Naturita - Telleride in Early June

[marc1]

Hi,

Can anyone familiar with this area tell me what the roads are like in early June? We are taking a scenic vacation trip to New Mexico and I use the Shelby for road trips and do not want to encounter any snow / winter road conditions. We intend to spend two days in Telluride and would arrive via the 145 from Naturita. Hoping it is nice and Spring / Summer like in early June.

Thanks.

 

[HerrStig]

Can't help with the climate but we really enjoyed Santa Fe and Los Alamos last fall. The New Mexico interstates we used were in fine shape.

 

[panther427]

You should be fine. How ever you will be in the Colorado high country and it can snow any month of the year at high enough elevations. Extremely unlikely you will encounter any winter driving. At worst it should be rain. If it was to snow it would be a very small amount and would melt very quickly. Its a beautiful areas and town. Take a drive to Ouray Colorado. They have a beautiful waterfall and natural hot springs. Can not remember how far it is but should be less than an hour

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Don't be surprised to get at least some snow at the highest elevations. Heavier snow and "winter road conditions" are always possible, but less likely.

I was in that area around Memorial Day one year. I woke up outside Salida (way east of Telluride) with a little snow on my tent and drove through the San Juans to Durango. Every high pass was getting light snow that day--windshield wiper snow, not snowplow snow.

Awesome country.

 

[440Magnum]

Possible thunderstorms pretty much every afternoon, that's what I'd be more concerned about than snow. yeah, you might get a snow dusting very rarely that time of year, but it won't be accumulating on the roads and they certainly won't salt the roads or anything like that. As far as the T-storms go, they don't usually get the big damaging hail and high winds or tornadoes at the higher elevations that the plains can get, because the storms aren't quite as high-energy as the ones that build over longer time at lower elevations. But I've seen pea-sized hail in the mountains occasionally back years ago when we were up there most summers. More like big sleet than what I think of as hail, really.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I'm familiar with that area. Roads should be dry,but some snow will still be around. Very nice area.

 

[marc1]

Super thanks for all the tips. I will check out Ouray. Around my neck of the woods mountain roads can still be snow covered (and salt!) in June (not this year mind you) so I wanted to check. I am ok with the late Spring surprises overnight I just don't want to have deep continuous snow / slush as a rule. Final destination is the Carlsbad Caverns (on our bucket list) and we are spending 2 days in the Santa Fe / Los Alamos area as well. It has been 20 years since our last trip to NM, we took in the Trinity Site that time. I am not even sure if you can do that anymore.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: marc1
Super thanks for all the tips. I will check out Ouray. Around my neck of the woods mountain roads can still be snow covered (and salt!) in June (not this year mind you) so I wanted to check. I am ok with the late Spring surprises overnight I just don't want to have deep continuous snow / slush as a rule. Final destination is the Carlsbad Caverns (on our bucket list) and we are spending 2 days in the Santa Fe / Los Alamos area as well. It has been 20 years since our last trip to NM, we took in the Trinity Site that time. I am not even sure if you can do that anymore.


The Trinity Site is open something like twice a year, and they just had the spring open day a few weeks ago (a friend went and posted pictures on FB).

Its been a few years since we did Carlsbad Caverns. We're in that area fairly often, but lately we always seem drawn to Guadalupe Mountains (a short drive south) instead- we like hiking. Ouray-Silverton-Durango (the Million Dollar Highway along the Animas River) is just about my favorite drive in Colorado, second only to Creede to Lake City via Slumgullion pass.

 

[marc1]

Just got back from the trip, 3833 miles round trip including excursions. 27.43 IMP MPG or 22.84 US MPG. No make up oil required, the dipstick moved maybe 3mm off full. Took in Yellowstone NP, Telluride, Los Alamos, Santa Fe and the Carlsbad Caverns. No damage to the car and I, uncharacteristically, hit a lot of road debris on this trip

(shredded tires, toilet seat, coil of wire, two small rocks and a board lying across I-25. Roads near Telluride were fine, thanks all for the tips. This trip was on M1 0w40 that was changed last September and had about 1200 miles on it starting out. I put fresh discontinued 5w40 Castrol Edge SPT from the stash in today. Oil score at Autozone in Carlsbad, I cleaned them out of Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5w40 at $2 per qt. That will go in the Shelby at some point. Met some great folks and had some great food and drinks.