NIGHTMARE ROADS: TAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Here's a peek at the most challenging roads in Bolivia, China, and Russia.

YOU WON'T FIND THESE ROAD MAPS AT THE AUTO CLUB.

#1. Most dangerous.

BOLIVIA:

70 miles of crumbling dirt squeezed between sheer rock walls and the void below... This route between Coroico Yungas and La Paz is called the "Road of Death," and is a humanitarian disaster. Many pray to the goddess Pachamama for safe passage. Too often their prayers go unheard.

Clouds and the abyss.

Quick thinking required in knotty situations.

This is a major route, not a shortcut.

#2. Most dangerous.

RUSSIA: It's difficult to get between Moscow and St. Petersburg, for decent roads are few and far between in this enormous, nine-time-zone country. Putin made road-building a top priority-- so if you wait a couple of years to visit, you'll no doubt find some fine highways. But for now-- avoid the official Russian-Siberian Road to Yakutsk. In the rain, you and your vehicle may be swallowed in the mud. Trucks and tractors disappear in the clay. The route may be passable for perhaps a few days in a year. But after rains travelers can be stuck for weeks-- awaiting food via air-lift.

But it's so picturesque in the snow.

#3. Most dangerous.

CHINA: The Guoliang Tunnel in the Taihang mountains is memorable, even if you keep your eye on the road. The "passage" is irregular in all dimensions-- a monumental art carving with more than 30 "windows" of different shapes and sizes. It is frightening to look down, with strange rocks hanging from the sheer stone cliff above and a seemingly bottomless pit lying below. A village opposite the tunnel appears to hang on the precipice. This road is not for the timid.