Colorado experts...help please

texasjayco wrote:
Headed up to RMNP in July for a few weeks. Starting at Stillwater near Grand Lake, then over to Estes Park at Mary's Lake for a couple weeks.

My question is the route to Stillwater from Raton Pass.
I'm pulling a 36ft 5th wheel (16K lbs) with a Ford dually with exhaust brake tune. Lots of mountain driving experience. Def want to avoid Denver.

Looks like there are three good options other than going thru Denver:
A - cut off at Walsenburg and go up thru Salida, Leadville, Silverthorn, Kremmling, Granby.
B - cut off at Pueblo and go up thru Canon City, Silverthorn, and on up.
C - Co Springs and over to Hartsel, up to Silverthorn, and on up.

Which would you choose?

Also, going from Stillwater to Mary's lake...how would you go?


Thanks for your help!!

Mark

My personal preference would be A, since it takes you through some beautiful scenery. Not so much on I-25 and there's lots of construction going on in the Springs and north of Denver.

Mary's Lake is a favourite of mine, make sure you have reservations well in advance. I believe they have a 6 month window for reservations. Run by the Town of Estes Park Recreation and Parks department, it's the least expensive campground in Estes Park.

I also would not recommend taking Trail Ridge over to Estes. Once you start climbing out of the valley on the west side of RMNP, there are 5 very tight hairpin curves to deal with and they are blind curves. Also, going the EASTBOUND route, you will be on the "outside"/drop off side for a goodly amount of time and there are steep drop offs and no guard rails for probably a good 15 miles. Once you drop down below treeline on the east side it's not so bad. It's just the getting there part. You also have to contend with a lot of traffic, especially around the Alpine Visitor's Center. Also have to contend with the "lookie loos" that will stop in the middle of the roadway to try to get that perfect picture of the elk up waaaay too close than they should be. Traffic can frequently back up due to this inconsideration. There are pull offs but the Karens and Chads don't think that they need to use them.

Alternative would by to go from Stillwater back to Granby, go west briefly on US 40 to CO 125 and take that north to Walden. Then take CO 14 east up and over Cameron Pass (fairly easy pass) and then down the Poudre Canyon to US 287 into Fort Collins. On the north end of FC, take Shields St southbound thru FC, and stay on it all the way down to Loveland (it becomes Taft Ave in Loveland), to US 34, and then US 34 west to Estes Park.

There are other ways to go, but this is, in my opinion, the best scenic route.

Also be aware of the "timed entry" reservations needed to enter RMNP. Those reservations are made thru recreation.gov just like camping reservations. They WILL turn you away if no reservations. H E R E - Timed Entry Info is the current info available for 2023 entry to RMNP. Timed entry starts May 26, 2023.