Best route from Austin Tx?

Brother_JR · Post by **Brother_JR** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:27 am

Friend of mine who does alot of off roading tells me to go to Denver then head west... Google maps tells me I-10 till Phoenix. Anyone know the best route to make it in 2.5 days?

phil · Post by **phil** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:43 am

Try
http://www.mapsonus.com/mapsonus/
and pick shortest time.

Try
http://www.mapquest.com/directions
and click the button for Directions Options - shortest time and compare the two.

Neither mentions Denver. The shortest distance between two points used to be a straight line. I'm not sure how Denver computes in terms of a Great Circle Route, but it looks out of the way to me. It doesn't come up on shortest distance, either. Both shortest time and shortest distance yield calculations of a about 27 hours driving time.

See
http://www.cieux.com/maps.html
for links to more online travel planning sites.

Good luck, have fun, and drive safely.

trenton · Post by **trenton** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:47 am

Two and a half days ? take the shorest route, Its a long drive no matter what. why be stressed more than nessary.

Brother_JR · Post by **Brother_JR** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:14 am

Word. Thanks for the replys.

We are gonna take our time... Leave Friday night and camp. Take our last shower Saturday night in a hotel and hit the city for food and last minute supplies.

Cya on the playa!

frenchblue1 · Post by **frenchblue1** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:09 pm

What will you be driving? It depends if you are driving an RV whether I would give advice on driving through Phoenix. I've driven from Phoenix to the playa 6 times and flown 3 other times...I prefer flying :)
Seriously the route from Phoenix up through Wickenburg, Kingman, Vegas is the easiest route from where you are coming from but the heat can take a toll on RV's and many of the older ones will have trouble at this time of year so I would then tell you to jump up to I40 and roll through the Flagstaff route after you come out of New Mexico. I can tell you the drive from Vegas to Reno is pretty easy but make sure you do the drive from Phoenix to Vegas during the day light because that road has twist and turns and people on low sleep or hung over driving back from Vegas to Phoenix so the danger is higher.
My drive time from phoenix to Playa was usually around 17 hours but in a car it should be around 15.5....Don't push it, arrive alive brother.

adamrice · Post by **adamrice** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:26 pm

I'm driving out from Austin as well. Google actually suggests three different routes that are all similar in distance.

Our outbound route is going to be I-35 to I-70; spend the night somewhere in Kansas. I-70 to I-25 and I-25 to I-80; spend the night somewhere around Salt Lake City; I-80 to Reno, hopefully arriving Sunday afternoon to take care of provisioning, spend the night there, and roll on to BRC first thing Monday.

This route will be much more scenic and much less hot than taking I-10 all the way west, and add about 3 total hours of travel time compared to Google's shortest route. We may modify this on the way home to drop into New Mexico rather than drive through Kansas.

lysistrata · Post by **lysistrata** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:57 am

we're driving from austin as well (hey adam! it's mer).

we're torn between taking I 40 through albuquerque or taking I-10 through el paso. I-10 is less mountainous (helpful when pulling a trailer), but I-40 seems shorter--according to google.

Best route from Austin Tx?

Best route from Austin Tx?

North then west, not west then north