Well, I respectfully disagree - ha! If I am telling
someone who's pulling a trailer, a good route to Durango, I sure wouldn't
send them over Red Mountain Pass - summer or winter. That's an 11,075
ft pass, 2 lanes, a narrow, windy mtn road. Yes, if you're not
pulling a trailer, great! But in July, it will filled with slow-moving
RV's, tourists, semi's, you name it. (In winter it can be really
treacherous, but we're talking about July.)
On Red Mtn pass, there are some areas with no guard rails that
if you hung a tire over the edge you could go down a couple of thousand
feet. Not my idea of a good road for pulling a trailer to a ride. It
would be very slow going, for one thing. Yes, it's pretty, but the roads
between Moab / Cortez / Durango are also pretty, they're not as congested, and
it's a quicker route.
I've driven to Grand Junction many times from Cortez, and the
fastest way (again) is through Moab - certainly not through Durango, and
also not through Telluride/Montrose. I do go both ways, and actually
prefer going through Ridgeway and Montrose, but if I'm in a
hurry, or if there's a lot of snow on the roads, I go through Utah to get to
Grand Junction.
Of course, I live here and I'm not in tourist mode -- so, if
anyone wants to know some "scenic" routes, summer or winter, send me a line, I
love to drive and I know the roads pretty well.
I agree with you that the road from Moab to Monticello to Cortez is
a great two lane road for US---most of our city fellow riders might now
agree---hehehehe
If she is really adventuresome, you can take the La Sal cutoff road
through Naturita over toward Montrose and once on the Western
Slope---she would see Silverton and the Million Dollar Highway---which I
agree is rather breathtaking but in July should be heaven----as long as
she is driving a good vehicle. But as you point out, if she is
coming from the almost any direction, the fastest route really is across
Utah on I 70 to Grand Junction and then down the Western Slope.
