangerous roads makes sliding off the road more unlikely the more it snowed.

Bettina opined:

I'm not sure the above would hold true if Lois is driving !

Thanks for the responses so quickly!

By slide, I mean lose control on the ice, not just sort of slide gently down an embankment. Near a potentially deadly cliff face with a river at the bottom is by far preferable for what I need. Remembering of course that not everyone in 'our universe' is 'normal'. I don't want to say too much of course - except that Lois' isn't driving this time , though she does see the stretch of road from a distance later.

I'm looking for something like this but along the Million Dollar Highway. This guy does have some pics with water on it, but they're skinny little waterfalls and a river at eye levelish.

Thanks so much for the help! Any other comments still appreciated .
Carol

Those pictures are absolutely spectacular, Carol. But to me it seems unlikely that anyone could survive if they slid off a road like that and plunged into such a small river so far below, if they weren't rescued by Superman.

Ann

Right, Ann. Again - without giving too much away - that's what I need and was wondering if anyone was actually familiar with it [having driven it or whatever - it's a little better now than the pic that's IN the post above - it's in some of the links] who could give me a little first hand experience or if anyone knew an area like it - treacherous mountain roads, rivers, etc.

As for whether Superman shows up and in time... well, can't get into that here... Hopefully, I'll be posting by the end of the month or so - just hope it's not anticlimactic at that point because it's really not a HUGE plot point or anything - just one I want to get right.
Carol

Suffice it to say Superman may be involved (after all, it is a Lois and Clark fic), eh? I've heard of really treacherous roads along almost vertical cliff faces where the road is about a car and a half wide in the Andes or China, but in the US? My suggestion: There are often storms/floods that can wash out a road, causing a car coming later (if they're not paying extremely close attention) to slide off. I've been on those roads in Washington before they washed out and the hillside to one side was very steep and it might have had a river below it. So a washout would be very plausible if absolutely have to send some poor (or rich-hehehe Lex -oh, sorry) person sliding off a road. And if the ski resort didn't have a very modern road system leading to it, I would think it would work.

Here is a BIG picture of the MDH from another location.

It 'appears' to not be very steep and would promise a few rolls before ending up at the bottom, which, convinently, has a river .

So, I think that even in the winter, a slide off this section would provide a real shake up, but not necessarily instant death.

James

James - that's perfect . Of course, I can pretend it's anywhere along the road I want, like between the ski resort town they're staying in and the town that's a ghost town in our universe but has an exclusive Old West style saloon in it in another universe .

Woody - you're right in that I doubt it's as narrow as shown in the pic I posted anymore. I'm sure it's a full two lanes but from the modern pictures I did find, it's not much wider than that - maybe 2.5 lanes total and windy so potentially very dangerous.

I'm not sure if there's actually a Superman in this universe at this point, but there is a Clark Kent... .

Carol [who thinks the first 7 posts are about ready to go]

Carol, I've driven Red Mountain Pass (what you're calling the Million Dollar Highway) several times. It's still extremely narrow. Just two lanes wide with no shoulder. Literally. The white line is on the edge of the pavement, and then it's 200 feet straight down to the river. In fact, at one point, the road had crumbled away from the edge, and the hole extended a foot or so into the roadway. I was driving my van halfway in the other lane to make sure I didn't catch that edge.

What makes Red Mountain so notorious are the avalanches. People die on that road almost every winter, and even though I'm an experienced mountain driver and have crossed the passes in near white-outs, I won't go over Red Mountain in the winter. The risk is too great. Heck, we lose snowplows on that pass every few years when they get caught in one of the avalanches. The other problem is that the river isn't terribly deep, and during ski season, it's buried under probably 10 feet of snow, so I don't know how accessible it would be for your purposes.

If you want L&C to go over it in the winter, make sure it is early in the year when the avalanche risk is less. Seriously, I don't know what to tell you about water. Mountain streams are fairly near their source, so they aren't carrying as much water as ones at lower elevations to start with, and high in the mountains during the winter, the snow is really deep, and the ice is thick enough to bear the weight of a pickup truck.

I'd be happy to scout out some other possible locations for you. I'm thinking that part of Highway 9 between Kremmling and Silverthorn might work. The road can be treacherous in the winter, but the fall to the river isn't as great, and the Blue River doesn't usually freeze solid during the winter. Let me know.

Here are some links to various pix of the road:
Scenic drive
van slides off pass

Sheilah - I'm going to PM you .

Thanks!
Carol