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Hey everyone, feeling pretty nervous. Escaping an abusive relationship. Have to get to Denver from San Diego and have little to no experience driving in snow/ice. I have a 2013 Honda Civic. Any, routes or tips are greatly appreciated as I’m worried about what my car can realistically handle.
The Interstate Highway System gets some of the first and best attention in adverse weather conditions, but If you've never driven in snow before, then I-15/I-215 and I-70 through the Rockies in winter may not be your best choice. You are going to need to wait until you see the weather forecast for the actual days you'll be on the road. It will take two days at a minimum.
If predicted conditions seem more than you'd be comfortable with, there is a Plan B. In this case you would take I-10 to near Las Cruces, NM where you'd use NM-25 to connect to I-25 north to Denver. This route is considerably longer and would take you at least another day. It would keep you south of or in the lee of the Rockies, however.
AZBuck
Welcome to RTA!
There is no NM-25.
Take I-8E to I-10E to Deming NM, then US-180W to NM-26N through Hatch, then I-25N.
This is 1300 miles, allow 3 days. I would advise you to wait a couple days till the storm that's hitting the West right now moves across.
I hear ya on the "no snow driving experience" part, as I lived in San Diego for many years. Traveling in the winter was always an experience for us. One February, my husband and I helped our daughter and her family move from San Diego to the Denver area. You'll find our trip report here. We drove a U-Haul truck/car-trailer combo, they drove their non-AWD car.
I live in the center of Missouri now. We bought an AWD vehicle right after we got here. The kids did the same, after moving to Denver. All of us liked the Subaru symmetrical AWD. You'll find a lot of Subarus in Colorado for that reason.
Donna