Seattle, Wa to Austin, TX in early February

[trf]

Hi All,

We are going to be driving from Seattle, Wa to Austin, TX in about a week (so early days of February) with our dog (a lab). Looking online, the route that seems to come up as the quickest is through Eastern Washington, North East Oregon, South West Idaho, down through Moab, UT, then to Albuquerque, NM and then through West Texas into Austin. I'm not familiar with anything after Eastern Washington and wanted to get some advice about traveling this route in winter. Does anyone have route suggestions for best routes/roads/mountain passes for doing this trip in winter? Does anyone have suggestions about how to manage an active lab during a 4 day road trip?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Best,
Tess

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

Another viable option to your route above on I 82/84 through SLC and so on, would be I 90 to Buffalo WY, I 25 through Denver to Raton and across to Amarillo. The alternative route is 160 miles longer, but only an extra hour travelling time according to my mapping program and could be considered as a back up if weather and/or road conditions are not favourable with plan 'A'. You will only get a true picture of this when the time comes close to leaving.

It's been a long time since I travelled with a dog but we used to start the day out with a good exercise so she would then settle for a good while and then get a few miles under our belt before stopping for short and regular breaks. You have 4 days where you will be in the car for 9/10 hours a day so you will need to find areas close to your route where you can all have some 'R&R' and this great thread should provide you with a few ideas.

[trf]

Hi Southwest Dave,
Thank you very much for your response. I'll keep your suggestion in mind when we look at weather conditions before leaving Seattle. And the advice about traveling with a dog is also very helpful!

Thanks!
Tess

[glc]

As a rule of thumb, the more weather issues there are, the more you should try to stick with numbered Interstate highways. The route you have chosen is the shortest, but NOT the fastest according to my mapping software. The speed limits are lower off the Interstates, and you also have slowdowns in the mountains and through towns and cities.