Road To Hell

DSCF2103FUJIFILM X-T1 (44.4mm, f/5.6, 1/170 sec, ISO200)

After our short stay in the Switzerland of America and a great breakfast we left for Albuquerque. It was cold and wet – perfect conditions to ride the 10 Million Dollar Highway – The Road To Hell.

OK, maybe this was too much ado but it is a special road! First of all it is a very scenic road or I should say it is supposed to be a scenic road because when we drove it the weather wasn’t nice. We had clouds and fog and sometimes both. Second: the road is built on the shoulder of the mountain so there are steep drops just beside the road. Steep drops are nothing special but the special thing about this road is that there are no guide rails. If you drive off the road you fall down the mountain. As simple as that!

DSCF0903FUJIFILM X-M1 (50mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO400)
DSCF0905FUJIFILM X-M1 (50mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO400)
DSCF0936FUJIFILM X-M1 (16mm, f/5.6, 1/140 sec, ISO400)

I appreciate the simplicity of the concept but must admit that I was surprised to see something like that in the US where everybody seems to be concerned about safety and everybody is afraid of getting sued for some reason. You will see “dangerous wet floor” signs in all restaurants or hot coffee warnings on your hot coffee or other warnings for most obvious every day dangers. It’s refreshing to see such a road here. The other dangerous thing they surprisingly still allow is to ride the cable car in San Francisco.

Today the Western world is over regulated. There are so many warning signs for everything that we don’t have to think for ourselves. Somebody else took care of it already. That’s why we are totally lost as soon as we leave our protected world behind to travel to some countries in Eastern Europe or Asia or other places in the world where people are still required to think about risks. If you climb a mountain there is a certain risk that you might fall down the mountain. If you cross a road you need to look after cars or trucks otherwise somebody might run over you. A mountain road can be more dangerous than a normal road because if you drive off the road you will fall down.

This is still America so the road is wide and its surface is flat. It has a couple of bends though. I can imagine that driving it in winter on ice and snow can give you wet hands. One of the last adventures.

DSCF0940FUJIFILM X-M1 (16mm, f/5, 1/150 sec, ISO400)