Washington DC to Seattle - end of Feb 2012

Hi All

I'm based out of Washington DC and moving to Seattle in 2 weeks. I plan to drive there but not sure about the best route possible given the winter weather conditions up north.I have about 8-9 days to get there which i think is sufficient but If I need to re-route towards the south then it might be a much longer drive. I would appreciate if anyone could suggest a good route (scenic if possible)

Here's the route I was thinking which takes me From DC-Cincinnati-Kansas City-Denver-Salt lake City-Boise-Seattle

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Wa...&via=1,2,3&z=5

Thank you very much!

-Kapil

Welcome to the RTA forum!

One thing you really need to know about winter driving is that going south is by no means a way to ensure good weather, and in fact many times you can actually make problems worse by doing so.

The best winter route is usually the most direct route, and in this case that would be following I-90 across the dakotas and montana. Another advantage is that that route is actually at a generally lower elevation than I-80 across Wyoming.

Having said that, with 8-9 days you can go practically any way you want to go. The route you've listed adds about a half day to a more direct route, but even there, you could comfortably do it in 5-6 days. Even with an extra day or two to wait out the weather if you do see a winter storm means you'd still have plenty of time, so if this is the way you want to go, and this is the route that takes you by the stuff you want to see, then you're doing fine.

Personally, if you were going to go out to Denver anyway, then with the extra time you've got I'd continue across I-70 and spend some time in the Moab area checking out Arches and Canyonlands, before cutting back up to SLC.