Here are five points to please consider: 1) The Federal Highway Administration itself considers The Devil's Highway to be the curviest Highway in the United States, not The Dragon. 2) You experience an over 6,000 foot change in elevation on this route, more than you do on most Alpine roads; and certainly much more than the couple of thousand foot change on the Dragon. 3) The Devil's Highway is 123 miles long, not just 11 miles; with over 450 true switchbacks and over 1,000 very tight curves. 4) There is virtually NO Law Enforcement presence on The Devil's Highway, this is out in No-Man's Land of Eastern Arizona; looking from the roadway east into New Mexico. 5) Squids, geeks and wanna-be poser riders avoid The Devil's Highway like the plaque: This road is for experts only, if you cannot handle your bike at speed on a very challenging roadway, you have no business being on the Devil's Highway. Nearest hospital is 200 miles away, giant elk, mountain lions and mule deer are obstacles. You FUCK UP and go off the road on The Devil's Highway, you are done for, nobody is coming to your rescue way out here in the Arizona Wilderness.
And as far as other twisty roads in the area goes, on the New Mexico side of the border is Highways 180 and 78, every bit as Twisty as '666' is; combine these three routes together in a loop and you have over a 300 mile day of twisties, not just 11 miles.
Devil's Highway Region has always been remote and desolate, making it a safe place to avoid the Law, was preferred by Butch Cassidy and his gang as a hideout, along with other famous Western Outlaws; and also was used by Geronimo and his Chiricahua Apaches; Cochise, Mangas Colorado and other Indian leaders found refuge here on the site of the trail of infamous Conquistador Vasquez Coronado of Old Spain. If you're looking for a road where you can get your picture taken and buy a T-Shirt saying you "conquered" 11 miles, Devil's Highway is definitely NOT for you!
"There is a riders' dream carved in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona, the legendary
old Route 666 nick named the Devil’s Highway!
Load up the bike and ride a couple of hours to Springerville, AZ. The 230 mile trip from Phoenix is already a spectacular one. Both the roads and the scenery are gorgeous as you climb from the desert onto the Colorado Plateau. There are cliffs, canyons and gorges along the way and the roads on the high plateau just sweep through the largest ponderosa pine forest in the US. The area provides a wide array of accommodations from campsites to luxury lodges. Get a good night’s sleep in order to start fresh in the morning. There are more than 1,000 curves to conquer the next day!
The Route 666 Run starts and ends in Springerville. Reset your trip meter and leave south via Alpine Divide Pass (8525 ft) for Alpine where the common branch of US 191 and US 180 departs at 27 miles. Following US 180 fast paced sweepers and broad vistas will entertain you during a gradual descent. These are the “roads less traveled”, so don’t expect strip malls, car dealerships and gas stations to be lined up. Alma, the hideout for Butch Cassidy and his gang in the 1890’s, provides you with gas and food 80 miles from the starting point.
Right at 100 miles lies the intersection of US 180 and Rt 78. Make a left turn onto Rt 78 towards Mule Creek. The scenery is picture worthy again, as the road climbs up to 6,300 feet on the Big Lue Mountains and descends to Three Way, where you actually have three ways to go. This is the intersection of Rt 78, Rt 75 and US 191. Your trip meter shows 135 miles here.
Turn right (north) onto US 191 and ride another 9 miles to the Circle K in Clifton. Make sure you get gas here, because there are no services for the next 70 miles and it’s all uphill!
If you turn left onto Chase Creek Street, just a mile from the gas station, you’ll find yourself in the old business district. The historic brick buildings squeezed between a hill and a mountain creek look right out of a movie set. Turn of the century stores and banks, boarding houses and saloons are waiting for rejuvenation which makes the place even more authentic.
Buckle up, now! The ride was great so far, but what you’ll experience next, is one of the best rides in the entire US. It’s a ride of your life, on a road so steep and winding that it would put a Swiss mountain pass to shame.
From the first summit however, you can peak into something Switzerland never had, a man-made canyon two miles wide and three miles long. The ant-sized things crawling across its bottom are 200-ton trucks with tires standing nine feet tall. Those trucks and the shovels that fed them were moving mountains at the rate of up to 500,000 tons of ore and waste per day.
No wonder it seems devilish! You are riding on the once legendary Devil’s Highway, former Route 666. The first European visitor of the area was the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, seeking the riches of the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540. His route ran close to the existing road thus the US National Scenic Byway program adopted this incredible 123 mile strip of tarmac as the Coronado Trail.
The Federal Highway Administration considers this road to be the curviest road in the nation, with 450 switchbacks and up to 1000 curves and turns in total. The rumors on the rider grapevine are true. For an incredible ride, this one is very hard to beat. It’s long, it’s twisty, it’s a roller coaster, and it’s in a wilderness setting that will thrill whatever senses you have left that the road didn’t overload. The elevation change is more than 6,000 ft from around 3,000 ft in the Sonoran Desert to over 9,000 ft in the Alpine meadows, forests and highlands.
Concentrate, brake, downshift, twist, accelerate, turn and repeat the sequence for mile after mile after mile. Sometimes you just have to pull off into a scenic rest to rest your brain because you’d soon feel as a sun-stroked snake on LSD. Most of the twisties are between Clifton and Hannagan’s Meadow (at 215 mi) but after the climb from Clifton it’s nice to sit back and enjoy the sweepers through the Ponderosa Pine Forest back into Alpine when your trip meter shows 238 mi.
Though the 27 miles back to Springerville is the same that you started the day with, riding north will provide you with such a different view that you might begin to raise doubts if you were riding in the right direction."
