Mountain Passes Worth the Drive

There is a particular thrill to driving a road that climbs through switchbacks to a pass and drops into a valley on the other side, and the problem is that mountain passes are seasonal, weather-dependent, and sometimes white-knuckle in a way that separates the scenic from the merely scary. The passes worth the drive are the ones where the view justifies every hairpin, and knowing when to go matters as much as knowing where.The Rocky Mountain passes are the headliners, with Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park topping out above tree line, and Independence Pass outside Aspen threading a narrow, seasonal road through some of Colorado’s finest high country. Further west, Tioga Pass into Yosemite, and Beartooth Pass on the