Pulling a 32' TT thru Colorado 6/11-18. Route is:=on 6/11, Santa Fe to Montrose via 285, then 114, then 50 =on 6/15, Montrose to Manitou Springs via 50 and 24 =on 6/18, Manitou to Kansas or Texas, eventually back to I-40 eastbound(not fully defined yet)I have subscribed to the Col DOT updates on roadwork on Monarch Pass and 550 south of Montrose so aware of that.Anything else noteworthy on this path that we need to avoid or be aware of?? tunnels?Tunnels? Flooding(!) Snow that might still be there other that shoulders on the passes?Thanks.

Nope, all good routes (at least the ones in CO). Taking CO 114 as the cutoff to US 50 is a good move. Going back on US 50 means Monarch Pass, but there are passing lanes most of the way up that pass. They plow the shoulders here as well as the parking lot at the top of Monarch Pass.If you're looking for a break, check out Cimarron between Blue Mesa and Montrose. Nice little NPS museum there.Don't know what you have going on in Manitou Springs, but given the choice, I always recommend staying around Salida over any place along the Front Range. The upper Arkansas River Valley has so much to do and see without the traffic down in Manitou.

I hope you are going to stop/camp and sight see on this trip. If so, this route is skipping most of the grandure of Colorado. If you MUST start at Sante Fe I'd take 84 up to Pagosa Springs. 160 west to Durango. Ride the Durango Silverton train. Than west to Mesa Verde Nat'l Pk. Next west to Delores and north up Rt.145/62 and connect to 550 up to Montrose. Along Rt.145 is a wonderful mountain stream, Forest CG called Cayton on the map. It has ELECTRIC sites! On up to connect 550 at Ridgeway is another great State Pk called Ridgeway. While in this 550 area, I'd SURE camp somewhere and take the toad to drive between Ouray & Silverton. You could go up Rt.550 at Durango, which is also beautiful, but that road scares me. At Montrose area I'd camp at the Nat'l Pk CG at Black Canyon Gunnison. Beautiful CG with an electric/water loop. Rt.50 east is a very beautiful drive all the way to Canyon City where I would certainly stop to see Royal Gorge.

TundraTower wrote:Pulling a 32' TT thru Colorado 6/11-18. Route is:=on 6/11, Santa Fe to Montrose via 285, then 114, then 50 =on 6/15, Montrose to Manitou Springs via 50 and 24 =on 6/18, Manitou to Kansas or Texas, eventually back to I-40 eastbound(not fully defined yet)I have subscribed to the Col DOT updates on roadwork on Monarch Pass and 550 south of Montrose so aware of that. Anything else noteworthy on this path that we need to avoid or be aware of?? tunnels?Tunnels? Flooding(!) Snow that might still be there other that shoulders on the passes?Thanks.When you get to Manitou give me a ping and we'll go have a Margarita somewhere. Better yet I'll bring em' to your campsite.You should be okay although it looks like you are doing too many miles per day to me. No Tunnels on that route to worry about. Colorado DOT will be working on some of those roads and not tell you via DOT website probably. Most years I would say snow would not be an issue and I wouldn't expect it to be this year either but this year has been something else with all of our rain and snow -- no guarantees from me. Snow has been falling heavily in the high country lately. Good for our water table.Enjoy.

We did 4 corners, Mesa verde, Durango, and 550 up to Ouray about 6 years in a solo trip. Also came thru Durango and Pagosa last year on the return from Utah.We are staying 4 days at Montrose and 4 days at Manitou and will do day trips from camp. Most of the "to do" things you have mentioned are on our list, especially at Montrose. Montrose looks a bit relaxed and natural, and more and more Manitou Springs is starting to feel commercial.Like you, everyone else tells us we should stay longer. We have just retired from our own very intense rat races, and still trying to get into the groove of going places and doing nothing. Last year we did a 23 day (total) trip to Utah and both of us were ready to be home on the 20th day. This year the total trip length has been adjusted to continue our transition but not to make us uncomfortable. If it doesn't feel like fun, then it isn't. I'm confident we will get to mindless wandering (meant in a good way) eventually, but it isn't a transition either of us could do suddenly.Our return from Manitou to north Alabama is not planned nor reserved (gasp!). I'm considering a return leg thru Dodge city Kansas and then picking up I-40 at OK city. Looks like the leg thru Kansas would be all secondary roads, a good thing, but doesn't appear to be much infrastructure along the way. Clinton OK looks to have a good Route 66 museum plus Red Canyon that might be worth a 2 day stop. Any ideas on this or other return legs headed east? Thanks again for your advice.

Would not go into that part of the country without our weather radio.

Colorado Loop - anything else we should know? | Good Sam Community

18 Replies

debraindi
Explorer
Jul 06, 2015
Dadio24 wrote:
jolooote wrote:
I hope you are going to stop/camp and sight see on this trip. If so, this route is skipping most of the grandure of Colorado. If you MUST start at Sante Fe I'd take 84 up to Pagosa Springs. 160 west to Durango. Ride the Durango Silverton train. Than west to Mesa Verde Nat'l Pk. Next west to Delores and north up Rt.145/62 and connect to 550 up to Montrose. Along Rt.145 is a wonderful mountain stream, Forest CG called Cayton on the map. It has ELECTRIC sites! On up to connect 550 at Ridgeway is another great State Pk called Ridgeway. While in this 550 area, I'd SURE camp somewhere and take the toad to drive between Ouray & Silverton. You could go up Rt.550 at Durango, which is also beautiful, but that road scares me.
At Montrose area I'd camp at the Nat'l Pk CG at Black Canyon Gunnison. Beautiful CG with an electric/water loop. Rt.50 east is a very beautiful drive all the way to Canyon City where I would certainly stop to see Royal Gorge.

2X...
We made reservation for Ridgeway last night on line most of the area is full for the week end during the week is ok. The area is Central located for us. Thank you for the information.
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Jun 26, 2015
Well now, it sounds like you're getting into the retirement groove! Good for you. Now the next trip will be even longer.....right? :)

Thanks for reporting back. Wish more folks would do so.
TundraTower
Explorer
Jun 25, 2015
Just to close the loop, we got back 2 days ago and had a great time!

Montrose was a hidden gem. Very nice but modern town. Did Black Canyon all the way to the bottom (5 miles of 16%), jeep ride in Ouray, and drove over to Teluride but Robert Redford wasn't home :)

Manitou Springs was crowded but still nice. Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak was outstanding (19 miles of 11%, 48F, and snow 5 feet higher than me), and the Mountain Zoo is surprisingly nice. I wouldn't do the cliff dwellings again, but the air force chapel was impressive.

North Pass on highway 114 on the way up from santa fe was fine even in a rain/hail storm.

Monarch Pass on 50 was as do-able as everyone said - 4 lane all the way up, plenty of pull outs, and snow/52F at the top. Took us longer to go down than up but we didn't hold anyone up - all the RV's and trucks were in low gear.

Raton Pass on I-25 on the way home was a none event. We took 87/64 thru the boonies from I-25 over to Amarillo which was a surprisingly good road, just not much out there.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate the input from those that have gone before !!
debraindi
Explorer
May 27, 2015
Dadio24 wrote:
jolooote wrote:
I hope you are going to stop/camp and sight see on this trip. If so, this route is skipping most of the grandure of Colorado. If you MUST start at Sante Fe I'd take 84 up to Pagosa Springs. 160 west to Durango. Ride the Durango Silverton train. Than west to Mesa Verde Nat'l Pk. Next west to Delores and north up Rt.145/62 and connect to 550 up to Montrose. Along Rt.145 is a wonderful mountain stream, Forest CG called Cayton on the map. It has ELECTRIC sites! On up to connect 550 at Ridgeway is another great State Pk called Ridgeway. While in this 550 area, I'd SURE camp somewhere and take the toad to drive between Ouray & Silverton. You could go up Rt.550 at Durango, which is also beautiful, but that road scares me.
At Montrose area I'd camp at the Nat'l Pk CG at Black Canyon Gunnison. Beautiful CG with an electric/water loop. Rt.50 east is a very beautiful drive all the way to Canyon City where I would certainly stop to see Royal Gorge.

2X...

That will be in July thanks for the route. My tode will be a Harley in the garage of our new Impact 311 Keystone .
TundraTower
Explorer
May 25, 2015
We are watching the weather but will wait until 2-3 days before we leave next week to make a decision on alternate route. As rough as I-40 is, I would rather be on a main road if flooding is an issue. Surprisingly, if you look at NavBug.com, there are 3 places on I-40 in AR and OK that have actually closed due to high water in the last 10 days.

I'm not overly concerned about driving in the rain but I am concerned about high water and high winds whether driving or spending the night.

I pulled the rig in 45 MPH cross-winds from Santa Fe to Amarillo last summer. I stopped and put shims in the WD hitch to tighten it, and slowed down to 50-55, and we made it fine but it really drained me. That's about as much wind as I would tackle. I've always been told that "you will know" when the cross wind is too high, and I guess when we get to that point we just stop somewhere and park into the wind and wait it out.

We camped in 50 MPH winds at Torrey, Utah. Purely by coincidence the trailer was parked in line with the winds, but the trailer "wiggled" all night as the wind howled. Neither of us got much sleep. If the trailer had been parked so the wind hit the sides, it would not have turned over but I don't think we would have been able to stay that way.

I've calculated the THEORETICAL wind speed that it would take to turn the trailer over when stationary but I won't share that here because it will start an argument. When you feel like the wind is too high I think you just have to find a place where you can park parallel to the wind direction and hope for the best. If you are in a tornado path, you need to change priorities and find a good sturdy building and protect yourself and loved ones and let the insurance company worry about the truck and trailer.
debraindi
Explorer
May 24, 2015
Tundra you mentioned Texas where planing a week stay stone creek camp ground at Schets Texas next to San Antonio . I still have 2 weeks for the rain to slow down.I don't much experience driving in severe rain and wind.What do you do in a bad situation with weather?
TundraTower
Explorer
May 24, 2015
We actually made CG reservations several weeks ago.

The trip starts in Santa Fe because our son lives there and we don't get to see him much. Now that we are retired we combine visits with him with sightseeing. We stayed at Santa Fe Skies last summer and will stay there again in 2 weeks. A nice place and relatively handy.

The comment on the weather is hitting home with us. We plan to overnight in Choctaw OK and Amarillo on the way out, both of which seem to be under attack from tornadoes and torrential rains about every 3 days, not to mention continuing snow in Colorado and Santa Fe (snowed in SF last Saturday).

Thanks to all for your help and advice !
BillMFl
Explorer
May 23, 2015
Its all good. Mesa Verde is at least a 2 day stay, its a huge park with lots to see. Stay right in the park if you can, long drive in from outside parks. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is awesome but limited campsites. 550 is in my top 3 drives in US (Glacier and Big Sur too) but not for folks who fear mountain roads. Summers are very busy out there. I prefer spring and fall. No crowds and lots of available sites. We usually stay a week or more in Santa Fe at Santa Fe Skies. Lots to see and do. Taos area an easy day trip.
patperry2766
Explorer II
May 23, 2015
If you haven't selected your campsites yet:
Mueller State Park near Manitou Springs
Ridgway SP near Montrose. Ridgway itself has multiple campgrounds within their park.
Pa-Co-Chu-Pak (stayed there one night and moved because we were close to the river and got constantly attacked by the mosquitoes)

Dakota Terrace...where we ended up moving to for the rest of the trip

Elk Ridge...this will be the place we try to get into next time we go.

Both of the campsites are in bear territory so the rangers, especially at Mueller, are pretty vigilant about food being left out.

A lot of stuff to do in the area.
jolooote
Explorer
May 22, 2015
Oh, I forgot to take note of what time of the year are you going to make this trip?