A casual comment in the Andersons' journal made me stop and think about my opinion on the subject. 

One of Scott's most beautiful mountain climbs.

For beauty and total climbing experience, I submit Kebler Pass in Colorado.

But, that does bring a need for clarification. For beauty alone, Independence Pass in Colorado is hard to beat. But it has enough traffic to detract from the experience. 

Please, chime in with your opinions. The more the merrier!

Great idea, Kelly.  There are so many incredible passes; I predict this will become a very lengthy post.  One of our most memorable climbs was Logara Pass, on the southern Albanian coast.  It’s a beautiful climb in its own right, but what made it especially memorable for us was the astonishing goat drive we witnessed there.  An unbelievable spectacle, and one of our favorite cycling memories.

I can offer an ordinary cattle drive in return. It does involve a mountain pass though. La Manga Pass in southern Colorado. That is an excellent ride - related to the Cumbres-Toltec steam engine train that has been mentioned recently on another forum thread.

Oh so many to pick from. How about this one. Furka pass Switzerland and the headwaters of the Rhone. Mountains, glaciers, lakes, blue sky with a little James Bond history and pretty amazing civil engineering thrown in for good measure. And all of this leads into 1000 km’s of vineyards as you wind your way to the Mediterranean  sea.

I don't do much touring or riding away from the East Coast, my only real mountain pass climb to offer is Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. 

Back in the 1970s, on an August  cross country driving trip with my college girlfriend, we drove Going to the Sun Road but our entire stay at Glacier was rainy and most of the ride was in fog - didn't really appreciate it: couldn't see the sun, let along go to it... 

Back in June 2017, my wife and I flew to Jackson Hole, WY and rented a car, spent most of a week hiking in Yellowstone and then drove up to Glacier and spent most of a week there. We just hit the timing right - they were still plowing GTS Road and had reached Logan Pass, but the road was still closed to cars but open to hikers/bikers.

We rented hybrid bikes at the Park and on a 70 degree biked up, with snow and waterfalls (and mountain goats) all around and just constant awesome views.

I guess it is kind of a cliche ride but definitely bucket list-worthy -  my wife even bought me the memorial coffee cup!

McKenzie Pass in Oregon was a favorite of ours. On the west side you first travel through a lush rain forest with these incredibly huge pines. As you climb to the top you enter a totally different world of an immense lava field with views of former volcanoes. On the east side you are now in a desert as you zoom downward to Sisters. So different than the passes in the Rockies!

I’d love to drop down Furka Pass.  It’s an amazing sight, looking down at the headwaters of the Rhone from above, as we saw when we dropped to Fiesch down Grimsel Pass nearly 30 years ago on our first European tour.  The memory of that pass is still vivid in my memory.  In our original plan for that tour we were going to climb back up Furka on our way east to the Balkans, if the wars hadn’t broken out and forced a change of plans. 

What a small world! Just checked out your day going over Grimsel Pass. Almost exactly 3 years earlier to your day, Kirsten and I were on the same road on the north side of Brienzersee. Recognize the tunnels and the road pasted to the side of the cliffs above the lake. Even more amazing, on that same day just after we were past the lake we had a group of about 6 Swiss army guys emerge from a forrest side road on bikes. They were wearing full white chemical suits and the requisite loaded backpacks and rifles. Surreal! That was our first Alps tour as well. Geneva to St Anton. Memories of that trip are still vivid.

I don't even think this pass had a name. I bike packed the "Fool's Loop" (https://bikepacking.com/routes/fools-loop-arizona/) in Dec 2018 and this was an unnamed pass in the Black Hills of AZ. Yes, I did make that climb all the way from the valley. I rode with a buddy of mine so I have more pictures of me on this trip than any other since I'm normally going solo.

I like most mountain passes. It's hard to think of a favorite.

One pass that's not a favorite is the summit of Everglades National Park in Florida.