Twenty-five-year-old Eamon Kelly says he pulled to the side of the road to let another car go by on Grizzly Peak Road on Tuesday afternoon.
When he tried to return to the road, the rear end of his car fishtailed toward the hillside and the vehicle fell down a 45-degree embankment.
The red Mitsubishi sedan came to a stop when it struck a 3-foot-wide tree stump.
Kelly says he managed to climb back to the road to call for help.
He escaped with just some bruises, and his passenger suffered a non-life-threatening head injury.