Riding the Alps – The San Bernardino Pass

The San Bernardino Pass was definitely one of my favorites. Maybe my favorite all around.

We snaked our way up and down the pass after stopping at a small grocery in the town of Splugen.

Water and a snack in Splugen

The way the road is laid out, the quality of the pavement (and the color, which made it very easy to read), the varying landscapes and shift in elevation made for an amazing ride. IIRC (and I say that loosely, some of the passes are blending together in my memory and I find it hard to separate some parts from others), the front side climbed up the face of the mountain, surrounding by bright green grass and a steep set of corners etched into the edge of the mountain. The lush grasses and blue skies added an amazing colorful contrast to the grey snake of pavement – it was absolutely beautiful.

San Bernardino Pass

The San Bernardino Pass

At the top is a small lake and restaurant, much like many of the other passes. We saw a few guys milling around a couple of new Multistradas, with camera crew and photogs in tow – THAT must be a horrible job, being FORCED to test bikes on those roads.

Restaurant at the top of San Bernardino

At the top of the San Bernardino Pass

Coming down the back side (to us), the road opened up into a racetrack with more fantastic elevation changes and what appeared to be a missile silo (Pimmie later informed me that I was an idiot, and that the silo was actually one of the vent tubes bringing fresh air to the San Bernardino Tunnel found deep below us). Sheesh.