Route East out of Colorado??

[fanrgs]

Oops! CO 133 just got shut down today by a huge sinkhole opening up in Paonia. Guess the coal mine workings under the highway subsided a bit too much!

[KyDan]

My bad... one of the aggravations about online mapping programs - both google maps and RV Life trip wizard - is when viewing a partial or completed trip no matter how much I zoom in the actual little road numbers do not
get any bigger! In my 1st post I said something about going northwest towards Grand Junction on 90 but it was actually US 50.

[Mitchell 2020]

We are headed East and just hitI-70 and the Colorado border. They h add d electronic signs saving US 50 East of Montrose is closed. Best you check that

[HangDiver]

Originally Posted by Mitchell 2020

We are headed East and just hitI-70 and the Colorado border. They h add d electronic signs saving US 50 East of Montrose is closed. Best you check that

Hwy 50 between Montrose and Gunnison has a construction zone that is closed from 7:30pm until 6:30am when it opens again on weekdays. Weekends there are no closures. During weekdays there is alternating east bound/west bound traffic sharing one lane through the construction zone as fanrgs posted. Semi tractor trailers, travel trailers and 5th-wheels travel through there every day. Occasionally I've had to wait 15-minutes for my lane to pass through that area.

[gzvette61]

24 is a good way to get to Limon from the Springs Just watch out for speed limits. Simla CO uses the speed limit drop to support their local funding.

[HangDiver]

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is about an hour from Montrose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDh25ew726c

[sherman12]

During our trip through Colorado last May I wish I would have taken some of the route suggestions given on this thread. I pondered Rt. 50 but I didn't know what kind of mountain climbs we would get into, not so much the elevation but more so steep two-lane roads without guard rails.

The one suggested route, I think 285 looks like a journey my wife and I would've enjoyed. As it was we took I70 over the mountains and the experience was great we really loved Glenwood Canyon, so much that we stopped for an overnight.

Dan mentioned getting back on I70 near Limon, CO. Well that stretch of road heading East out of Colorado is the absolutely worst piece of highway we have ever driven on. The road is a major p.o.s. and we experienced high winds that ripped apart my street side brand new slide-out topper. Shredded it! I pulled off onto an off-ramp at Limon to take pictures of the topper flapping in the wind for my insurance company.

Apparently, Colorado spends all of their federal highway monies on roadways West of Denver seeing there is nothing East of the Rockies.

[fanrgs]

Originally Posted by sherman12

Dan mentioned getting back on I70 near Limon, CO. Well that stretch of road heading East out of Colorado is the absolutely worst piece of highway we have ever driven on. The road is a major p.o.s. and we experienced high winds that ripped apart my street side brand new slide-out topper. Shredded it! I pulled off onto an off-ramp at Limon to take pictures of the topper flapping in the wind for my insurance company.

Apparently, Colorado spends all of their federal highway monies on roadways West of Denver seeing there is nothing East of the Rockies.

Apparently you live in upstate New York, which means you don't have a clue how Colorado DOT spends their tax dollars! Has upstate NY had any wildfires in the past 3 years that created mudflows that have blocked an Interstate for multiple times for days each time? Has NY had any avalanches that blocked that same Interstate between two of the prime ski resorts in the state? Has NY had a rockfall that killed a tourist on a highway over an 11,000' mountain pass?

Now for I-70 east of Denver. That stretch of Interstate was the first portion of I-70 built in Colorado and is now 60 years old. When the Interstate highway system was first being constructed, only a handful of civil engineers in the entire US had ever heard of expansive/swelling soils. None of those engineers worked for the Colorado Highway Dept., but eastern Colorado has thousands of sq. miles of swelling soils. Because the Federal Highway Administration preferred that Interstates be paved with long-lasting concrete, not easily-repaired asphalt, I-70 was constructed of concrete across several hundred miles of expansive soils. Since concrete highways are made with rebar, they are rigid and cannot be repaved the way asphalt roads can. CDOT has spent $10s of millions trying to solve their continuing problems with expansive soils on I-70. But, short of removing the entire pavement from Denver east to Kansas, those problems will persist.

How do I know all this? I have lived in Colorado for 60 years and, in the early 1970s, literally "wrote the book" on expansive soils along the Colorado Front Range. So, next time you want to criticize how tax dollars are spent in some state that you have only spent a few days in, try learning a little more about it first!

PS--Sorry about your slide awning, but Colorado not only has wildfires, mudflows, avalanches, rockfalls, and swelling soils, but also has wind. You may not remember the Marshall Fire at New Years several years ago, but we do. The winds that caused the rapid spread of that fire, which burned a thousand buildings, reached 102mph in Boulder! However, neither CDOT or state spending can be blamed for the wind.

[HangDiver]

Originally Posted by sherman12

During our trip through Colorado last May I wish I would have taken some of the route suggestions given on this thread. I pondered Rt. 50 but I didn't know what kind of mountain climbs we would get into, not so much the elevation but more so steep two-lane roads without guard rails.

The one suggested route, I think 285 looks like a journey my wife and I would've enjoyed. As it was we took I70 over the mountains and the experience was great we really loved Glenwood Canyon, so much that we stopped for an overnight.

Dan mentioned getting back on I70 near Limon, CO. Well that stretch of road heading East out of Colorado is the absolutely worst piece of highway we have ever driven on. The road is a major p.o.s. and we experienced high winds that ripped apart my street side brand new slide-out topper. Shredded it! I pulled off onto an off-ramp at Limon to take pictures of the topper flapping in the wind for my insurance company.

Apparently, Colorado spends all of their federal highway monies on roadways West of Denver seeing there is nothing East of the Rockies.

We have relatives in western Nebraska and central Iowa. When on road trips through those areas I use to complain about the condition of I-80 in western NE. That has since been reworked and now the Interstates in eastern CO are the ones that will rattle the fillings out of your teeth.

The wildfire that burned through Glenwood Canyon (mentioned in fanrgs post above) wiped out much of the vegetation along the canyon walls. Nearly everytime a thunderstorm would pass through, mudslides followed from the rain closing I-70 for days through the canyon each time.

[sherman12]

Every state has its share of weather-related issues that causes unexpected problems across all walks of life.

New York State (a sister state to California in its liberal policy) has problems with blizzards and rough winter storms. Freeze and thaw cycles raise havoc with roads throughout the East. And as far as highways go, I90 through NYS, named the NY Thruway, is one of few interstates in the country that still charges hefty tolls. The roadway itself is outdated in relation to the amount of travel on it. And talking about lack of maintenance, about 20 years ago +/- a bridge on the Thruway near Schenectady suddenly collapsed into a river below it killing numerous innocent.
travelers!

Believe me, I am No fan of NYS, whether because of its politics, taxes, winters, or other reasons. But like many, I stay because my DW could not leave her kids and grandkids whereas I could be gone tomorrow.

As far as I70 East of Denver, it was amazing how beautiful and smooth the road suddenly becomes crossing into Kansas. I do believe Colorado spends their monies around Denver and the high-end ski areas just like many dollars of NYS taxpayers goes to NY City public transportation and the next billion + dollar bridge near Manhattan.

[pgandw]

I70 from Denver to the Kansas line had a bad rep for being a rough road in the '80s 40 years ago. CDOT has repaved and rebuilt much of that section so that most of it was pretty reasonable in 2021 when I last drove it.

None of the non-mountain sections of interstate (I25, I76, and I70 east of Denver) in Colorado are reliably smooth roads. The mountain sections are kept in better condition because of the tourist dollars that the mountains bring in.

Having moved to North Carolina in 2021, we have seen similar here. Eastern NC highways in an area that's half water and half land don't seem to be as smooth as the mountain highways. Again, the tourists are in the mountains or at the beach - so that's where the road maintenance $$ go first.

Fred W
2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame
2022 Hyundai Palisade

[chriscowles]

Originally Posted by KyDan

... one of the aggravations about online mapping programs - both google maps and RV Life trip wizard - is when viewing a partial or completed trip no matter how much I zoom in the actual little road numbers do not get any bigger! ...

That drives me nuts. Combined with having the route line and other labels overlying it, it's unreadable. It seems to be designed by someone with 22 year old eyes.