Getting Married in Ouray - Driving Advice !Desperate! (Grand Junction, Golden: rent, hotel)

[PorschaB]

Ok guys, Im starting to freak out a little here...
My fiancee and I live in Golden, CO. We drive a frontwheel drive Toyota Matrix with regular tires on it. We're getting married in Ouray (60 miles North of Durango) on October 17th.
Are we crazy to try to plan to drive our car from Golden to Ouray on I-70 during mid October? We dont have a lot of money to spend but I also dont want to miss my own wedding. Any suggestions or comments would be GREATLY appreciated. Do we bite the bullet & rent a 4WD SUV ($400) or would that also be a waste of $$, considering the weather? Am I worrying over something rational or am I being a typical bride? HELP!

[wanneroo]

I don't see anything crazy about driving to Ouray from Golden.

Also a 4wd SUV isn't going to save you if you can't even drive a Matrix in bad weather.

[40FORDJIM]

I-70 is usually clear to Grand Junction barring some terrible snowstorm. If that happens the 4WD won't help either. The road from Grand Junction south to Ouray is relatively flat. The high mountain passes, shelf roads, and a lot of curves are south of Ouray to Durango. Early congratulations to you on your wedding.

[COflower]

The drive from Grand Junction to Ouray is doable this time of year for most all vehicles. If you were headed over Red Mtn. Pass, that would be a concern but over all, the roads are very doable...take some snow chains for the "in case". Front wheel drive is doable but you probably should have mud & snow rated tires anyway. That's all I use year round.

[jazzlover]

Unless there is a freak storm, you shouldn't have any problem driving Golden to Ouray in October if you have a lick of winter driving sense, and your front-wheel-drive car has decent tires. You actually have two available routes--I-70 to Grand Junction, then US 50 to Montrose, then US 550 to Ouray; or US285 to Poncha Junction, then US50 to Montrose, then US550 to Ouray. The I-70 route has the advantage of 4-lane highway basically all the way to Montrose, then 36 miles of two-lane to Ouray, but it is slightly longer mileage-wise. The US285/US50 route is two-lane for most of the distance, is slower, but is shorter and far more scenic, in my opinion. Now, I will qualify the following statement with this caveat--I've been driving the Colorado mountains, including both of these routes for nearly 40 years now, in all kinds of weather. Given that, I would take the US285/US50 route in a heartbeat. Main reason?--there is far less traffic and the route is much more scenic for my tastes. Either route can be an absolute b***h in a bad winter storm, but there are usually far fewer idiots on the US285/US50 routing, which also is a plus in my book.

My last advice would be to pad your schedule a little--get to Ouray a day early. The one unknown is if an accident or bad weather will close the highway for hours or a day at a time. I-70 of late seems real prone to this--even in good weather (usually when some dolt in a semi wrecks). At that, for several years I was splitting my work between the Western Slope and the Front Range (Golden) and drove both routes as frequently as a weekly basis. Only once did I have to stay overnight en route because of road closures--that in an epic storm that shut down a good chunk of the state.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by PorschaB

Ok guys, Im starting to freak out a little here...
My fiancee and I live in Golden, CO. We drive a frontwheel drive Toyota Matrix with regular tires on it. We're getting married in Ouray (60 miles North of Durango) on October 17th.
Are we crazy to try to plan to drive our car from Golden to Ouray on I-70 during mid October? We dont have a lot of money to spend but I also dont want to miss my own wedding. Any suggestions or comments would be GREATLY appreciated. Do we bite the bullet & rent a 4WD SUV ($400) or would that also be a waste of $$, considering the weather? Am I worrying over something rational or am I being a typical bride? HELP!

You're out of your freakin' mind. I wouldn't drive to Ouray in 80 degree sunshine let alone in the snow.

I'm betting there are just tons and tons of beautiful places to get married in Golden if you start looking around.

20yrsinBranson
lived in Durango for a time.

[40FORDJIM]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

You're out of your freakin' mind. I wouldn't drive to Ouray in 80 degree sunshine let alone in the snow.

I'm betting there are just tons and tons of beautiful places to get married in Golden if you start looking around.

20yrsinBranson
lived in Durango for a time.

Why wouldn't you drive to Ouray ? I just came back from driving around up there and I'm 72 years old !!

[COflower]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

You're out of your freakin' mind. I wouldn't drive to Ouray in 80 degree sunshine let alone in the snow.

I'm betting there are just tons and tons of beautiful places to get married in Golden if you start looking around.

20yrsinBranson
lived in Durango for a time.

If you are basing that off the drive from Durango to Ouray, perhaps but in good weather heading north, that is an easy drive if not a bit slow because of the north side of Red Mtn. Pass.

Driving from Montrose to Ouray is no worse than driving the area from Florissant (outside of Divide/Woodland Park) to Hartsel (middle of South Park).

Me thinks you've mixed up what way they are coming from.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Get a hotel room there, have peace of mind, don't miss your wedding.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by COflower

If you are basing that off the drive from Durango to Ouray, perhaps but in good weather heading north, that is an easy drive if not a bit slow because of the north side of Red Mtn. Pass.

Driving from Montrose to Ouray is no worse than driving the area from Florissant (outside of Divide/Woodland Park) to Hartsel (middle of South Park).

Me thinks you've mixed up what way they are coming from.

No, I have driven from Montrose to Ouray ONCE. Sorry, those 600 foot drops with no guardrails is NOT my cup of tea. I do not like driving on a road where life or death hangs less than 16 feet away at all times, for MILES AND MILES AND MILES. Do I think my car is going to go careening off the edge? No, I do not. Do I think that some moron from Iowa (no offense to people from Iowa, it is just a random state I chose), just might be looking at the "purty mountaynes" and come across the center line and KNOCK ME OFF THE SIDE OF THE ROAD?

Youbetcha. I know of two instances where this happened (once on Wolf Creek Pass and once on the VERY road you are talking about).

I would prefer to die by other means, thank you very much. It takes an AWFUL long time to fall 600 feet while you are screaming at the top of your lungs in a vehicle.

'nuf said.

20yrsinBranson