Charles

My wife and I will be driving from Durango to Grand Junction in late June, spending one night, then need to be in in Jackson, WY the next night. Can this be done easily? What is the best route? It isn't clear that the most direct route through Douglas Pass is a decent road.

Bob Brown

I think you will find the road over Douglas Pass to be paved and quite passable. The mountains in that section of Colorado are not as high or as steep as the ones of the Front Range or the Saguache, that is to say that Douglas Pass is not like Independence or Loveland. The road is two lane, but good sight distances. Your main decision will be how much you stop at Dinosaur National Monument and which side of Flaming Gorge you take.
US 191 goes to the east, but is not as pretty. (my opinion of course) The drive through Wyoming is on forested roads in some places. And if you get caught in a heavy rain storm, start looking for hail. We ran into a heavy rain in August and then we hit about 4 inches of hail on the highway. Some cowboy in a pickup thought 80 mph was a conservative speed as he roared around me. He hit the hail, slid sideways, skidded for a while, then somehow turned the nose of his truck into the road and continued on like he did that all the time. Too rich for my blood.

And yes you can do it in one day if you don't stop too much to marvel at the views.

Dayle

Bob, aren't you from the Denver area? Yes, some of those cowboys DO do that type of driving all day. Wyoming has no speed limit in many areas. Not that it's a particularly sane thing to do...

Bob Brown

I live in Georgia. I grew up with stock car drivers, but they know that the coefficient of friction changes from dry to wet to snow to ice.