‘The Canyon’ Has Residents’ Healthy Respect : Drivers Face Treacherous Roadway to Enjoy Dramatic Scenery of Sierra

For travelers on the ribbon of highway traversing the Eastern Sierra known as U.S. 395, Walker Canyon offers beautiful scenery, narrow twisting curves and marathon drivers on their way to or from Reno or Los Angeles.

Local residents refer to the 14-mile stretch that snakes through a deep canyon gorge along the Walker River in ominous tones as “the Canyon.”

“We always tell people to be careful driving through the canyon,” said Mary Remes, co-owner of K & M Bakery Restaurant here, a small town of 450 located about 120 miles north of Bishop.

“People are hypnotized by the bright lights of Reno or Los Angeles when they drive that highway and want to get there in a hurry,” added her husband, Kenneth Remes, a Walker resident for 22 years.

Friday’s bus accident, which took the lives of 18 people, added to a long list of mishaps along the road that some local residents have learned to avoid.

“Many locals drive State Highway 182 instead because of the heavy traffic and accidents in the canyon,” said Gail Merritt, spokeswoman for the Toiyabe National Forest, Bridgeport Ranger District. “When I have to drive the canyon, I hug the white line on the right as far from passing cars as possible.

“On Tuesday, I passed a three-car pileup in almost the same place as where the bus crashed,” she said. There were no serious injuries in that accident, however, she said.

“We have pockets where accidents occur along the 120 miles of U.S. 395 that run through the county and that 13-mile stretch is one of those pockets,” said Marguerite Ivey, interim manager of Mono General Hospital in Bridgeport and former executive director of the Mono County Local Transportation Commission. “It is a very dangerous road.”

Three beer distributors’ trucks have crashed in the canyon in the past three years, California Highway Patrol officials said. Locals still talk of the time in 1982 when a distributor’s truck crashed in the canyon near where Friday’s accident occurred.

Nearly the whole town gravitated to the scene to retrieve 1,800 cases of brew from the icy river.

“It was floating down the river in six packs,” Kenneth Remes said with a wink. “We didn’t want to plug up the good fishing holes with beer--we had to get it out of there.”

“The problem here is that people drive too damn fast in that canyon,” said Mike Montgomery, who operates a tow service in Bridgeport and who said there have been 15 wrecks involving heavy rigs in the canyon over the last four years.

“It’s the most dangerous stretch of highway in Mono County,” Montgomery said.

Such pronouncements, however, are downplayed by local law enforcement officials, who say the canyon is as safe as any back-country road in the state, provided drivers observe warning signs and posted speed limits.

“The canyon has a reputation, especially in winter, because of its curves, snow and ice,” said Sgt. Terry Padilla of the Mono County Sheriff’s Department. “But I don’t think it is any more dangerous than a road near the Colorado River, for example.”

Warning Signs

Mike Mandichak, 46, who has operated a tow service in Walker for 14 years, agreed.

“That canyon is not a place to overlook the warning signs,” he said. He added that “very seldom have locals crashed in there.”

Mandichak and law enforcement officials who work the canyon said traffic accidents there have declined in recent years.

They attributed the decline to the advent of the 55 m.p.h. speed limit and, more recently, the addition of double yellow center lines to discourage passing in other than designated safe areas.

‘A Place to Be Respected’

The canyon road has had 28 warning signs in each direction for years, authorities said.

Still, “You get people from Los Angeles and Reno who try to maintain 55 m.p.h.,” Mandichak said. “But that canyon is a place to be respected.”