Columbus, OH - Denver, Co and Back

My husband and I are going to take a trip from Columbus, OH, to Littleton, CO (a southwest suburb of Denver) in mid-May of 2018. We are thinking of I 70, I 80 and routes 40 and 36 as possible routes.

Are biggest concern is avoiding really bad traffic and I wonder if anyone knows if I 70 or I 80 has more traffic or are they about the same?
A secondary concern is being able to find places to stay and places to eat. We may not be able to go more than about 500 miles a day and do not want to find ourselves in an utter desert in Kansas, for example. We are elderly and like to know that a bathroom is not too very far away.

Any advice or experience would be most sincerely welcomed. If we take I 80 we might want to avoid Chicago so if there's a work around we would love to hear about it.

Thank you,
Natalie

Welcome to RTA!

Your best bet is I-70 all the way. Your best city bypasses are as follows - I-465 south around Indy, I-270 west to MO-370 back to I-70 around STL, and I-670 through downtown KC.

You will never be more than 45 minutes or so from a bathroom. Same with some kind of food, even if it's just a truck stop or some fast food.

You are looking at about a 2.5 day drive. I'd recommend you look at the western STL suburbs (Wentzville, Warrenton) and Hays, KS for overnights. On the return trip, Salina KS and Effingham IL.

Having driven the 70 route through Kansas many, many times, I'll concur with GLC that you'll never be super far from a bathroom. There are rest areas every hour, there are fast food places, gas stations, and truck stops. Honestly, truck stops are our preference and without those, fast food and then rest areas. Stand alone gas station/convenience stores seem to be iffy on both availability and cleanliness.

Of the two suggestions that GLC made for the area west of St Louis, I'd suggest that Warrenton has more choices, right at exit 193. There's a Best Value Inn, Holiday Inn Express and a Super 8 there. Wentzville has only a Super 8.

Hays, KS has a LOT to offer: Best Western, Quality Inn, Days Inn, Sleep Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn, Baymont Inn, Best Value, Motel 6, EconoLodge. Plus a ton of restaurants right around the basic motel area!

On the way home, Salina (about 450 miles from the Denver area) KS has Days Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Howard Johnson, La Quinta, Motel 6, Super 8, and EconoLodge.

My husband and I, both in our 60s, travel with a book called THE NEXT EXIT. It is a really nice guide for what's at each exit along the freeways. It includes gas stations, motels/hotels, restaurants and fast food places, "other" (grocery stores, tire stores and auto supplies, discount stores like Target/WalMart/KMart, and more), plus the rest areas which are in bold print and what they offer. Cost is around $12-15, I think.


Donna

It is perfectly normal to recommend using Interstates as the backbone of any RoadTrip since they are built to be the most efficient movers of traffic they can be. But there are times and circumstances where they're not necessarily the best choice. Reading between the lines of your request a bit, I think that this may be one of those times.

You want to avoid traffic and specifically mention wanting to avoid Chicago. Well, I-70 does that, of course, but at the cost of taking you through St. Louis and Kansas City. Even using their beltways you'd probably see a lot of traffic. A good working alternative would be one of the routes you mentioned as a possibility: US-36. It's near freeway quality for most of its length, not all of it for sure but for moat of it, and it studiously avoids anything much bigger than Champaign and Springfield IL; and St. Joseph MO.

What you'd actually do is take I-70 to Indianapolis, then I-465 (the beltway) around the north side of the city to I-74 west. That will eventually duplex with US-36 and continue on to Jacksonville after which you stay with US-36 west into St. Joseph where you get on I-229 south which becomes US-59. Follow that to Nortonville KS and then take KS-4 south to Topeka and I-70 west.

Yes, that would be a bit slower paced than just taking the Interstates, but I think that slower paced may be what you're after. At least it's something to consider if you'd like. Towns will also tend to be a bit smaller but there will be a town large enough to support service stations, restaurants and maybe a public park or two every 25 miles or so along that route. You might, though, want to split it up into three relatively equally spaced days and just enjoy each day a bit more, in which case your two overnights would be around Jacksonville IL and Salena KS.

AZBuck

I think Buck may be confusing us a bit - to get to US-36 from I-74, take I-74 to Champaign, get on I-57 south for a couple miles, then take I-72 west to Hannibal to US-36. Also, if you take the north beltway around Indy, take it to I-65 north to Lebanon, then IN-32 west to I-74.

To get from US-36 to I-70, I'd personally take I-29 south to I-435.

This does avoid STL and the vast majority of KC traffic.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of lodging places in Jacksonville, IL, are off the freeway and onto Busn. Rt. 72. There are 6 or 7 to choose from, ranging from Knights Inn up to a Best Western.


Donna

I've road tripped three times cross-country over the past 3 years--a good ways cross country-- twice to the west coast and once to the Rocky Mountain line from Wyoming/Montana to Arizona, from Maryland. So, I've seen a bit of the highways of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and eastern Colorado.

If your trip is strictly a beeline from Columbus to Littleton, then by all means drive I-70 all of the way. I try to avoid that simply because of the tiring monotony and relatively dense truck traffic. I find I-80 to be a bit worse than I-70, and the I-74 that connects those two interstates isn't much fun either.

My route of choice when headed west is to veer SW at St. Louis on I-44 towards Springfield, MO / Joplin, MO, and then head west using U.S. highways. Then I point my compass towards Dodge City or Garden City, KS, usually driving around Wichita. Kansas has a fairly good network of rest stops along the way for restrooms or a picnic lunch. From there you can point towards Pueblo, CO and north to Littleton.

I've decamped in St. Robert, MO, which also has a nice German restaurant. Further west I've stayed in both Dodge City and Garden City.

Leave early in the morning from Columbus (say 6 or 7am) and you should miss most of the Indianapolis rush hour and then take the southern loop around St. Louis to I-44.

US-400 is now a freeway through most of Wichita, there really isn't an efficient way to go around the city.

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Originally Posted by glc

US-400 is now a freeway through most of Wichita, there really isn't an efficient way to go around the city.

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Last September 2017, there was still construction work on US 400 through Wichita, so I exited on the east side of town onto KS 96, which is basically part of a Wichita beltway (i.e., controlled-access ramps), sharing part of it with I-135 and I-235, exiting the "beltway" and continuing on KS 96 to US 50 West and onto Dodge City and Garden City. It went well. Work on US 400 might be completed by May/June 2018.

Yeah, I know that way - it doesn't really save you any time and it adds quite a few miles.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by glc

Yeah, I know that way - it doesn't really save you any time and it adds quite a few miles.

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It is 12 miles longer but sometimes faster and it is a practical alternative until US 400 construction is completed. The "southern beltway" wasn't an option last September. But if speed is the most important criterion, I-70!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by landmariner

It is 12 miles longer but sometimes faster and it is a practical alternative until US 400 construction is completed. The "southern beltway" wasn't an option last September. But if speed is the most important criterion, I-70!

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Thank you so much, everyone. We had to postpone our trip and now are looking at July or August. We would like to do the art museums in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Perhaps one in each direction. It would be nice to avoid some of the monotony and tension of I-70.

The Kansas City through Denver part is troubling; bedbug reports have been issued for many of the hotels/motels in Hays, Kansas. If we have a route planned, we could arrange to stay at AirBNB's. So if we take the conventional path to Kansas City on mostly I-70, does anyone have any advice on the least painful and troubling way to get from KC to Littleton, CO (SW Denver).

Thank you so much!.

I understand your worry about bedbugs. However, are these reports issued by the local health authorities in Hays or just by possibly disgruntled customers? I recently read through a lot of reviews for the lodging places in Hays for our own trip, and didn't find anything particularly troublesome. Of course, perhaps I was looking at other places than you were.

How about Colby, KS? Russell, KS?

I-70 is a beautiful drive through Kansas, if you don't mind rolling hills, golden wheat fields.

Watch for my road trip report. In about a month, we'll be going through Kansas and I'll make sure I annotate our overnight stay.


Donna

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonnaR57

I understand your worry about bedbugs. However, are these reports issued by the local health authorities in Hays or just by possibly disgruntled customers? I recently read through a lot of reviews for the lodging places in Hays for our own trip, and didn't find anything particularly troublesome. Of course, perhaps I was looking at other places than you were.

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Donna

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Thank you so much, Donna. I have seen some nice possibilities on AirBNB and am contemplating the very attractive Good Karma Dairy Airbnb just a bit outside Russell. I think I will probably book it but there are other Airbnb possibilities around Hays.

Thank you for your words about the beauty of Kansas. That’s good to hear. I appreciate your comments.

Natalie