Moving from Las Vegas to Minneapolis (vehicle, best, places)

[cyoung22]

I am moving at the end of January from Las Vegas to Minneapolis and I'm looking for the best route. My wife gets nervous traveling so best would mean least amount of steep climbs and winding mountainous roads.

[chilaili]

Flying?

I think at some point you're going to have to go over the mountains, whether you cross the Rockies on I-70 or go all the way up to Idaho and then thro Montana. The other option would be to go way south thro New Mexico on I-40, but quite honestly, I-70 would be the shortest route and once you're down on the plains east of Denver it's all flat. Ironically, tho, often the worst weather conditions are on the roads east into Kansas or Nebraska because the winds and snow have nothing blocking their way and those flat, straight roads are frequently closed during the winter months. I-70 is steep in places and can be twisty and sometimes the road is closed to traffic or CDOT requires you have chains on the tires. You can also experience horrendous delays at the Eisenhower Tunnel in bad weather - up to 4 hours. There's no way of knowing until you do it.

I think the only way to completely avoid mountains of any kind would be going all the way down to El Paso and then north thro Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. What kind of vehicle are you going to be driving?

[cyoung22]

Not flying. We have a four wheel drive durango, maybe the southern route would be best? Thanks for the info, I moved to Arizona from Minnesota in 2000 and went the southern route through Kansas and all that thought that might be to long? Probably the best way.

[K-Luv]

I have driven from Minnesota to California and back numerous times and I can tell you that I-80 is the least mountainous trek through the Rockies, however I am not sure about the drive from Vegas to SLC though.