Driving to Denver from Cincinnati in January

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by LHS79

Can you please bring Joe Burrow with you and drop him off in Dove Valley?

Or swing by Buffalo on your way and grab Josh Allen, don't worry about the Lake Effect snow, you'll be fine. Trust me, I'm a moderator.

[2bindenver]

Bookmark this on your phone https://maps.cotrip.org/

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by 850_branded

Now, with all THAT said, should you decide to want to have some fun along this trip: there's probably more known sights to see going 70, namely St. Louis (the Gateway Arch) and then Kansas City (where you can see Kaufmann, Arrowhead--where you can rub Joe Burrow's 3-0 record against Patrick Mahomes into the face of every Kansas Citian you encounter

I somewhat agree with this, but parking near the Gateway Arch sucks. Parking a truck with a trailer would be quite the challenge, and I dunno if I'd feel good about leaving the trailer unhitched and/or unattended in St. Louis.

Originally Posted by Dwatted Wabbit

Take the southern route.

I'm gonna be really blunt. I-70 through Kansas sucks. There's some interesting scenery between Manhattan and Junction City (maybe 20 miles), but that's about it. Having KC and St. Louis along the way doesn't make up for the 600 miles of claw-your-eyeballs-out nothingness between Kansas City and Denver. When we lived in Dallas and we went to visit my MIL in Northeastern Colorado, I made it a point to take US-287 through Amarillo and the Oklahoma panhandle because I hated driving through Kansas so much. It's dreadful.

I-80/76 aren't stunning by any means, but there are more significant towns spread through Nebraska and Colorado than there are on I-70 through Kansas and East Central Colorado. From Kearney to North Platte you're technically following the Oregon Trail, and there are a lot of little things to see between Lincoln and Julesburg, CO.

Here are a couple Google Maps street views.

I-80 just outside Grand Island, NE
I-70 due south of there near Ellsworth, KS

I-70 gets barren a lot faster than I-80. Combine that with nothing but podunk towns of 2,000 people or less every 20-30 miles, and you can see why I prefer I-80.

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Bookmark this on your phone https://maps.cotrip.org/

Agreed. While the odds of it happening are low, I-70 and I-76 are occasionally closed from the outskirts of Denver to the Kansas and Nebraska borders, respectively.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I've driven I-70 across Kansas a few times and my travelog on those 410 miles across Kansas is "the danged thing is flat." The Kansas National Forest.

Nice thing is when heading west from Kansas City you don't get the traffic congestion of the many cities east of there that I-70 passes through, just open flat land where I often drove at 85MPH for hours.

I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis is maddening. People drive like dumbasses. I've never consistently seen more left-lane campers on a stretch of freeway in my life.

[bluescreen73]

Hopefully the OP comes back to check on his thread. One thing that's only been mentioned once - having a place to stay outside Denver that's close enough to drive in, unload the trailer, and then return it. One poster mentioned Goodland, KS. It's about 3 hours from Denver.

On the northern route you could do Julesburg, CO. It's barely inside Colorado, and it's also about 3 hours from Denver. Sterling is about 2 hours from Denver, and Fort Morgan or Brush are about 90 mins out.

[Stankonia]

I make the drive between Denver/St. Louis several times per year and usually alternate between I-70 and I-80 to mix things up a bit. Both are boring drives but I prefer I-80 since there are more options for places to stop along the way in Nebraska (restaurants, gas, hotels, etc) compared to Kansas. And the person who commented on how awful the stretch of I-70 between STL/KC is, is right on. There's just something about that stretch that brings out the worst/dumbest in people, so avoid it if you can.

You'll be fine going either way though. There's a good chance of running into snow/ice either way, but the interstate will be shut down whenever conditions are too dangerous. When that happens there are gates that close at interstate exits that basically force you to pull off and wait it out. So keep an eye on the forecast and be ready to adjust your plans if one winds up being better than the other.

[pnwguy2]

It is a crap shoot. But weather predictions are good these days. Go to weather channel. Many times you can see a clear path but always remember that unexpected snow can come up at anytime. Hopefully not major, but sometimes surprise snow comes up. Just be prepared is my best advice.