Oak Creek Grade
Custer County, Colorado

Oak Creek Grade is a road that travels northeastward out of Silver Cliff and eventually reaches the edge of the Arkansas River Canyon before dropping down into Canon City. It's a beautiful drive up out of the Wet Mountain Valley that heads across the spine of the Wet Mountains and into the huge granite outcroppings that make up the Arkansas Canyon. There's a lot of private property along the way but there's also an entrance into the Grape Creek BLM fishing area and a good piece of San Isabel National Forest to cross once you're in Fremont County.

However, if you have a problem with heights you'll want to drive this road south out of Cañon City and not north out of Silver Cliff: that big lift up the hill out of Canon can be kind of scary. Driving down it is even worse: my wife won't do it. Driving down the hill puts you on the outside of the curves and looking almost straight down at times. She was fine driving south but I won't put myself through it by driving the road north with her in the car.