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I an going to be driving from Chicago to Los Angeles mid December and concerned about
running into snow in the mountains along the way. Can anyone recommend the best route to take during
the winter. I was thinking about using a southern route thru Texas may lessen the chance of bad weather.
Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!
This is actually a very common question and comes in many forms, but basically it comes down to "What route will have the best weather several months from now?" The simple, but unavoidable, truth is that no one can tell you. No single route always has the best weather. Any route, including the southernmost Interstate Highway I-10, can and does see snow and ice on a few occasions most winters. Your best bet is to be ready to move your trip as needs be either spatially, temporally, or both.
That is, you should prepare two possible routes. The obvious choices are (1) the old Route 66 alignment which today is I-55/I-44/I-40/I-15 through St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Albuquerque; and (2) the old Oregon and Mormon Trail route which today is I-80/I-76/I-70/I-15 through Omaha, Denver, and Las Vegas. Now route 1 is more likely, but not guaranteed, to have the better weather and doesn't cross any significant mountain ranges although it does get up to 7,000+ feet across northern Arizona, while route 2 is about 100 miles shorter in length and has some amazing history and spectacular scenery.
Then, having two routes ready, see what the weather forecast looks like for each of them just before you're ready to leave and decide then. But whatever route you pick you will still need to be prepared to shift your drive a day or so in the event that you meet bad weather anyway. That just means that you should have one more day scheduled for the drive than you will need. Either route I outlined above would take you about four days of steady, but not anywhere near exhausting, driving. If you schedule five for the trip then you can simply sit out any bad weather you run into, let the road crews do their jobs, and return to the highway once the skies have cleared.
AZBuck