Trip to Colorado

 

i went to mammoth and even winter tires would have been almost useless because there was no salt put down.  everything was a giant sheet of ice.

 

i hope colorado is not like that too.

 

This week has been a good week for snow and the passes closed due to snow. I was thankful to have my 4wd and even more thankful to get through the tunnel before it closed too. It's better to be safe than sorry. In Colorado, they do NOT salt. Instead they use a chemical that isn't any more harmful to your car than salt, however it doesn't attract the wildlife. Putting salt on the roads brings the animals down from the mountains since they are hungry and many end up as road-kill so the solution they use in CO is to put down a different chemical in congruance with really fine gravel to give you the traction you need. CO is also very good at plowing when they know a dump is starting and they keep at it until the snow stops. In the end it's still better than 2wd. However, just because you have 4wd you still need to drive carefully even SUVs end up on the side of the road when they speed and hit black ice.

Another insightful post, thanks for the well-thought out discerning prose, it really added value to this topic.

 

I was surprised to see this as a hot topic as i posted this in December.

 

But i do appreciate the new contributions as i bought the Epic Mix pass for this coming season and have already tentatively planned 4, 4-5 day trips out west.

Luckily i have friends that live in Denver and Boulder, so pretty much only buy the plane ticket out there. But, i make sure i buy plenty of drinks, for whomever is putting me up, when we are out as repayment for letting me crash on their couch.