Road trip, need thoughts.

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I am going to be in Houston in a week and I need to know the best route to take back to Utah. Mapquest shows me two ways but I want some opinions on what kind of roads I am actually going to be driving on.

One route shows me driving mostly on interstates up through Dallas, OK, KS, through CO into Denver, then onto Cheyenne and then straight across into Utah.

I could also head towards Amarillo and onto NM, hit the SW corner of CO and into Utah. This route is 200 miles shorter but if the roads suck and there are only little towns with low speeds I might avoid it I do know that there are very few interstates along this route. This route, if my memory serves me correctly (its been about 12 years since I was last in this corner of Utah, has me on the road for about seven hours from Moab to home.

Thoughts on the two routes?

Originally posted by ExDelayed:
I am going to be in Houston in a week and I need to know the best route to take back to Utah. Mapquest shows me two ways but I want some opinions on what kind of roads I am actually going to be driving on.

One route shows me driving mostly on interstates up through Dallas, OK, KS, through CO into Denver, then onto Cheyenne and then straight across into Utah.

I could also head towards Amarillo and onto NM, hit the SW corner of CO and into Utah. This route is 200 miles shorter but if the roads suck and there are only little towns with low speeds I might avoid it I do know that there are very few interstates along this route. This route, if my memory serves me correctly (its been about 12 years since I was last in this corner of Utah, has me on the road for about seven hours from Moab to home.

Thoughts on the two routes?

I haven't driven either. But a friend of mine said that the Armarillow route sucks butt. He's driven it 3 times and wishes that he didn't each time. But he has a family including small children so time on the road was more important than cool scenery.

What route would you take to get to Amarillo? You could take I-45 North to I-35 North into OK, then west on I-40 which would bring you back into the Texas panhandle and into Amarillo.

If you're thinking of going North on I-45 into Dallas and jetting Northwest toward Amarillo via highways (287?), I'd avoid it. I traveled from Amarillo to Dallas on Highway 287 last year and there were way too many small towns where you had to slow down and traffic lights, too.

As for traveling through the other states,

Stick to the interstates.

the texas chainsaw massacre taught me to avoid the small roads...

Originally posted by 1314:
What route would you take to get to Amarillo?

This is how MapQuest was sending me through on the shorter route to NM. After zooming in and seeing all those small roads I have a feeling my route has been decided.

I drive the 290-HWY 21-HWY 190 route from the Houston area to Copperas Cove about 3 times a month or more.

NOT "small" roads. the "smallest" of them is 21 and its only about 35-40 miles and even at that its 2 lanes each way, except for a small patch of construction which brings it to 1 lane each direction. major pathway for anyone heading in the n-s direction. popular route.

Don't avoid it because it isn't "the interstate". I take my E-350 work van that route at all times.

The trip from Copperas Cove (well.. Lampasas) to I-20 is just as "populated", but more elevation change, and more areas of ranchland/farmland surrounding the road (not just open and bare). It is "slightly less" populated than the first half of the trip, but nothing like a "last gas for 200 miles" kind of thing.

TAKE THAT ROUTE. you will enjoy the shorter times, trust me. I average about 300 miles a DAY on my job.