David and Shirley,
We took the 14 from the hwy 89 side into Cedar City. This was just a couple of years ago. It is an excellent road. A good two lane quality road. There is a lot of building going on along that route. We were towing our Monty. When we got to the top there was a great place to pull over and enjoy the view. I believe the pass is at about 10K feet. It is a scenic route.
Near the top there is a short road that leads to a little known National Monument. Here is a link:
Cedar Breaks National Monument
At the stop I checked my brakes on the trailer and they were gone! Actually what had happened was my controller had gone out on me. So here we are the top of a ten thousand foot mountain and have no trailer brakes. So I put it in a low gear and take off. I kept my speed down to between 25 to 35 or so. First it is a fairly windy road so you can't go too fast to begin with and second I just don't want the thing to get going too fast.
About half way down we start to smell the brakes. At about the same time we see a fellow going up the mountain broken down. So we stop and help him. Of course we're in a 'NO SERVIVE' phone area! By the time we get all the fellow's info for a tow truck my brakes have cooled down a little bit. We get into Cedar City and I stop and check the brakes. They are HOT! I have one of the little Radio Shack infrared temp things. My brakes were so hot the temp gauge would not work!
So we get the fellow stranded on the mountain squared away and continue our trip. By the time we got to Saint George all was once again normal. Of course I was worried about my brakes the rest of the trip home. But when my brother checked them they were all just fine. Could not even tell they had been hot. Of course the 450 has 15 inch brakes. I'm sure that helped some. We also installed a new controller and have had no trouble since.
Would I do it again? Yes. It is a nice road and I'd like to see how things have changed.
Dennis
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