[BruceysMom]

No you're wrong. I live here where they were stranded. A Subaru wouldn't have helped a bit. The SEARCHERS couldn't reach them by land where they were stranded. The lock wasn't cut by a rancher rounding up strays as an earlier poster guessed. The terrain is too rugged for that. It is sad that someone cut the lock. The bare truth of the matter is that this family rolled by FOUR SIGNS ( I've seem them, they're hard to miss) that told them the road was not going to be passable in the vehicle they were in. They kept going. The fact that the man made a heroic effort after he endangered his family is I'm sure a comfort to them. I would rather have a cautious living husband than a dead hero. Very, very bad decisions were made that ended with this tragedy. Those of us in the area would never try to traverse that road this time of the year. It basically narrows to a small two lane gravel track, quite a ways before the area where they were stranded. Only the naive or foolish would attempt it in winter, in the dark.

[Sir_Ed]

Not only does the road narrow down to a small gravel lane, it often times end up above sheer cliff faces hundreds of feet high, with no discernable shoulder!

I love driving on that road, but even in the summertime it gives me a few white-knuckled experiences!

Ed

[OregonRancher]

Hi BruceysMom,
Where are you located? I'm on the Rogue...

[VOA]

Only the naive or foolish would attempt it in winter, in the dark.

What is scary is how some places don't look dangerous, but can be lethal.

I grew up in the FLAT wheat country of north-central Oklahoma.
On a country two-lane blacktop that leads to I-35 south of Blackwell
there is a very shallow "wash" that one hardly notices when cruising along.
It's at most a 4-5 foot dip over a couple of hundred yards.
And there is no real stream in the shallow 90% of the year.

BUT...I always remember my mom telling me how a man and his family
tried to drive that patch of road during one of our Oklahoma "toad-chockers".

They found the bodies of the family washed downhill a couple of
hundred yards from the shallow.

I never understood how this could have happened until I saw a safety
program in which it said to never enter water higher than your
vehicles axles. And even then avoid areas of swift-current water if
it's below the axles.

[G-Bob]

I grew up in the area (Bandon), I've driven that road a few times but it was many years ago.

I read some of the news reports on this case and a few of them said that the road was paved.

Is that accurate? It certainly wasn't a paved road back when I drove it but then as I said that was many years ago.

Taking that route in poor weather wasn't very bright. I wonder if the Kim's spoke with anyone about their travel plans and the route they were planning to take.

The resort they were driving to doesn't suggest that anyone take that route even in clear weather. They advise anyone driving over from Grants Pass to take the highway that drops you off on 101 just south of the Oregon border. They don't even mention the route the Kim's take and don't show it on their map. I would think that any local would have advised against taking that route.