Beautiful view with great facilities at top thats worth the climb, but there's a coue of things every traveler should know:

Heres why I gave it only 4 stars, though:

They call it one of "Americas safest mountain roads", but I beg to differ. There are virtually no guardrails on the road going up & the road has narrow lanes & very few turn offs to stop for the view or to catch you breath (literally). Turn-offs they do have can only usually accommodate 2-3 cars. Once you get passed the treeline it looks/feels like you can literally fall off the edge easily (especially on the hairpin turns). Road is also very steep, & trucks are no allowed to use their engine break! I smelled a few folks burning up their transmissions going down because of this. Its therefore a pretty stressful way up & down. I also didn't see the road well-marked in relation to the map you were given & tgere were no mile markers. Up at the top was also VERY crowded. Not good for those bad with crowds or heights - though I must say the top has a great, new, & very sturdy looking infrastructure.

The positive:

Incredible views up top! Theres 2 pretty full parking lot stops with gift shops & facilities along the way, however, so it kinda' makes up for the lack of view pull-overs. The top is also a huge & awesome facility with a large gift shop, bathrooms, & cafe. Theres staff staged at around 3 areas of the highway & up top in case of accidents or medical emergencies. The air is very thin at 14,000 feet, so I'm sure breathing emergencies happen frequently. The road and grounds were also very well maintained (even though the road is narrow with few guard rails).