Colorado advice

[will_e_777]

We're heading from Austin, TX to Santa Fe, NM, through Montrose, CO and to Denver/Boulder/RMNP area next month.  We're doing the million dollar highway again, might skip glenwood canyon to hit some good mountain passes and stuff on the way to Boulder.  Anyone suggest some good mountain roads you can take with the average car from Santa Fe to Durango or Montrose to Boulder?  What are good routes? 

We did Mount Evans (loved it but skipping this time) and may consider Loveland Pass.

Thanks!

If you're going to RMNP from that part of Colorado, I would recommend taking Highway 9 from Fairplay to Breckenridge:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/@39.1977857,-105.8909208,12z/data=!3m1!1e3

It's a good drive to go over Hoosier Pass.  If you keep going north on 9, you go through Breckenridge, Frisco, and Silverthorne, keep going north a few miles to the route over Ute Pass from highway 9 to US 40, and driving by the Henderson Molybdenum mine:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/@39.7849731,-106.1368257,13z/data=!3m1!1e3
You can take 40 east from there to west entrance of the park

[Max Rockatansky]

We're heading from Austin, TX to Santa Fe, NM, through Montrose, CO and to Denver/Boulder/RMNP area next month.  We're doing the million dollar highway again, might skip glenwood canyon to hit some good mountain passes and stuff on the way to Boulder.  Anyone suggest some good mountain roads you can take with the average car from Santa Fe to Durango or Montrose to Boulder?  What are good routes? 

We did Mount Evans (loved it but skipping this time) and may consider Loveland Pass.

Thanks!

If you're going to RMNP from that part of Colorado, I would recommend taking Highway 9 from Fairplay to Breckenridge:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/@39.1977857,-105.8909208,12z/data=!3m1!1e3

It's a good drive to go over Hoosier Pass.  If you keep going north on 9, you go through Breckenridge, Frisco, and Silverthorne, keep going north a few miles to the route over Ute Pass from highway 9 to US 40, and driving by the Henderson Molybdenum mine:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/@39.7849731,-106.1368257,13z/data=!3m1!1e3
You can take 40 east from there to west entrance of the park

The only issue there is you miss out on Leadville and the Climax Mine on 91.  9 is a better drive but Breckenridge and Frisco have gone uber ski-town so it really just depends if you want authenticity to mine towns...even if you care at all.  US 40 to Granby and US 34 the back way into Rocky Mountain NP and Trail Ridge is the way to go, you'll beat most of the traffic coming the opposite way from Estes Park.