Arkansas to Ogden, UT., need advice

[Jim102]

To all,
This will be out first major trip with our new F150 and Roo 21SS Hybrid trailer. We will be leaving April 1st for Easter in Ogden UT with our son and his family at Hill AFB.
The route is taking us to Denver from Cabot,Ar. then US25 to 287 to US80 to Ogden, is there still snow there or will the roads be OK?
Any help would be appreciated, like I said this is our first multi-day trip to somewhere and I am somewhat nervous about it since this will be our second trip in the TT, the f150 is a 2014 Ecoboost 4X4.

Thanks,
Jim

[ramgunner]

Jim102 wrote:
Well,
We delayed the trip and will be leaving his coming Sat 5/16. Although looking at I80 today there is snow, ice and black ice....
Is it winter all the time there? 🙂

Jim

Springtime can swing both ways. We had some warm weather, and then the biggest snowstorm of the year in April in Salt Lake.

[Jim102]

Well,
We delayed the trip and will be leaving his coming Sat 5/16. Although looking at I80 today there is snow, ice and black ice....
Is it winter all the time there? 🙂

Jim

[Jim102]

To all,

We decided to wait till mid-May to go there. We wanted to see some of the National Parks while we were there. We are going to stay with them for a month and then visit the National Parks north of Ogden, there should be no snow by then..

Thanks for your help,

Jim

[fanrgs]

We camped in the Black Hills last September and the weather was beautiful--no snow, no wind, and bright sun. But that was fall and this is spring. Anywhere you go in the Rocky Mountains (and the Black Hills are part of the Rockies), spring weather can change rapidly.

Road crews try to clear the snow on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and in Yellowstone NP, at the latest, by Memorial Day. The Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier NP is normally not open until mid-June. But those are the extremes and other, lower-elevation parks and National Forest campgrounds are normally cleared and open by early to mid-May.

As for wind, I-70 is, in my opinion, less prone to high winds than either I-80 or I-40. Perhaps it is because the mountains provide a little more shelter than the wide-open spaces that I-80 and I-40 traverse. But if you have time to wait a day or two, any of the three will be fine despite snow or wind storms. Road crews in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico are infinitely better at dealing with snow and ice than those in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas!

[Jim102]

We are talking about delaying our trip till mid-May and staying for a month. At that time of the year how is the weather? We want to be able to go to Mt.Rushmore and some of the other Parks an not have to be concerned with the weather.
It's going to take us four days to get there and we don't want to have to worry about how cold it is.....We are camping in a Hybrid TT..
I appreciate your opinions..

Thanks,
Jim

[Fleet_Man]

As Rae & Mark suggested, have your son check with the people who are responsible for the Hill AFB FamCamp and make a reservation for you. They upgraded many of the sites over the past few years, it is a very nice place.

[fanrgs]

Jim102 wrote:
I am still worried about the trip from Ft.Collins to Utah....Looking at it now there is 50 mile an hour winds and 3 inches of snow coming....How long does this go on?? Jim

Well . . . my son once played a soccer game in a Memorial Day weekend tournament the morning after a nighttime snowstorm hit Denver. And a few years ago, my wife and I flew to Albuquerque in mid-April and left the airport in our rental car in a snowstorm.

As others have said, I once had to pull off of I-80 with my trailer in very late March due to high winds from the west. A few years ago, I was working in Gallup, NM, in early April when I-40 was closed at the NM-AZ border due to high winds. And I was once detoured off I-25 at Las Vegas, NM, in early April because a semi had been blown over by a wind gust, blocking both south-bound lanes.

So, the only thing you can do is watch the weather, then decide on which route will avoid the worst of it.

[JimFromJersey]

RCMAN46 wrote:
Staying South then taking I15 North may not be any better than going across Wyoming.

Yeah, that's what I wasn't sure about. Sometimes, LATitude doesn't have as much influence on early spring weather as ALTitude. You can get a surprise almost anywhere between Big Bend and Yellowstone in April. Heck, we had a couple inches here on Friday, the first day of spring. And we're about 4 inches above sea level.. 🙂

[RCMAN46]

Staying South then taking I15 North may not be any better than going across Wyoming.

I have run into some pretty heavy snow in central Utah in March and April. They are usually short timers with roads cleared in a day or two.

New Mexico and Arizona both can also have some significant snow and sometimes very heavy winds. The Flagstaff area is about 7,000 feet elevation and there is some 6,500 ft in New Mexico.

Several years ago we had to spend two days at Meteor Crater campground as I40 was closed to truck and trailers due to high winds. This was during the Easter Weekend. (late March)

As mentioned watch the weather reports a couple days in advance. The odds are in your favor and most likely there will be no weather problems.

As for grades it is almost a toss up. New Mexico has grades. Arizona also has some grades. Just do not go across Colorado as you will find some serious grades.

[Jim102]

Everyone, thanks for the links and advice...Rea/Mark we will be staying at FamCamp for two weeks, then we have to leave there, their policy...
I am still worried about the trip from Ft.Collins to Utah....Looking at it now there is 50 mile an hour winds and 3 inches of snow coming....How long does this go on?? I know, I know it is our son and his family we are going to spend Easter with.......

Jim

[fanrgs]

JimFromJersey wrote:
Have you considered going staying 'south' as you go west first, and then heading up I-15 to Ogden rather than going 'north' and then west? Looking at a map, it appears that you just need to figure out where to branch off and head north in order to connect to I-15 in Utah. It looks like you might be able to take 191 north from I-40 just inside of Arizona, that will head up to to Moab, and then you can jump on I-70 west, take it right to I-15 and then I-15 north. If I remember, I-15 south of SLC (or actually south of Odgen for that matter) is fairly flat and uneventful, compared to I-70 in Colorado, and I-80 and I-84 in western Wyoming and Utah.

I agree with staying south if the weather is at all "iffy" on I-70 or I-80. However, I would suggest leaving I-40 at Albuquerque and heading NW on US 550 to Farmington. It's a very good road, generally 3- to 4-lane and no major climbs. Then head west to Shiprock and north on US 491/191 to Moab and I-70. US 191 joins US 6 at Green River, which will take you into Provo and I-15. You will have some hills/grades along US 6, but nothing you shouldn't be able to handle.

The only real difficulty with this route, as others have said about I-80, is the potential for strong winds during spring. That is a distinct possibility across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, where you might face 40-50 mph winds from the west and NW. Ask me how I know!

[JimFromJersey]

Jim102 wrote:
Rea/Mark,
How is US80 as far inclines etc?
Jim

I-80 climbs through Wyoming from Laramie to Rock Springs and Evanston very gradually - there are no real long climbs to even consider. Once west of Evanston, though, there are two ways down in to Utah - Staying on I-80 down in to SLC, or branching off on I-84 which comes down just south of Ogden. Both of them have some really fun whoop-de-do's going downhill. Great in nice weather, could be more adventure than you plan for in snow or ice. I-80 is literally flat from the Quad Cities to Evanston, as far as I'm concerned. The ONLY real grade up or down is right around Laramie, and it's nothing at all. Your bigger problem will be the crosswinds coming down off the North Pole. They about blew us into Colorado a couple of times. 🙂

[JimFromJersey]

We stayed at Century RV in Ogden back in the summer of 2012, it was a perfectly good site - just off I-15. Have you considered going staying 'south' as you go west first, and then heading up I-15 to Ogden rather than going 'north' and then west? Looking at a map, it appears that you just need to figure out where to branch off and head north in order to connect to I-15 in Utah. It looks like you might be able to take 191 north from I-40 just inside of Arizona, that will head up to to Moab, and then you can jump on I-70 west, take it right to I-15 and then I-15 north. If I remember, I-15 south of SLC (or actually south of Odgen for that matter) is fairly flat and uneventful, compared to I-70 in Colorado, and I-80 and I-84 in western Wyoming and Utah. I-84 from the split with I-80, down in to Ogden was a beautiful drive in late June, I don't know that it would be much fun in a snowstorm.. 🙂

[Kit_Carson]

We traveled I-80 one year in May going to Ogden when our son was stationed at Hill AFB. No problems except for the wind. We were headed west into a very strong headwind. Spent the night in Cheyenne, Wyo. and it got very cold at night. The wind was blowing just as hard the next day going into Ogden.