RV travel over the Rockies - RV-Dreams Community Forum

The Crumps · RV-Dreams Family Member

RV travel over the Rockies

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

Head south until you hit I-80, then west. At Cheyenne you can either go south on I-25 to I-40 if the weather across the Rockies looks bad and take I-40 across to Kingman, AZ, then go north across the Colorado River on the new bridge until you hit I-15 then east to southern Utah, or stay on I-80 until you get to Salt Lake City, and pick up I-15 on the south side and head to southern Utah.

If at all possible, try the I-80 route, that will be the easiest for you.

Barb

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

I would suggest you plan for the southern route and feel fortunate if you can take the more northerly route across I-80. Unfortunately the route is dependent on weather so you need to plan to be flexible.

Last year Dale left Seattle to pick up our truck in Boise ID, then onto OK to pick up the 5'ver. He had great weather all the way across using I-84/ I-80/ I-25, etc. Return trip? Not so good, snow storms had moved through and he took the southern route on I-40 to I-15 due to the weather. He left on April 10, got home on April 26th, the weather totally changed in the week he spent at the dealership and there's no good way to predict that.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

One other note, and this was advice last fall from Mark S if you are having to cross Parley's summit in UT on I-80:

Parleys summit is so very easy to avoid. Take I84 from where it connects ot I80 around to Salt Lake City. No hard climbs, no steep hills at all. It is 14 miles farther. Probably a half hour quicker.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:
One other note, and this was advice last fall from Mark S if you are having to cross Parley's summit in UT on I-80:

Parleys summit is so very easy to avoid. Take I84 from where it connects ot I80 around to Salt Lake City. No hard climbs, no steep hills at all. It is 14 miles farther. Probably a half hour quicker.

But they are going from east to west, to take I-84 then puts them on the north side of SLC which means traveling through downtown on I-15. Much easier to stay on I-80 until it meets I-15 on the south side of the city since they will be coming downhill, not climbing.

Barb

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

Barb, it doesn't make much difference. Salt Lake is not a difficult town to navigate and the I84 route doesn't take you through the heart of the city. It's all bypass interstate type roads. Avoiding Parleys summit is worth a little traffic.

I would plan to go I80, I84, and I15 and only change my plans if the weather chases you off. From my experience Wyoming will present the biggest challenge. A little weather wouldn't chase me off. But if they are predicting more severe storms then I would still take I80 but plan on staying an extra day to let it melt off the roads. Actually, during the day, that late in the year, you shouldn't have any problems. I probably should have capitalized "shouldn't".

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

one other suggestion, www.wunderground.com has a travel routing feature that allows you to map your route and predict weather along the way.

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

While shorter going the northern route, be aware of the flooding that is starting. A whole lotta snow melt is happening in the northern states.

Cindy T · RV-Dreams Family Member

We usually have good weather in April in Colorado. However, if you're going to come down to Denver then go across I-70, you do want to watch the weather reports closely. We do get snowstorms in the mountains in April. You can go to the Colorado Dept of Transportation website, www.cotrip.org, to see road conditions & cameras showing conditions on I-70.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Marsha,

Are you limiting yourself to interstates and 4-lane roads. If not, you might consider going across I-70 to I-25 and then down to Walsenburg, Colorado and then take Highway 160 across southern Colorado. You will have two passes that I know of to consider, but I don't think they are too bad. You'd just have to research them. The easiest of the two would be La Veta pass just west of Walsenburg. The hardest of the two would be Wolf Creek pass. I'd say to check them for grades and see what happens. Highway 160 ends up in the extreme southwestern part of Colorado and then down into Arizona and find another road up into Utah.

That route will take you through some very pretty country and you will be right near Mesa Verde. If you are taking your time and like the idea of cliff dwellings, it is a great place to go. We spent a whole day there back in 2009 and still didn't quite see it all.

Sun Point View Cliff Houses

Terry

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm with Terry if you have the time to site see. Wolf Creek pass is not too bad, but it's still a pass and La Veta is easier than that. While you're in the vicinity of Mesa Verde just a little north you'll have Canyon Lands NP and Arches NP. Both are worth the time if you have it.

The Crumps · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you all for your great info. I checked out wunderground.com. It only goes out 10 days so will definitely use it when we get closer to departure. I will print all of these suggestions and use them all to determine our route. Since we have two weeks we will be able make changes as we go. We will be in UT for six months and plan on doing a lot of sightseeing while we're there. Thank you all again!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good luck. We also found that Wyoming's DOT site was very helpful, cameras at the passes to give you an idea on the current conditions. In our travels we've found that some states DOT sites are better than others and Wyoming's was pretty good.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Weather Underground also has a road trip planner - http://www.wunderground.com/roadtrip/. Really useful.

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

I carry a set of chains for the truck and the trailer. I fly by the seat of my pants. Go ahead, Mother Nature, bring it on. If it gets too icy, I've got my house with me. I'll wait till spring to move on up the road. Hey! Don't you dare throw that rotten tomato!

The Crumps · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the wunderground trip planner info. Good to know! And, the info about the WY DOT. I really think that's the route we'll attempt because we want to check out Ogden and Hill AFB. Being retired military we like to get familiar with area bases and hospitals. We want spend a couple of days there and see if it's a place we might want to put down stakes some day. We're looking for drier climate because we're done with WA rain where we've lived for about 30 yrs. But, not real fond of desert.

Thanks again for your help!

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

The Crumps wrote:
Thanks for the wunderground trip planner info. Good to know! And, the info about the WY DOT. I really think that's the route we'll attempt because we want to check out Ogden and Hill AFB. Being retired military we like to get familiar with area bases and hospitals. We want spend a couple of days there and see if it's a place we might want to put down stakes some day. We're looking for drier climate because we're done with WA rain where we've lived for about 30 yrs. But, not real fond of desert.
Thanks again for your help!

I don't know your reasons for not being fond of deserts, but they can tend to grow onto a person, given a bit of time.

Terry

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

You don't have to go far from Western WA to get drier, just cross the Cascades into Eastern WA. I have lived on both sides of those mountains and I can tell you that in Richland WA, the average yearly rainfall is 8 inches.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Crumps - just realized you are from Lacey, we lived in Auburn for 11.5 years so understand your desire to get away from the rain. As Bill said, you don't have to go far to get away from the rain, grew up in Spokane where we had 4 real seasons instead of 4 seasons with different shades of gray. However, I have no desire to spend my winters in Spokane or anywhere else where snow is a regular occurence.

If you're looking for a place to stay near Ogden, we found Utah Lake state park just west of Provo to be a wonderful stopover. Our picture in our signature was taken there last April when Dale was on his way home, it was a bit "buggy" in September, nice walking trails in the park, a great bicycle trail that was accessible right outside the gate to the park, plenty of nice shoreline to put the Sea Eagle in the water and a couple of great restaurants within a few miles of the park.

BTW, we had never spent much time in the desert, Dale grew up in Texas, I'm from WA, but we both fell in love with the desert this past winter in AZ. Spent time in Phoenix, Tucson, Quartzsite, Parker and points in between and absolutely loved it for the winter season. You won't see us there before October and by April we'll be long gone, but Nov - Feb it was so enjoyable!! Exploring the Phoenix Botanical Gardens and the Tucson Desert Sonoran Museum, local bike trails, lots of hiking, abundant sunshine, we found it an absolute fabulous place to spend our winter.

The Crumps · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you all for your great information! We made it safe and sound to Ogden, Utah. We made it in 6 days only traveling about 250 miles/day. I didn't mention that we were going to Ogden so the info about taking I-80 to I-84 to I-15 put us right where we needed to be. We're going to stay at Hill AFB for about 5 days before heading to Torrey, UT for our Workamper summer job.

Any suggestions for things to see in Ogden and SLC besides the Temple? We love historical places, not too much into wilderness treks.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just north of SLC is Promontory, UT where they drove the 'golden' spike for the first cross-continental railroad. Well worth going to see. And just a little north of that is the Morton-Thiekold rocket display.

Barb