Minneapolis to Seattle End of December

[43210dcba]

I've never driven out West and everyone says that I'm crazy trying to drive through the Rockies in the winter because of snowstorms. I have 8 days to drive to round trip from Minneapolis to Seattle. 3 total people are able to drive the whole trip. Any suggestions on highways?

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You could comfortably drive to Seattle in three days from Minneapolis on I-94/I-90. But you'd also need three days for the drive back, leaving you only two days in Seattle for all of your six days of driving. If you hit bad weather, then you could easily lose another day to that. Is that really what you had in mind? I suspect that you planned to do a Speed Run or believed the unrealistic driving time estimates you got from some computer based (i.e. NOT real world) mapping routine. In the first case, if you haven't driven long distances through the night before, I wouldn't make my first effort over the Rockies in the middle of winter. In the second case, you have to realize that those estimates make no allowance for stops for traffic, gas, food, bathroom breaks or anything else. In the real world, you can expect to make around 550 miles in a good day of steady driving with just enough breaks to keep you rested and alert.

AZBuck

[glc]

I-94 to I-90 is as good as any unless the specific weather and road conditions dictate otherwise.

[Sykotyk]

Definitely I-94 to I-90.

But again, unless you're driving just to drive, you don't have a lot of time for Seattle. You have the mountain pass east of Butte, MT, Lookout (at the ID/MT border) and Snoqualmie east of Seattle. All three can get bad weather and can very easily slow you down.

Even if you do plan on driving around the clock, I don't recommend it. Temperature changes, bad roads, limited traffic, means little maintenance at night.

It's doable. And if you hit good weather, can do it easily, but you don't have a lot of time in Seattle.

Sykotyk