{"id":980,"date":"2013-08-05T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/?p=980"},"modified":"2013-08-02T11:41:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T17:41:38","slug":"mountain-living-101-how-to-drive-in-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/articles\/mountain-living-101-how-to-drive-in-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Living 101: How to Drive in the Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Kathy Harris,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/mountain-living-in-denver\/kathy-harris\">Examiner.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0leaves are turning, snow season is on the horizon and more people are heading into the mountains for weekend trips. But before you travel Colorado&#8217;s mountain roads, there are a few things you should know.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Most mountain roads in Colorado\u00a0lack guardrails, even on dangerous, inches-from-the-edge-of-mountain curves. So, order up some nerves of steel if you\u2019re not used to that kind of driving, and don\u2019t look down.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t feel rushed if cars begin to back up behind you because you are actually going the speed limit. But\u00a0DO use pullouts to let others pass. Those of us who live along mountain roads know them like the back of our hand and tend to drive faster because of it. Or better yet, park in a safe place and admire the scenery on foot.<\/li>\n<li>If you come to a narrow part of a road, remember that the\u00a0uphill driver always has the right of way.<\/li>\n<li>Signs that say \u201cslow around this curve,\u201d or something like that, are there for a reason. Going too fast around a mountain curve can send you spiraling thousands of feet below\u2014or dangling from a pine tree, if you\u2019re lucky.<\/li>\n<li>When you&#8217;re going downhill on a steep grade, consider using a\u00a0lower gear to save your brakes.<\/li>\n<li>And when you are going uphill on a steep grade, you might also\u00a0use your lower gear to get better performance\u00a0from your engine, especially if you only have a V6 or lower.<\/li>\n<li>Bring a few gallons of water\u00a0just in case your engine overheats.\u00a0Mountain driving\u00a0can be hard on an engine, but don\u2019t add water until your engine has cooled.<\/li>\n<li>Keep a\u00a0full gallon of windshield wiper fluid\u00a0in your car. Trust me, there\u2019s nothing worse than driving 65 mph on I-70, getting hit by a trucker\u2019s mud backsplash and not being able to clear the windshield quickly.<\/li>\n<li>Watch for wildlife on the road.\u00a0Deer and elk are on the move this time of year, and they don\u2019t seem to worry about darting out in front of you, especially in the morning or evening.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure your gas tank is full\u2014gas stations can be few and far between in mountain areas.<\/li>\n<li>And probably the most important tip:\u00a0Pay attention to the weather forecast\u00a0before you head out. Weather can change on a dime in the mountains. Snow can fall any day this time of the year above 9,000 ft., even if it\u2019s sunny and warm in Denver.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enjoy your fall drives into the mountains this season. The leaves and peaks combine for an experience you\u2019ll want to hold on to for quite a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before you travel Colorado&#8217;s mountain roads, here are a few things you should know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,59,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"tag-drive","9":"tag-mountains","10":"tag-traffic"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 19:12:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}