Route Question Santa Fe NM to Cortez Colorado

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M

Manx Man

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Aug 10, 2019
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I have read several topics on this route.  We have taken a route from Santa Fe to Cortez via Farmington and US 491 several times.  We are interested in taking the route north from Santa Fe through Pagosa Springs, then over through Durango and on to Cortez.  Comments on this route have been great and it sound like a much more scenic route than our normal drive. 

My question is:  My rig is exceptional long.  I have a 45 ft super C on a Freightliner chassis.  I tow a 32 foot race trailer.  So total length of 77 feet.  I have a good power plant, and very good air disc brake, along with a 3 stage compression brake, so incline and declines are not a problem.  I worry more about getting this long rig around too many tight corners or switchbacks

Any insight would be appreciated


John
 
You will be fine. There is only one tightish curve north of Abiquiu as you go up a hill. Semi-Doubles are able to make it so you should be fine.  My truck, 5er, and boat are 73ft and I double tow up to past Cortez on those roads.

It is a good route for scenery, but fuel up in Espanola. There is a Speedway station as you are leaving town. There is reasonably priced fuel in Chama also but the in and out is tighter.  Do not depend on the Abiquiu station for fuel unless it is a weekday. The two diesel pumps have a line on weekends. The deli at the Abiquiu station/store has good BBQ and beer brewed by monks from a monestary up 84 near Ghost Ranch.
 
Thanks Ken and NMDriver

NMDriver: I appreciate the heads up on fuel.  My Trucker Path app shows a truck stop in Damascus (Alta Fuel or Nambe Falls Travel Center), is the Speedway in Espanola a better bet.  I am assuming you pull your extended load in and out of that station with no problem
 
The easiest in and out is the Speedway on the west side of US 285 just before the NM 584(Fairview Laine) intersection as you are leaving town.

It use to be a Shell and that is what it shows on Google street view (36?00'24.5"N 106?05'15.2"W).  Speedway is the new owner and they will generally have the best prices anywhere you are in NM. You can get from north bound 285 straight to the diesel pumps. To get out you should go through the parking lots for the Speedway and the Bank next door to Fairview Ln and use the traffic light to get back onto 285.
 
sorry I can't help with that route....but when we went through that way we stopped at the ruins in Aztek.... very interesting... a lot more so that I thought it would be...
I imagined the experience is a little bit like other historic places (such as Mesa Verde) might have been 50 or 100 years ago before they started getting millions of people through all the time...
it's so far off the beaten path and not big enough to be the big draw to tourists....so it was nice
 
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