Florida to Montrose Colo. in the winter?
Hi folks, we recently bought a home in Montrose and need to move our household goods there in late Feb or early March. We will be towing a 24' trailer with a 40' M/H. I would assume that the south...
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We lived in Ouray for ten years prior to moving to south Florida, which is in my top ten list, of dumb things I have done. LOL
We used to run back and forth in the winter, Thanksgiving time and/or Christmas to southern Oklahoma, to see my parents, but not to Florida. Shouldn't be any big problem getting to the Amarillo area, most of the time. However one trip we had to lay over in Shamrock Texas for a couple of days due to a snow storm. Just keep checking the weather forecasts and the pass conditions. Monarch is my favorite pass, east-west, in Colorado but it can be a handful. We used to disconnect our toad from our Class A and drive both over separately. A few trips we would stay south to about Gallup NM and then cut north. The best pass/road going north out of the Cortez area is to run on west to Dove Creek and take Hwy 141 to up by Naturita, then east on 145/62 to Ridgway and then Hwy 550 to Montrose. Some years we could make it fine going north out of Cortez on hwy 145 and go over Lizard Head pass to Hwy 62 and over Dallas Divide into Ridgway.
There really isn't anyway to get to Montrose without dealing with some passes that I know of. If the weather is good and Monarch is reporting no problems, then that was our choice, as it is faster. But a couple of times Monarch was bad, Lizard Head as well so it was west to Dove Creek and north.
For winter driving in western Colorado, I like roads that have a good shoulder, so if I do slide off, I will just get stuck, not drop 500+ ft. Monarch has a good shoulder most of the way.
We looked at buying a house in Montrose a couple of years back in both English Gardens and out on Spring Creek Mesa area. We go out every summer to western Colorado and still consider that area to be a favorite of ours. My wife grew up in the Springs and then Woodland for high school.
Some of the worst weather I have ever driven in has been in the Texas Panhandle, cutting from Amarillo, north to Dalhart, to Clayton NM and over to Raton. As bad or worse than anything we ever saw in 25+ years of living in rural Interior Alaska. LOL
On one trip from Clayton west, we had a ground blizzard in progress and visibility wasn't too bad but the wind was nasty. We were driving at a crawl trying to stay on the road and not get blown off. There was a hawk, probably a Red Shouldered guy, trying to fly across the highway. He would get about half way across and get blown back to the side. We pulled over, no other idiots out on the road that day, to watch him. After about 4 or 5 attempts, he finally landed and walked across the highway and burrowed his way into a snow covered tumble weed, to wait out the weather. Lot of memories from that trip. LOL
We used to run back and forth in the winter, Thanksgiving time and/or Christmas to southern Oklahoma, to see my parents, but not to Florida. Shouldn't be any big problem getting to the Amarillo area, most of the time. However one trip we had to lay over in Shamrock Texas for a couple of days due to a snow storm. Just keep checking the weather forecasts and the pass conditions. Monarch is my favorite pass, east-west, in Colorado but it can be a handful. We used to disconnect our toad from our Class A and drive both over separately. A few trips we would stay south to about Gallup NM and then cut north. The best pass/road going north out of the Cortez area is to run on west to Dove Creek and take Hwy 141 to up by Naturita, then east on 145/62 to Ridgway and then Hwy 550 to Montrose. Some years we could make it fine going north out of Cortez on hwy 145 and go over Lizard Head pass to Hwy 62 and over Dallas Divide into Ridgway.
There really isn't anyway to get to Montrose without dealing with some passes that I know of. If the weather is good and Monarch is reporting no problems, then that was our choice, as it is faster. But a couple of times Monarch was bad, Lizard Head as well so it was west to Dove Creek and north.
For winter driving in western Colorado, I like roads that have a good shoulder, so if I do slide off, I will just get stuck, not drop 500+ ft. Monarch has a good shoulder most of the way.
We looked at buying a house in Montrose a couple of years back in both English Gardens and out on Spring Creek Mesa area. We go out every summer to western Colorado and still consider that area to be a favorite of ours. My wife grew up in the Springs and then Woodland for high school.
Some of the worst weather I have ever driven in has been in the Texas Panhandle, cutting from Amarillo, north to Dalhart, to Clayton NM and over to Raton. As bad or worse than anything we ever saw in 25+ years of living in rural Interior Alaska. LOL
On one trip from Clayton west, we had a ground blizzard in progress and visibility wasn't too bad but the wind was nasty. We were driving at a crawl trying to stay on the road and not get blown off. There was a hawk, probably a Red Shouldered guy, trying to fly across the highway. He would get about half way across and get blown back to the side. We pulled over, no other idiots out on the road that day, to watch him. After about 4 or 5 attempts, he finally landed and walked across the highway and burrowed his way into a snow covered tumble weed, to wait out the weather. Lot of memories from that trip. LOL
