Wolf Creek Pass - C. W. McCall

C. W. McCall

Wolf Creek Pass was made famous in 1975 by Country music artist C. W. McCall's humorous spoken word song of the same name, in which the pass is fondly described as "37 miles o' hell -- which is up on the Great Divide." In the song, two truckers drive an out-of-control 1948 Peterbilt down U.S. Highway 160 to Pagosa Springs -- a 5,000-foot (1,500 m) drop in elevation.

I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide

His lip was curled, and his leg was fried.

And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard.

I says, "Earl, I'm not the type to complain

But the time has come for me to explain

That if you don't apply some brake real soon, they're gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon..."

("Wolf Creek Pass" written by Bill Fries and Chip Davis, sung by C.W. McCall)

The song describes the truck careening down through a "tunnel" (during which process several crates of chickens stacked on the back of the truck are inadvertently lost) and eventually into a feed store in Pagosa Springs. This tunnel is actually a snow shed: the song predates the only true tunnel on the pass by 30 years. However, the snow shed is on the east side of the pass while Pagosa Springs is on the west side, making this sequence of events impossible.