On a related note, the last time I visited, I remarked on how unlikely it seemed that the Whitney Portal Road and especially the Horseshoe Meadows Road were ever built at all. I mean, look at them! Miles of twisty pavement, laboriously carved and cut into steep mountainside rock, all so a few hikers can drive up and prance about in the woods. :-) They make that Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" look like a sound economic investment. I'm happy the roads are there, but if their construction was being debated in 2014, I suspect they would never get built.
