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2024 Utah Trip

Started by hbelkins, March 13, 2024, 07:43:30 PM

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hbelkins

Got back this week from an adventure to Utah with my brother. He wanted to drive the White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park, and I tagged along for the ride.

Day 1: Kentucky to Lawrence, KS
Route: I-64, I-70, I-670, I-35, K-10, US 59

A largely uneventful day. I met my brother early Saturday morning, we loaded his truck and departed. He took backroads from his home in rural Owen County to Shelbyville, where we set sail west on I-64. We swapped drivers at a gas stop in Missouri, and I got cut off in the wrong lane at the botched abortion that is the I-670/I-35 interchange, so I recalculated by taking I-35 south to the K-10 interchange, which I followed to Lawrence. Our stop for the night was the Days Inn north of the university, and the evening meal was at an excellent local BBQ place. One thing I did notice was a borderless cutout US 69 sign posted below an I-35 marker where the two routes run concurrently shortly after the interstate crosses from Missouri into Kansas. (I wasn't able to get a picture, as the sun angle was too severe.)

Day 2: Lawrence, KS to Albuquerque, NM
Route: I-70, I-470, local streets in Topeka to bypass the ramp closure from I-470 to I-70, I-70, K-156 (with detours along K-111 and K-140 for a closure), US 56, K-23/OK 23/TX 23, TX 15, TX 207, TX 136, Business TX 152, RM 687, TX 136, Loop 335, I-40 Frontage Road, I-40.

As late as Friday night, there was no indication of any bad weather along I-70 in the Colorado mountains. Between Friday and Saturday nights, something changed. Early on Sunday morning, before we departed Lawrence, my brother decided to check traffic conditions on I-70 and saw that there were multiple closures and slick conditions, so my brother decided to reroute the trip. I had never been in the Texas panhandle, so he decided to route us through Amarillo so I could see the Cadillac Ranch. As a heavy Google Maps user, the route we used took city streets as shortcuts between the numbered routes, as well as a ranch road once we crossed into Texas.

My brother also likes to drive later than I do, so as a result it was nearly dark by the time we crossed into New Mexico; thus I missed seeing the transition from the plains of the Texas panhandle to the mountains in New Mexico. Everything from Tucumcari to Albuquerque was lost in the darkness. Some of the roughest pavement we encountered on the trip was along I-40 in New Mexico, but also some of the smoothest as a paving project was ongoing.

I did manage to visit one new county in Oklahoma as well as a number of new ones in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico.

Our lodging for the evening was a Quality Inn on the east side of Albuquerque.

More to come...


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.


hbelkins

Day 3: Albuquerque, NM to Monticello, UT
Route: I-40, I-25, US 550, some San Juan NM county route, US 64, US 491

Once again, my brother's insistence on using Google Maps routings cost me a route clinch. In checking routes from Albuquerque to Google, he saw that using I-40 to Gallup and then going north on US 491 was only about five minutes shorter than taking US 550. My recommendation was to take US 550 to Durango, which would net me a clinch of the route in its entirety, and then follow US 160 over to Cortez to pick up US 491. However, not only did he not take US 550 all the way to Durango, he took some suggested county route over to US 64. I was able, though, to net a clinch of US 491. I was previously on the route from Shiprock to Gallup back in 1991 when it was still US 666.

US 550 was crowded for a Monday morning after rush hour at its northern terminus, but traffic quickly thinned out and the road is a quick, easy drive northwest from the Albuquerque area. There are some slowdowns in a few towns for too-low speed limits, but for the most part, traffic flows at 65-70 mph.

US 491 was two lanes for the most part, but moved well on a good alignment and grade outside of Shiprock and Cortez.

Upon arrival at Monticello, which is the northern terminus of US 491, we explored some of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, accessed north of Monticello via US 191 and UT 211.

Lodging for the night was the locally-owned Monticello Inn.

Day 4: Monticello, UT to the White Crack Campground in Canyonlands NP
Route: US 191, UT 313, White Rim Road

The purpose of this trip was to drive the White Rim Road, a very primitive route that runs along the rim between the Island In The Sky visitor center and the Colorado and Green rivers. The road is accessed by either the Shafer Trail road from the Canyonlands NP entrance, or Potash Road from Moab. We took the switchbacks along the Shafer Trail, which were muddy and snow-covered in spots. Once we descended onto the White Rim, the road was not bad to start but got progressively worse. Portions of the road are on solid rock, and the imperfections in the rock surface made for a bumpy ride.

Overnight was the White Crack primitive campground (with a pit toilet) in Canyonlands.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

hbelkins

Day 5: Canyonlands NP to Green River, UT
Route: White Rim Road (with a side trip up Taylor Canyon Road), Horse Thief Trail/Mineral Canyon Road, UT 313, US 191, UT 128, I-70, BL I-70/UT 19

We continued our trip along the White Rim Road, with road conditions getting worse the farther we went. The Murphy Hogback and Hardscrabble Hill were not for the faint of heart, as they were both one-lane roads carved into the side of the cliffs with no room for error and no place to turn around upon meeting an oncoming vehicle. We were lucky in that we never met anyone on those sections, and we actually had a vehicle ahead of us going the same direction. We met a handful of mountain bikers, and their stamina is to be admired.

If we had attempted this drive in june or July, we could have made it in one day without the need to camp, but he had reserved a second night at the Labyrinth campground just in case. We didn't need it. After a trip to the dead-end Taylor Canyon Road to see the Moses and Zeus formation, we exited the park and made the climb up the switchbacks on Mineral Bottom Road to the plateau. Once out of the park, we drove into Moab to eat and get gas.

He had originally planned to take UT 128 from I-70 into Moab if we had used I-70 through Colorado, but since we had detoured away from that route due to winter closures, and with plenty of time to get to Green River, we opted to drive UT 128 for its scenic value over to I-70 before heading west to Green River for the night. It was a very scenic drive with most of it being adjacent to the Colorado River.

Overnight was the Travelodge in Green River.

Day 6: Green River to Panguitch, UT
Route: BL I-70/UT 19, I-70, UT 24, UT 12 (with a trip down UT 63 into Bryce Canyon NP), US 89

While we were in Utah, my brother wanted to drive UT 12, which he had seen described as one of the most scenic drives in the state. It did not disappoint, driving through Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase-Escalante. We had lunch at Nemo's Drive-In in Escalante, and my brother said it was one of the best burgers he'd ever eaten.

He had been to Bryce Canyon before, but never with snow on the ground. Indeed, we ran into a brief snowstorm just north of Boulder that had covered the road. There was no more precipitation that day, but there was snow on some of the rock formations at Bryce Canyon. I took a lot of neat photos which I will get posted to my Flickr page.

Overnight was the Days Inn in Panguitch, where I did not see the infamous "This is not US 89" sign that's posted on UT 143.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

pderocco

I've wondered what White Rim was like. What vehicle were you in? Does it require very high ground clearance or really knobby tires?

hbelkins

Quote from: pderocco on March 15, 2024, 10:44:17 PM
I've wondered what White Rim was like. What vehicle were you in? Does it require very high ground clearance or really knobby tires?

We were in a Nissan Titan pickup truck with regular tires, the tread on which wasn't exceptionally deep. High ground clearance is more important than tire tread unless it gets muddy.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

hbelkins

Day 7: Panguitch, UT to Watkins, CO
Route: US 89, I-70, US 24, CO 91, I-70

The day started off on a bad note. I had wanted to take UT 20 west to I-15 so I could get a nationwide clinch of I-70, but my brother was driving and he opted to take US 89 straight up to I-70, so I will probably forever be missing out on the final 23 miles of an I-70 clinch.

Utah does a good job of signing the US 89 and US 50 concurrencies in this part of the state; not so much the concurrencies with US 6, US 50, and US 191 in the Green River area.

Noted: a "Mile 68.99" mile marker on I-70.

Once we reached Green River, the route was a repeat of the return trip from our two-week jaunt out west in 2021. It appears that a number of signs have been replaced on I-70 in Colorado, eliminating a lot of the decay ("sine rot') on the lettering of the signs.

We ran into a brief snow squall in Glenwood Canyon, but that was only a harbinger of what was to come. We started seeing electronic message board signs that I-70 was closed east of Vail. One sign just warned of slow traffic on I-70, so we thought the road had reopened. Such was not the case. We were forced off the interstate at Vail. We backtracked to US 24 and took it to Leadville, seeing a neat bridge (the Red Cliff bridge over the Eagle River) on the way. As we got closer to Leadville, it started snowing. The road was still in good condition,  however. At Leadville, we assessed whether we should attempt to take CO 91 north back to I-70, or continue on US 24 east to Limon. He opted to go back to I-70. It began snowing more heavily and the road became covered. There was a steady stream of traffic in both directions as I-70 was closed over Vail Pass.

I-70 was in good shape until we began the ascent to the Eisenhower Tunnel, at which time it became snow-covered. All three lanes were at a standstill, barely crawling up the mountain, but the traffic jam was nothing like the ascent going west after the tunnel. Road conditions eventually cleared up but the backup westbound remained as night fell on Friday.

I noted that sometime between 2021 and this month, Mount Evans had been changed to Mount Blue Sky on the exit signs at Idaho Springs. The name change was news to me. I'm glad I went to Mt. Evans (and got the souvenirs) before political correctness reared its ugly head.

It was dark by the time we went through Denver, so traffic wasn't bad at all.

Overnight was at the Country Manor Motel in Watkins, Co., which wasn't too bad for an independent place in a small town.

Day 8: Watkins, CO to Columbia, MO
Route: I-70

This was basically a straight shot across Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. My brother opted to follow the I-70 signs instead of following I-670 through KC.

I noted previously that Colorado seemed to have cured much of its "sine rot" issues. Not so for Missouri. Missouri uses direct-application lettering instead of demountable copy and route markers, and many of the signs are fading badly. It's especially noticeable in the dark, and it was getting dark as we approached Columbia.'

Overnight was the Super 8 off US 63.

Day 9: Columbia, MO to Owenton, KY
Route: I-70, I-64, I-265/IN 265/KY 841, I-71, KY 35, US 127

My brother opted to take I-64 through St. Louis to cross the river instead of staying on I-70, as we had done on the return trip from our western trip in 2021. Traffic was light.

Our trip home was complicated by the closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge (I-64) due to damage discovered during the redecking process that's now underway. So we detoured via I-265 and the new East End Bridge (Lewis & Clark) to I-71. There's a widening project ongoing along I-71 between I-265 and the LaGrange area, but no discernible progress on the project to convert the cloverleaf at I-265 and I-71 into something more modern.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.



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