Travelling on HWY 532 ????

[Kavy]

Has anyone ever driven this road?
I only ask because we are heading to a big camping trip on the weekend and a friend told me to avoid it at all costs.

It seems like a partially paved hwy and would save me about 40 minutes of driving and I'm all about that.

Any input would be great guy thanks

[rinny]

Highway 532 to Highwood area? Its not paved, and if you have a lowered/really nice vehicle, I would avoid it at all costs.

Its rocky and washboard in some parts including potholes and everything else that goes along with a gravel road. However, in a truck or even in a smaller car that you dont really care about, go for it. If you dont want rock chips and clouds of dust in your interior, stay away!

[Grogador]

Is this the hwy that hooks up to that sweet wide twisty gravel range/forestry road that runs along a river, down to Crowsnest pass, comes out behind Coleman? That is a sweet road for some crazyness :thumbsup:

[Kavy]

Originally posted by Grogador
Is this the hwy that hooks up to that sweet wide twisty gravel range/forestry road that runs along a river, down to Crowsnest pass, comes out behind Coleman? That is a sweet road for some crazyness :thumbsup:

yes that is the road.



Originally posted by rinny
Its rocky and washboard in some parts including potholes and everything else that goes along with a gravel road. However, in a truck or even in a smaller car that you dont really care about, go for it. If you dont want rock chips and clouds of dust in your interior, stay away!

Well its either take that road for 20 minutes or take hwy 40 (forestry road all gravel and major washboard) for 1hr 15 minutes so you can see my delimma.

I am lowered and so is 6 of the other cars that are going, im taking the subby however instead of the bimmer for obvious reasons.

I just want to know if its passable as I dont mind going 30 on it because the forestry road is such a detour. We would have to take the 40 from longview south when we could get by just taking the 532 right off of 22 west.

We are heading to livingstone falls from calgary here is a map. as you can see the 532 saves a bunch of time instead of the 40 but i dont want to kill us LOL

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g200/kavyt/FullMap.gif

[Grogador]

Hwy 40 looks paved (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=longview+ab&ie=UTF8&ll=50.382487,-114.66597&spn=0.002436,0.004699&t=k&z=18&iwloc=addr) most, if not all, of the way to Livingstone Falls. If you look at hwy 532 or 541 on Google maps, it's twisty as hell and appears to be 1/3rd the width of the Forestry Road it eventually connects to... friends might kill you :guns:

[Grogador]

Also handy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alberta_provincial_highways#900

[rinny]

The road to Livingstone Falls is definately not paved, in fact from what I remember the only paved road was 541, HWY40 and 532 are not paved.

I went to Livingstone beginning of May from Highwood area. I was coming from about halfway down 532, all the way to Livingstone. On the road it takes a lot longer than it looks on the map, but if you go slow you can definately make it in a lowered car. I didnt go much above 50 and Im driving a Jimmy.

Just taking 532 from main highway to the turn off point will take about 40 minutes or so if you're going slower

You'll follow 532 up over a mountain and down to a Petro-Can yard with a fork in the road. Go left and from what I remember it took at least 20 minutes if not more.

Definately beauty country out there though, livingstone looked like a good campground to be stationed at, lots of trees and privacy.

[Kavy]

Rinny would you suggest hitting longview and just taking hwy 40 down then ?

Im just trying to find something that all the honda guys wont complain about :)

Im pretty sure the HWY 22 to 532 is the route we are taking but just want to make absolute sure i don't set us up for a surprise.

[rinny]

Well I know from when I went down highway 40 that it was a gravel road, and im pretty sure it was gravel all the way up to the main road 540...

So its roughly the same distance whether you go highway 2 to 532 or 540 to hwy 40. I dont know what i'd do, its an incredible nice area, just slow going in a nicer, lower car.

Never to say that there weren't plenty of small cars out camping, just these ones didn't matter as much if they got rock dings and dust. Tough call really, dont know what is acceptable to you guys...

[kevinkorea]

yea me and my buddy were down that high way last saturday and there was an accident ... we were going at 80 kp/h LOL and my friend like swerved and his nissan murano is a wreck now. luckily we didn't die

[Kavy]

Originally posted by rinny
Well I know from when I went down highway 40 that it was a gravel road, and im pretty sure it was gravel all the way up to the main road 540...

So its roughly the same distance whether you go highway 2 to 532 or 540 to hwy 40. I dont know what i'd do, its an incredible nice area, just slow going in a nicer, lower car.

Never to say that there weren't plenty of small cars out camping, just these ones didn't matter as much if they got rock dings and dust. Tough call really, dont know what is acceptable to you guys...

Thanks Rinny I think I am going to just take the 40 since it is a nice drive and i have actually drove on it before :)

wish me luck