Caraz was a small village that I found and decided to spend a few days there. I wanted to explore the Cordillera Blancas range. The Cordillera Blancas run parallel to the Cordillera Negras which I had explored a few days before.
The Cordillera Blancas are much taller with snow caps; therefore, the name Blancas. There are trails and roads from Caraz that allow for day trips into the mountain range. I decided on a road that would take me through the highest pass in the area. I left early with the hopes of having a nice clear day. I reached the Lagos Langanuco. These are two lakes with beautiful turquoise colored waters. They are fed by the surrounding melting snow. The lakes are located in the Parque Nacional Huascaran and are sandwiched between huge mountains. In the park the road was a one lane gravel road with enough room for only one vehicle to travel on it at a time. I had to make sure that I always had room when passing oncoming traffic or enough room to pull over to let others pass.
I continued traveling on this road as it zigged zagged up the mountain. The highest elevation I had ever reached on my GS was 14,500 feet. On this road I reached 16,100 feet. It was not much fun at this elevation. It was snowing, raining, foggy, very strong winds, and an extremely slippery gravel road. I had no room for mistakes. There were no guard rails along the road to keep vehicles from going over the edge. I had to also consider that I was sitting on top of a 700 pound GS that I was using as a dirt bike.
I can say that I reached an elevation of 16,100 feet but it was hard, and traveling down was even harder. The beautiful fluffy snow turned into heavy rain. The rain used the road as a gully and water was running down the road as if it were a river bed. This made the gravel much more slippery. I traveled down the entire mountain in first gear to maintain control. Because of this it took me twice as long to get down the mountain as it did to travel up it.