US 50 Colorado question.

[Jarhead79]

I'm considering this route on us50 going north. Is it less altitude than I70 in that area?

[Rawze]

(12-09-2016 )Jarhead79 Wrote:  I'm considering this route on us50 going north. Is it less altitude than I70 in that area?

That would depend on where you were going. It is also NOT less altitude.

US-50 and across Monarch pass is the best route between Dallas and salt lake city. It consumes the least amount of fuel, and has the least overall terrain variations. You only have one fuel-sucking mountain bitch in your way, not 4 or 5 smaller ones.

BUT Monarch pass itself is a BITCH of a mountain! -- I have even seen snow-plows fall off the thing in mid-august, trying to clear the snow!. As well,.. they do not salt or plow it at night very often.

We make it our first choice when going salt lake<->dallas runs, but we are always VERY VERY careful in doing so. We look at the weather and what it will likely be doing, and what time of day/night we will expect to be crossing it.We also,.. look at all the traffic cams to see what the roads look like and how well they have been maintained as we head towards it too.

MONARCH has the highest accident rate in the state of colorado.

"
Heavy snow helped vault Wolf Creek into the No. 1 spot on the Herald's list.

But Wolf Creek was not the leader in arguably the most important category: the accident rate.

That honor, or dishonor, goes to Monarch Pass, between Gunnison and Salida. The pass averages more than one crash per week.

Curtis Eisenhauer has pulled many of those wrecked cars and trucks off the pass or out of its ravines.

As the owner of Dotty’s Towing and Repair on the west side of Monarch Pass, Eisenhauer has seen some scary situations when trying to clear out a jackknifed semi from an icy road." ...

https://durangoherald.com/articles/33591...us-pass-is


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It ain't no rookie mountain!. You had better make sure your jakes are working really well,.. and you had better be prepared to chain up if needed, even in mid-summer! -- AS WELL!!!- YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HAVE YOUR AXLE WEIGHTS BALANCED, SO YOU DON'T JACK-KNIFE either going up, or down it!. - I.E. If your 20% heavier on the back end of that trailer than the drives,.. you can kiss it good-bye if you hit a patch of ice. We scale every load that we are going to take across mountians, and adjust the tandems for even weight on the axles. -- Being diligent about that has literally saved my arsse more than a few times!.

[hhow55]

Another dangerous road is us14 between dayton, wy. And lovell, wy

[Jarhead79]

Think I'm not going us50 north. My route is Enid,OK to Portland,OR are with 5 stops. I think I'm going us routes to I70 to I25 to I80 to I15/I84. It the most efficient route. As long as Wyoming is dry roads.

[in2trux]

We use to run 287 north of Ft.Collins to Laramie WY if the weather was clear. 2 lane.
Really no hard grades or switchbacks and it bypasses Sherman hill.
Unless you have a stop south of SLC that's the way I would go to I80, I84.

Why go over a mountain when you can drive around it?