U.S. 491 from Gallup to Cortez, Co

[bill3kirk]

Traveling from Grants, NM to Grand Junction, CO.
Best route appears to be 491 to Cortez and then over to 191.
I've always traveled 191 from I-40 so looking for some advice on the stretch from I-40 / US491 / US191

Pulling a NP 377

Thanks

[NewBlackDak]

Originally Posted by bill3kirk

Traveling from Grants, NM to Grand Junction, CO.
Best route appears to be 491 to Cortez and then over to 191.
I've always traveled 191 from I-40 so looking for some advice on the stretch from I-40 / US491 / US191

Pulling a NP 377

Thanks

Done that stretch a bunch of times. It pretty flat, and easy if the wind isn’t howling through. Fuel up in Gallup. There is 1 little gravel lot gas station along the route(nearer Gallup).

[cbeers]

Originally Posted by bill3kirk

Traveling from Grants, NM to Grand Junction, CO.
Best route appears to be 491 to Cortez and then over to 191.
I've always traveled 191 from I-40 so looking for some advice on the stretch from I-40 / US491 / US191

Pulling a NP 377

Thanks

Bill,
We stayed in Grants KOA and really enjoyed it. The food delivery to your site, early morning coffee in the office, lava fields, volcano, arches, so much to see and enjoy.
Stay Safe

[bill3kirk]

New owners took over in Grants about 3 weeks ago. Really nice couple. Food was good. Had the turkey dinner, chicken special and fresh baked pie.

[cbeers]

Bill,
Glad you had a good stay, travel safe to Colorado. We live about 120 miles NE of Amarillo and it was rather breezy that day when you went through.
Stay Safe!

[barryg]

As newblackdac said no problem driven it several times over the years. Decent road should be no issues nothing significant. Gallup is about 6400' elevation, Cortez is about 6100' and Monticello is about 7100'. The stretch between Cortez and Monticello is about 1000 feet up over 50ish miles so just a very gradual uphill no hills of any significance at all and a whole lot of straight.

Little tidbit of trivia
We have property between Cortez and Mancos so I am down there a lot. Up until 15 years or so ago highway 491 was highway 666. They changed the name due to the 666 being affiliated with the devil. It generated a lot of local comments at the time and here is a short article on it

https://www.travelandleisure.com/tri...-666-route-491

And the real story according to FHWA bottom half of the article which does to a certain degree agree with the previous one but gets to the reason of the specific numbering change
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/us666.cfm