Winter Travel Phoenix, Az to Montrose, Co

[rvexodus]

We have some land east of Montrose, Co where we spend our summers in our RV. We have to take the RV down to AZ for the winter but will be renting a cabin starting in February 2023. We would like to bring our RV back up to montrose and store it until our mountain community thaws out. Here’s our challenge. We normally take montrose to ridgeway through lizardhead pass then Rico, Delores, Cortez, Flagstaff, Phoenix. We pull a 19k lb fifth wheel and don’t want to risk it in February. Is there a better route? Looks like we can go montrose, ridgeway, norwood towards nucla (141 to 491) then Cortez flagstaff etc. Is that the best route to avoid bad winter roads?

Any better ideas? We don’t mind going a little out of the way to avoid sliding off a mountain 🙂

Thanks, Kirk

[rvexodus]

RCMAN46 wrote:
I would suggest going west to Grand Junction then I 70 to I15 then south to Las Vegas. The interstates are typically the first to be plowed etc during bad weather.

That route adds quite a few extra miles. I figure that is a worse case route. Or even Moab to grand junction if norther az is mild but Norwood and Ridgeway are bad.

[rvexodus]

ItsyRV wrote:
Probably don't need to remind you but pay very close attention to the northern AZ weather forecast that time of the year. You don't want to be stuck in a standstill whiteout for hours, or travel embargoed because you need full chains, or on the news as another "trailer" blown over by the winds. I-40's bad weather can be a mean surprise that comes out of nowhere.

Yup it can be nasty. But usually 2-3 days later you wouldn’t know they had snow. I went to school @ NAU 🙂

[rvexodus]

ItsyRV wrote:
Probably don't need to remind you but pay very close attention to the northern AZ weather forecast that time of the year. You don't want to be stuck in a standstill whiteout for hours, or travel embargoed because you need full chains, or on the news as another "trailer" blown over by the winds. I-40's bad weather can be a mean surprise that comes out of nowhere.

Thanks. Definitely appears easier than telluride to Rico to cortez. Considering heading back to AZ through Norwood but bypass Cortez and head over to Monticello. The entire trip back to AZ only adds 30miles but looks much easier of a drive. In Feb will consider that same route. Only issue is most all campgrounds are closed. But we can deal with that.

[RCMAN46]

I would suggest going west to Grand Junction then I 70 to I15 then south to Las Vegas. The interstates are typically the first to be plowed etc during bad weather.

[ItsyRV]

Probably don't need to remind you but pay very close attention to the northern AZ weather forecast that time of the year. You don't want to be stuck in a standstill whiteout for hours, or travel embargoed because you need full chains, or on the news as another "trailer" blown over by the winds. I-40's bad weather can be a mean surprise that comes out of nowhere.

[lbrjet]

I have traveled your suggested route. It is remote, but I had no issues.

[rvexodus]

That canyon east of Norwood is primarily why I posted. Having never traveled it I couldn’t begin to guess if it is good or not. For the i70 route are you referring to 160 from flagstaff to 163 to 191 through Moab to i70?

Or phx to Vegas then i15 to i70 over to Grand Junction down to Montrose?

[paulj]

For other threads I looked at 141 on GMaps. There's a grade called Slick Rock Hill that climbs out of a river crossing. There's another grade out a canyon east of Norwood. This route might not be as high, but it looks more remote. Going NW to I70, and then south through Moab might be safer choice - both in terms of altitude and remoteness.

With snow bunny traffic to Telluride, the Lizzardhead pass might be well plowed.