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Very good advice PK! I know about traveling in adverse conditions. I've put a lot of miles on I-70 and I've been over Wolf Creek and Red Mtn. Pass many times in BAD conditions. Although the snow in Colorado stacks up hands down over the other mountain states, it can get nasty in the Land Of Enchantment in January! That particular trip I took, when they finally opened the road I counted over two dozen semis jammed in to the rest area , about 35 miles north of Roswell. And were lined up on 285. I'm thankful they finally 4-laned that road 10 years or so ago, have seen some ugly wrecks on that road!
It definitely gets pretty chilly where PK is....cold air is more dense "heavier" and settles to the lowest elevation in the area ....in the area where PK is that would be Estancia ...(with Willard a close 2nd) ....here is a comparison between Estancia and Clines Corners (which is approx 1200 ft "higher" in elevation than Estancia)
1971-2000 NOAA climate normals
ESTANCIA,NM elevation 6,100 ft
M JA FE MR AP MA JU JL AU SE OC NO DE
HI 47 53 60 67 77 87 89 86 80 70 57 47
LO 13 17 22 28 37 46 52 51 43 32 20 13
CLINES CORNERS, NM elevation 7,300 ft
M JA FE MR AP MA JU JL AU SE OC NO DE
HI 43 48 54 62 72 82 84 82 75 66 52 43
LO 19 21 25 32 40 49 54 53 46 36 26 19
Clines Corners is "milder" at nite than Estancia ...even though it is much higher ...this is not unsual ...another good example is Jerome,AZ ...an old mining town that literally clings to the side of a mountain at 4,900 ft ...but is much milder at nite than nearby Cottonwood,AZ some 1,600 ft lower
Cathy- been to Alamogordo many times-LOVE the area! Know Pintada's area a little too! Got snowed in at Vaughn several years ago. Not much going on in Vaughn other than LOTS of motel rooms. Stayed there 2 nights as I was wanting to get to Roswell. And the wind can really blow out there Pintada kid, huh? The state patrol shut the road down right at the port of entry.
Yep, been through Vaughn/Estancia/Encino and other places many times on the way to Durango/Purgatory/Pagosa Springs/Wolf Creek from Texas! Even though it's a really long drive, I loved it...and I love that area of CO too!
The Four Lane to Roswell is a nice Road to Travel when theres no Snow and little Traffic but when it snows or is snowing it can get Dangerous. Its hard to know where the four lane is when it snows or the Snow is Blowing all you see is White and almost impossible to stay on the Road or to know if your on your lane and when your passing a Slow big Rig you Pray that you dont end up sliding into it while your trying to pass especially if your going up a hill. >>> The Four lane is nice but in Bad Weather the Two Lane was safer. I would think that they need to shoot some of those plastic Strings into the Edges of the Road so they can be seen to know where the edge of the Road is. el pintada kid
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Four Lane North of Roswell
