Guide
The highest mountain passes you can drive
The highest paved roads on earth are a category of their own: thin air, snow banks into summer, and a road that climbs until the view falls away on every side. These are the highest summits in our catalogue you can actually drive, ranked by elevation. Every height is taken from the road’s real geometry, not a rounded-up legend.
Khardung La70 mi · 2 h 26 min · 35 hairpinsView the roadbook ›
Summit
-
1
5,360 m17,585 ft
Khardung La
Near the very top of what a car can reach. From Leh the road climbs to 5,359 m, where the air holds barely half the oxygen of sea level and the last stretch turns to loose gravel, one of the highest motorable passes anywhere. The summit board is a trophy, but the real prize is the descent into the Nubra Valley’s high-altitude sand dunes beyond. At this height the engine gasps with you and altitude sickness comes fast. Acclimatise for days in Leh first, drive it in summer, and do not linger at the top.
-
2
5,332 m17,493 ftLeh–Manali Highway
The highest sustained driving on the planet, not one pass but five. From the Kullu Valley the road crosses Rohtang, Baralacha La at 4,890 m, Lachulung La and Tanglang La at 5,328 m, averaging over 4,000 m for much of its 479 km, so this is a road you live at altitude on for two days rather than crest and descend. That is what makes it the hardest entry here: not a single high point but a relentless refusal to come down. Carry oxygen, acclimatise properly, and treat the whole traverse as time spent in the death zone’s foothills.
-
3
4,874 m15,991 ftAbra Patapampa
The high point of the Americas you can reach on smooth tarmac. From Chivay the paved road climbs across altiplano grazed by vicuña to Abra Patapampa at 4,879 m, one of the highest paved passes in the hemisphere, a viewpoint of stone cairns looking out on three volcanoes at once. What sets it apart from the Himalayan giants is the surface: this altitude, this thin air, but a road as good as any A-road. Drive it toward Arequipa, acclimatise in Colca first, and stand higher than almost any paved road allows.
-
4
4,831 m15,850 ftPunta Olímpica
Altitude by tunnel. Where most high passes crest in the open, Peru’s Punta Olímpica pierces the Cordillera Blanca at 4,732 m through the highest road tunnel in the Americas, reached by the forty-six hairpins of the Sector de las Mil Curvas with Huascarán filling the view. The number to hold is that tunnel elevation, higher than any road bore on the continent, in one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the tropics. Drive it in the dry season, take the altitude seriously on the climb, and emerge on the far side into the hanging Ishinca valley.
-
5
4,432 m14,541 ftSichuan–Tibet Highway
The road that climbs onto the roof of the world in a day. This section of G318 lifts from Kangding at 2,560 m over twenty-one switchbacks to the Zheduo Pass at 4,298 m, the First Pass of Kham, and keeps climbing across the grasslands to Litang, one of the highest towns on earth. In a single day you cross from Chinese Sichuan into the cultural and physical Tibetan plateau, the altitude marking the boundary as clearly as any border. Drive it acclimatised, in the warmer months, and stop at Xinduqiao, the photographers' valley of poplars and Tibetan farmhouses below the pass.
-
6
4,311 m14,144 ftMount Blue Sky Road
The highest paved road in North America, and you can drive it in an afternoon from Denver. CO 5 climbs from Echo Lake above the treeline past alpine lakes and mountain goats to near 14,130 ft on Mount Blue Sky, higher than any paved road on the continent. That accessibility is the wonder: no expedition, no acclimatisation camp, just a summer drive to an altitude that leaves flatlanders genuinely light-headed. It is open only in summer, with sheer unguarded edges near the top. Go early before the afternoon storms build, take it slowly, and feel the thin Colorado air at the summit.
-
7
4,298 m14,101 ftPikes Peak Highway
America’s most famous high-altitude climb, and a racetrack besides. The toll road climbs to the 14,115 ft summit of Pikes Peak, sharing its line with the International Hill Climb, and above the treeline it becomes the famous Ws, switchbacks on bare granite in air that thins with every gate. The altitude is the point and the challenge, both for the engine and for you. There are mandatory brake checks on the descent. Book the entry slot, watch the weather, and stand at over 14,000 ft looking down on a hundred miles of plains, the view that inspired a patriotic hymn.
-
8
4,275 m14,026 ftPamir Highway
Altitude across an entire plateau, not a single pass. The M41 crests Ak-Baital at 4,655 m, but the whole Pamir sits high, the road running for days across a Central Asian roof where turquoise lakes lie against brown steppe and the towns themselves are above 3,600 m. This is sustained altitude in one of the emptiest places on earth, fuel two hundred kilometres apart, cold biting even in August. It is the least polished road here and among the most affecting. Carry everything, acclimatise, and drive one of the great high-altitude overland routes across the top of Tajikistan.
-
9
4,181 m13,717 ftCuesta de Lipán
Andean altitude on flawless tarmac, and a salt flat for a reward. Ruta 52 climbs from the painted village of Purmamarca in dozens of switchbacks to Abra de Potrerillos at 4,170 m, a genuine high pass reached on a road as smooth as any, then drops to the blinding white of the Salinas Grandes. The altitude is real, over four thousand metres, but the accessibility makes it the gentlest introduction to high-Andes driving. Take the altitude seriously, go in the dry, and stop at the mirador below the summit to see the whole serpentine you just climbed.
-
10
4,175 m13,698 ftBabusar Pass
One of the most hairpinned roads in the world, cresting the 4,173 m Babusar Pass above the clouds with Nanga Parbat on the horizon.
-
11
4,120 m13,517 ftSanetti Plateau Road
The highest all-weather road in Africa, climbing onto the Sanetti Plateau above 4,100 m before dropping the Harenna Escarpment in a long sequence of bends, a 2,000 m descent from Afro-alpine moorland into cloud forest.
-
12
3,806 m12,487 ftChele La
At 3,988 m, the Chele La is the highest motorable pass in Bhutan, carrying the road over the ridge between the Paro valley and the remote Haa valley, with views of Jomolhari on clear days.
-
13
3,770 m12,369 ftSimien Mountains Road
The gravel road from Debark into the Simien Mountains traverses one of Africa’s most dramatic highland landscapes, sheer escarpment cliffs dropping 1,500 m, gelada baboons, and views toward Ras Dashen, Ethiopia’s highest peak.
-
14
3,713 m12,182 ftTrail Ridge Road
The highest continuous paved road in the US, over Rocky Mountain National Park.
-
15
3,689 m12,103 ftIndependence Pass
A narrow, high crossing of the Continental Divide above Aspen.
-
16
3,688 m12,100 ftAlto de Letras
One of the longest continuously paved road climbs on earth: 81 km rising from Mariquita at 468 m to the 3,692 m páramo pass before descending into Manizales, through five distinct ecosystems.
-
17
3,605 m11,827 ftAvenue of the Volcanoes
Named by Humboldt in 1802, the 200 km Inter-Andean corridor between Quito and Riobamba is flanked by unbroken chains of snow-capped volcanoes, more major peaks from one road than almost anywhere on earth.
-
18
3,522 m11,555 ftSlumgullion Pass
Steep San Juan climb on the Silver Thread Byway.
-
19
3,387 m11,112 ftMillion Dollar Highway
A spectacular, guardrail-free climb in the Colorado San Juans.
-
20
3,365 m11,040 ftCuesta del Obispo
Salta’s fog-wrapped climb to the Piedra del Molino at 3,348 m.
-
21
3,344 m10,971 ftCerro de la Muerte
The highest point on the entire Pan-American Highway, Route 2 crosses the Cordillera de Talamanca at 3,335 m through páramo tundra and moss-draped cloud forest, Costa Rica’s most epic road.
-
22
3,338 m10,951 ftBeartooth Highway
Switchbacks to nearly 11,000 ft on the Montana–Wyoming line.
-
23
3,279 m10,758 ftHehuanshan Wuling Pass
Taiwan’s road network tops out here: Wuling pass at 3,275 m, on the paved climb from Cingjing Farm over Hehuanshan to Dayuling.
-
24
3,277 m10,751 ftMoteng and Mahlasela Passes
The highest tarred road in Southern Africa, the A1 climbs two dramatic passes in sequence: Moteng (2,820 m) with its 91 bends, then Mahlasela (signed at 3,222 m), the approach to Lesotho’s only ski resort.
-
25
3,247 m10,653 ftSandia Crest Road
A switchback climb to a 10,678 ft crest above Albuquerque.
-
26
3,236 m10,617 ftLos Caracoles
Chile’s most dramatic Andean pass road: back-to-back hairpin switchbacks carved into a near-vertical canyon wall, climbing from the Aconcagua valley to the Cristo Redentor tunnel.
-
27
3,229 m10,594 ftCedar Breaks Scenic Byway
A short, high byway along the rim of a red-rock amphitheatre.
-
28
3,227 m10,587 ftTöö Ashuu Pass
Kyrgyzstan’s great mountain spine, a switchback climb over the Kyrgyz Alatau via nine tight hairpins, petroglyphs and twin alpine lakes, finishing through a notorious Soviet-era tunnel at 3,120 m.
-
29
3,181 m10,436 ftCañón del Pato
A road hacked from sheer Andean canyon walls, threading 35 one-lane unlit tunnels through solid rock above a 1,000 m drop to the Santa River, one of Peru’s most dramatic drives.
-
30
3,042 m9,980 ftHaleakala Crater Road
The paved road to the top of Haleakala climbs from Maui’s central plain to 3,055 m, gaining more height over a shorter distance than any road on earth, through multiple climate zones to an otherworldly summit crater.
Common questions
Which road tops this guide?
How many roads are in this guide?
How is the ranking decided?
More guides
Guide · 30 roads ranked
The best driving roads in the Alps
No mountain range concentrates great driving like the Alps.
Read the guide ›
Guide · 30 roads ranked
The best driving roads in the Balkans
The Balkans hold some of Europe’s last quiet driving.
Read the guide ›
Guide · 30 roads ranked
The best driving roads in Scandinavia and the Nordics
Nowhere rewards a patient drive like the Nordics.
Read the guide ›