I-70 W in Colorado

All of the routes you mention take you through the suburbs of Denver. Traffic on I-25 and US 85 can both be very busy. Be warned that weekends in June and July those roads get very busy as the Renaissance Festival is near Larkspur south of Denver and traffic gets even worse. C-470 also gets backed up certain times of day on weekdays. IMHO, staying on I-70 is your best bet. Just avoid rush hour and things should flow smoothly, assuming there's not an accident, which can happen on any of the roads listed.

4runnerguy wrote:
All of the routes you mention take you through the suburbs of Denver. Traffic on I-25 and US 85 can both be very busy. Be warned that weekends in June and July those roads get very busy as the Renaissance Festival is near Larkspur south of Denver and traffic gets even worse. C-470 also gets backed up certain times of day on weekdays. IMHO, staying on I-70 is your best bet. Just avoid rush hour and things should flow smoothly, assuming there's not an accident, which can happen on any of the roads listed.

What Ken said.

That whole south part of the Denver Metro area has a lot of traffic seemingly all the time. Every time I've been down that way, regardless of the time of day, there's traffic. Keep in mind that the Denver Tech Center (a HUGE complex of offices and various businesses) is there as well as an Ikea store that generates a lot of traffic. There's also a lot of residential areas there in the Highlands Ranch/Centennial area and the attendant traffic. Additionally, there's light rail that runs down to that area, and so you'll have commuter traffic getting/to from the park and rides. Getting on C-470 won't really resolve any issues you may have with going through a city, as you'll be going through dense suburbs. This is true during the week as well as weekends. Also, there's a lot of folks that use C-470 to get to US 285 south -- recreational traffic on weekends, commuters heading back and forth to/from Evergreen and Conifer areas.

OH MY!! I am glad I asked!! THANKS and we will follow your advice and just scoot on thru Denver on our way west. Happy Trails.

You can probably "scoot" thru if you can do it early in the morning, before the morning rush, (7-9am). Even in midday I70 east of I25 for about 5-6 miles carries a lot of traffic and part of it is elevated so it is a bottleneck. But it is direct and still better then the route you are considering, IMO.

How far west are you going? Be aware of the big problem at Glenwood Canyon.

rexlion wrote:
How far west are you going? Be aware of the big problem at Glenwood Canyon.

They are travelling in June. Hopefully will be complete by then; news reports are still saying 1-2 months to complete repairs and get I-70 completely back to normal.

If you don't mind some extra miles to get to Dillon, you could take I-70 to Limon and take 24 to Woodland Park and continue west on 24 to Buena Vista and north to I-70. 24 is a very scenic route. Plan on a stop or two and enjoy!

2gypsies wrote:
If you don't mind some extra miles to get to Dillon, you could take I-70 to Limon and take 24 to Woodland Park and continue west on 24 to Buena Vista and north to I-70. 24 is a very scenic route. Plan on a stop or two and enjoy!

Good advice on an Alternate Route.

Let us know where all you are heading and we can give you more advice.

As has been said, if you miss rush hour (or two) I-70 is easy - for going straight through Denver.

If Dillon is the final destination 2gypsies is on tract to give you an interesting trip, but in the Springs you will still need to avoid traffic on I-25 during the rush hour.

SO the moral of "MY" story is timing is the most important thing when trying to avoid traffic in BIG CITIES.

JMHO,

What is going on in Glenwood Canyon? They are always having some issue there.

We are going to Stillwater Campground for a week-- north of Granby, CO. Will be hiking in RMNP around Grand Lake area. We were thinking didn’t want to tow over Berthoud Pass (Winter Park) so thought we’d go to Silverthorne and go N on Hwy 9 to Kremmling and east to Granby. (We won’t be staying at Dillon, but will be there on the return trip in September).
Going over Berthoud Pass would be shorter route I think. Has anyone towed that route (40 N) to Granby? We realize our plan involves going over Loveland Pass and it may be bit steeper than Berthoud plus seems they are always doing construction up there around Eisenhower Tunnel with delays. Both have 6% grade. How is the rest of the route going north from I-70 Exit 232 on Hwy 40 to Granby—is it real curvy or anything? So whaddayathink maybe we should just take that route? We will be spending the night in Seibert, CO just east of Limon then on to Granby.

BTW I printed up a great resource entitled “Mountain passes and highway summits traversed by improved roads”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_passes_in_Colorado

I-70 through Glenwood Canyon was hit by a major rockslide last week. Major damage from rocks the size of cars!

It had been completely closed all lanes for several days. It is is still closed during the day from 0900 to 1600. During the night, there is only one lane open with a pilot car going east to west then vice versa. CDOT is stating it could be like this for another week or so.

From the COtrip.org website:

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Latest Announcement
I-70 through Glenwood Canyon is open to traffic 4pm to 9am, with a 10 ft. width restriction. Pilot Car operations and alternating traffic will occur between Exit 116 in Glenwood Springs and Exit 129 at Bair Ranch rest area. Pilot car operations will continue overnight (4pm to 9am), then daily closures will be in effect from 9am to 4pm as crews continue rockfall mitigation (when initial repairs and fence work are complete, the next phase will involve directing a single lane of traffic in each direction--crews are making every effort to get to this head-to-head traffic phase as quickly as possible). Delays through the current pilot car situation can be as long as 2.5 hours (at the 4pm hour) down to about 30 minutes later at night (10:00 pm-5:30 am). Alternate Route Information: Front Range/Summit County/Westbound Motorists: CO 9 (Silverthorne) to US 40 (Steamboat Springs) west on US 40 (Craig) south on CO 13 (Rifle). Eagle County/Westbound Motorists: north on CO 131 at Wolcott to Steamboat Springs, west on US 40 to Craig, then south on CO 13 (Rifle/I-70). The south alternate route uses US 50. Access to US 50 is available via Grand Junction for eastbound drivers and for westbound drivers by way of US 24/285 through the Salida area from the Front Range. Note: Cottonwood Pass and Independence Pass remain closed for the season.?