12-07 Trip From Hell in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming

[thebaldeagle655]

Left out 12/21 headed for Vernal, Utah knowing the weather was not going to be the best in the world. Woke up Thursday (12/22) am with a flat tire. I had had this tire fixed about a month ago with a 5/8" bolt in the tread and tried to convince the mechanic that the tire was bad but no, he patched it. Oh well, TA in Oakley, Ks was glad to put a new tire on then I headed on down the road. Got through Denver and up to Eisenhower Tunnel with now problem, pretty weather. Don't know what happened from the East side of the tunnel to the West but when I emerged, I thought I was in a different world! Snowing, reduced visibility and snow on the roads. The roads did not feel slick but I maintained a slower speed than usual going down the grade. Got lucky going over Vail pass, east bound chain law was in effect but not West bound. Ran the rest of the way to Vernal, Utah with patches of snow packed roads here and there but the conditions overall weren't too bad. I woke up in the morning to about a foot of new fallen snow and headed 20 miles South of town. The roads were snow packed but passable. Got to the delivery point and was informed that we were going to yard # 2 which had had no one in it yet that morning. I decided to go ahead and chain up on good ground where I was instead of taking the chance of getting in a bind and chaining in a bad area, SMART MOVE!! Got to the yard and had about 21" of snow on the flats. Pulled in and got unloaded with no problems.

From there I had to go North to Green River Wyoming. 191 out of Vernal, and around the West side of Flaming Gorge on 44 and 530 to Green River was pretty much snow packed but passable. Got fun when I left Green River though! Roads were slick across I-80 all the way to Wamsutter, Wy where I was able to spend the night due to I-80 being closed! Luckily I found one of the last parking spots in Wyoming at 5 PM, and settled in for a nice nights sleep, getting to sleep about 7PM. I was beat after driving all day in that mess and was actually glad to stop.

At 3 AM another truck driver was so nice as to lay down on his air horn as he was leaving the truck stop. I checked road conditions and found that I-80 was indeed open. Now was glad he woke us up! I headed out and had pretty good roads until I got on 287 South of Lamar. Another couple hundred miles of snow paced roads and I approached Amarillo where they had about a 50 car pileup on I-40. Luckily Found a way around that and got home safe.

After seeing that much snow, I don't think I even want a White Christmas this year!!!


If I can figure this out The link below is a few pictures of the trip.


http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x161/thebaldeagle655

[devildice]

Left out 12/21 headed for Vernal, Utah knowing the weather was not going to be the best in the world. Woke up Thursday (12/22) am with a flat tire. I had had this tire fixed about a month ago with a 5/8" bolt in the tread and tried to convince the mechanic that the tire was bad but no, he patched it. Oh well, TA in Oakley, Ks was glad to put a new tire on then I headed on down the road. Got through Denver and up to Eisenhower Tunnel with now problem, pretty weather. Don't know what happened from the East side of the tunnel to the West but when I emerged, I thought I was in a different world! Snowing, reduced visibility and snow on the roads. The roads did not feel slick but I maintained a slower speed than usual going down the grade. Got lucky going over Vail pass, east bound chain law was in effect but not West bound. Ran the rest of the way to Vernal, Utah with patches of snow packed roads here and there but the conditions overall weren't too bad. I woke up in the morning to about a foot of new fallen snow and headed 20 miles South of town. The roads were snow packed but passable. Got to the delivery point and was informed that we were going to yard # 2 which had had no one in it yet that morning. I decided to go ahead and chain up on good ground where I was instead of taking the chance of getting in a bind and chaining in a bad area, SMART MOVE!! Got to the yard and had about 21" of snow on the flats. Pulled in and got unloaded with no problems.

From there I had to go North to Green River Wyoming. 191 out of Vernal, and around the West side of Flaming Gorge on 44 and 530 to Green River was pretty much snow packed but passable. Got fun when I left Green River though! Roads were slick across I-80 all the way to Wamsutter, Wy where I was able to spend the night due to I-80 being closed! Luckily I found one of the last parking spots in Wyoming at 5 PM, and settled in for a nice nights sleep, getting to sleep about 7PM. I was beat after driving all day in that mess and was actually glad to stop.

At 3 AM another truck driver was so nice as to lay down on his air horn as he was leaving the truck stop. I checked road conditions and found that I-80 was indeed open. Now was glad he woke us up! I headed out and had pretty good roads until I got on 287 South of Lamar. Another couple hundred miles of snow paced roads and I approached Amarillo where they had about a 50 car pileup on I-40. Luckily Found a way around that and got home safe.

After seeing that much snow, I don't think I even want a White Christmas this year!!!


If I can figure this out The link below is a few pictures of the trip.


http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x161/thebaldeagle655

got to luv it huh..... :wink:

[Retirednavysnipe]

I was stuck in that mess in Utah myself, left Salt Lake at about 1600 heading north to Oregan, was going to just get to the 84 and shoot west. 48 deg in Salt Lake hit a big black cloud from the ground and up as far as it could go, Ogden Ut 30 minutes later 34 degs snowing hard, thunder and lightning. I had time and people were idiots on the road being 5 oclock rush by now so I shut it down. Next day 84 thru Utah was snaky but passable. But the good news Oregan was beautiful, and I made it home myself safe and sound. Just a few more months of this white crap and it will be over for awhile.

[movinit]

Yep we were there also. Got stuck on I-80 due to an accident and then crawled for another 40 miles thanks to bad roads and four-wheelers everywhere.

[Orangetxguy]

Left out 12/21 headed for Vernal, Utah knowing the weather was not going to be the best in the world. Woke up Thursday (12/22) am with a flat tire. I had had this tire fixed about a month ago with a 5/8" bolt in the tread and tried to convince the mechanic that the tire was bad but no, he patched it. Oh well, TA in Oakley, Ks was glad to put a new tire on then I headed on down the road. Got through Denver and up to Eisenhower Tunnel with now problem, pretty weather. Don't know what happened from the East side of the tunnel to the West but when I emerged, I thought I was in a different world! Snowing, reduced visibility and snow on the roads. The roads did not feel slick but I maintained a slower speed than usual going down the grade. Got lucky going over Vail pass, east bound chain law was in effect but not West bound. Ran the rest of the way to Vernal, Utah with patches of snow packed roads here and there but the conditions overall weren't too bad. I woke up in the morning to about a foot of new fallen snow and headed 20 miles South of town. The roads were snow packed but passable. Got to the delivery point and was informed that we were going to yard # 2 which had had no one in it yet that morning. I decided to go ahead and chain up on good ground where I was instead of taking the chance of getting in a bind and chaining in a bad area, SMART MOVE!! Got to the yard and had about 21" of snow on the flats. Pulled in and got unloaded with no problems.

From there I had to go North to Green River Wyoming. 191 out of Vernal, and around the West side of Flaming Gorge on 44 and 530 to Green River was pretty much snow packed but passable. Got fun when I left Green River though! Roads were slick across I-80 all the way to Wamsutter, Wy where I was able to spend the night due to I-80 being closed! Luckily I found one of the last parking spots in Wyoming at 5 PM, and settled in for a nice nights sleep, getting to sleep about 7PM. I was beat after driving all day in that mess and was actually glad to stop.

At 3 AM another truck driver was so nice as to lay down on his air horn as he was leaving the truck stop. I checked road conditions and found that I-80 was indeed open. Now was glad he woke us up! I headed out and had pretty good roads until I got on 287 South of Lamar. Another couple hundred miles of snow paced roads and I approached Amarillo where they had about a 50 car pileup on I-40. Luckily Found a way around that and got home safe.

After seeing that much snow, I don't think I even want a White Christmas this year!!!


If I can figure this out The link below is a few pictures of the trip.


http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x161/thebaldeagle655

So..did you go to Green River to reload..or just wanted to take the scenic route out of Vernal??

[thebaldeagle655]

Guess I should have said that Yep, reloaded in Green River.

[countryhorseman]

Yup, sounds like the story of the week! A buddy of mine coming out of Salt Lake across I80, with only 1000 pound in the box, suffered through elk Mountain in that mess. Once he got to the Cheyenne side, it was not so bad, but he told me he wished he had stayed parked that morning. But he wanted to get home for Christmas.

[Orangetxguy]

Flaming Gorge brings back memories!! I remember heading home to Evanston WY from Vernal Christmas Eve of 1982!! Wind and Snow like you wouldn't believe, crawling up the Gorge at 10 to 15 mph. We only had 2 diesel powered trucks in the convoy, the other 4 were Paystar 5000's with the 549 gas engines........... Aaaaaaaaaaah..what a night!!!

[NC_TRUCKER]

Got through Denver and up to Eisenhower Tunnel with now problem, pretty weather. Don't know what happened from the East side of the tunnel to the West but when I emerged, I thought I was in a different world!

Been there, done that.. But only once, I was driving for Dick Simon out of Salt Lake city, just picked up a load of Coors out of Golden going to Salt lake, it was right pretty all the way up to the Eisenhower, when I came out the other side it was a total white out, all I could do is follow the tracks in the snow of the truck in front of me in hopes that he didn't drive off the side of the mountain, because you couldn't see the road at all, and if you didn't stay on the azz of the truck in front of you the snow would cover his tire tracks within just a couple of seconds.

That was a rough night all the way to the Utah state line.

[Windwalker]

Some years ago, I came out of WY into NE on I-80. When I went through, none of the gates were down. By the time I got to Big Springs, I noticed I was the only one on the road. From there to Grand Island, the only things I saw on the hiway besides snow (and the layer of ice under it) were a couple of State Patrol cars that did a couple of 360s on the ramps coming onto the hiway. At Grand Island, I stopped for fuel and as I was putting the nozzles into the tanks, a trooper came from behind my trailer with a little smile. "We were wondering when you were going to get off the road. We wrecked 3 cars trying to tell you the hiway is shut down due to weather." I had been doing almost 50 mph and had no trouble what-so-ever.

Another time, my wife and I spent the night in the middle of the west-bound lanes because about 6 trucks ahead, a big truck lost it and blocked the road. The next morning, we managed to get things moving WITHOUT THE HELP OF A WRECKER, and found that the road was shut down from Lincoln to Hershey. We also had a few miles of traffic behind us in the morning that weren't going anywhere until we started moving... Including a tour bus with a load of CHEER-LEADERS.

I know one winter of 97 CALDOT was closing Donner behind my father and I. We were only fighting 2 feet of Donner Cement on the ground and it was coming down at the rate of 6 inches an hour. Our truck looked like popscile that run but we made it down. Hardest thing was getting the dang plows ahead of us to clear the road they were happy following us down the mountain.