supplyguy wrote:
Help please. First time Cruise America RV renter planning to take wife and 16 year old daughter from Phoenix to Denver via Grand Canyon and Four Corners 26-31 December in a 25' rental. Was trying to plan routes from Four Corners to Denver (Durango? Moab? Southerly route to I-25N?) and asked for route advice on Trip Advisor where I'm getting crushed for endangering my family and told to cancel trip. I have driven all over the world but admittedly never an RV. Are all routes really that risky due to weather? Second question - Cruise America suggested RV would be winterized upon arrival in Denver at my expense. Not concerned about cost, but isn't it too late to winterize there given the anticipated cold en route? Last question - planned to overnight at RV parks with full hookups, although I am still learning what that means. Presuming the RV should be winterized in Phoenix before departure - is a 5 day drive with no water/toilet/showers a miserable experience? Appreciate wisdom and patience as I learn. Otherwise I have to start looking at Plan B (Phoenix loop) or Plan C (eat the $300 deposit and plan a different Christmas break).
1 - December is the 3rd coldest month in Colorado. It's also the 3rd snowiest month in Colorado. Travelling the route you are proposing in completion (Phoenix to Denver) will be a challenge. You need to build in days for no travel. Roads between the 4 Corners and Denver, regardless of the route through the mountains are subject to closure, sometimes for several days. CDOT does a good job in keeping them open when they can, but sometimes there are just limits. When storms are routinely dumping 12-24 inches of snow per storm, it becomes a challenge even for veteran drivers, such as truckers. They will hunker down somewhere until the storm passes. You need to plan for that, if you're going all the way to Denver. I would tack on at least 3 more days for that trip. And keep in mind that for Colorado, the prime set up for major snow is for lows going across central AZ and NM, pulling up moisture from the south and dumping it in the mountains, more so than storms coming in from the northwest.
2 - Are all routes risky due to the weather? No. But it depends on the route. Keep in mind also that there are substantial elevations for MOST of the routes between the 4 Corners and Denver. And there are frequently 2 lane roads and sometimes shelf roads. By your own admission, you've not driven an RV before; driving in the Colorado mountains in the winter would not be my first choice for a novice outing.
3 - That said, there are alternative routes that could be less of a challenge. Going north would not be my choice if I were driving it. One way would be to take US 160 east out of Durango to US 64 south into New Mexico and take US 64 east to US 285. That keeps you further south and bypasses Wolf Creek Pass -- not a pass that you want to consider as a novice in the winter. (That pass was recently closed during the most recent storm for tractor trailers that were overturned). When you get to US 285, you could take it north into the Alamosa area and then pick up US 160 again and take that east to Walsenburg and I-25. Only one pass that way, La Veta, and it's an easy pass and well maintained. There are other routes you could take, and others may have alternate suggestions, or variations.
4 - Regarding the RV and winterizing, that's a toss of the dice, in my opinion. I made an appointment to get my trailer winterized 2 weeks ago for last week, thinking that I had time before it really got cold. Well the day I took it in the high was 5 above and the low was 14 below. Even though I'd emptied everything as best I could back in September, I still had some freeze damage (faucet in the kitchen and fresh water drain plug both froze up). Trailer had to be thawed inside at the RV place before they could winterize it. You could most definitely experience comparable temps in Colorado.
5 - Regarding the rental, check your own insurance policy and/or buy additional insurance to cover the complete cost of replacing the RV if necessary. I'm not saying this flippantly; even the best of drivers can experience the unexpected. This would help alleviate any financial issues in the event of a problem along the way.
6 - RV parks with full hooks will be few and far between. Finding RV parks that are even open will be a challenge. Yes, there are some. In Durango, there's the Durango RV Park, with full hookups, but no showers/restrooms. Some of the State Parks in Colorado are open year round as well for camping, but most have the amenities shut down for the winter. Boondocking would be difficult in USFS areas, though some are open (at least parking lots for cross country skiers); most are closed since they don't plow the access roads.
7 - Consider your plan B or C, which doesn't have to rule out travel. Just not travel through the Colorado mountains as a novice driver in the winter. Personally, I wouldn't mind doing the part from Phoenix to the 4 Corners area, and then maybe visiting NW New Mexico area, around Ship Rock or Aztec. Perhaps a trip down to Santa Fe instead of Denver? Keep a close eye on the weather regardless of what your choice may be. There are plenty of smart phone apps for that. And for Colorado, cotrip.org is a must have, and there's a smart phone app for that as well.
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