Mish1785

Hello to all folks on the forum that live for the drive!

Taking a fall road trip (late September into October) to the four corners region and wanted any tips or recommendations.

My wife and I are flying from Washington DC to Denver and are having our car (911 50th Anniv) transported (using Plycar) ahead of time to a Porsche dealer in Denver. We've used a few websites and books to find interesting roads for scenic yet spirited driving (twisties, as well as, long curvy sweepers). Here's what our plan looks like.

Current Route:
Day 1: Denver - Ouray (70, 550)
Day 2: Ouray - Silverton - Durango - Chama, NM (550, 160, 84)
Day 3: Chama - White Rock - Jemez Springs - Santa Fe (84, 4, 550, 25)
Day 6: Santa Fe - Simpson, AZ (14, 25, 60, 12, 180)
Day 7: Simpson - Clifton - Alpine - Petrified Forest - Winslow, AZ (191, 40)
Day 8: Winslow - Grand Canyon (40, 89, 64)
Day 9: Grand Canyon - Zion, UT (64, 89A, 89)
Day 11: Zion - Bryce (9, 89, 12)
Day 12: Bryce - Mexican Hat, UT (22, 62, 24, 95, 261)
Day 13: Mexican Hat - Moab (191)
Day 14: Moab - Aspen (70, 50, 92, 133, 82)
Day 16: Aspen - Denver (82, 24, 91, 70)

Questions for Rennlisters:
1) Any advice on precautions to take with auto transport (Plycar)?

2) Any tips on other stretches of road that are in the vicinity of our current path? I'm open to amending for a tried and true insider tip.

3) Any tips on car care? When the car is delivered to Prestige Porsche in Denver it will go through a general servicing before we head out on our trip. Anything else? Should I carry oil? Map out Porsche dealers/service on the route? Should I be worried about availability of premium gas?

4) Any car meets, car events or cool events happening during this time (9/23 - 10/9)?

Hoping to GoPro some parts of the drive and ultimately share on YouTube. Wish I had the time to research a good drone to take as well.

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

red carrera

Hi Mish, sounds like a great trip! One suggestion; Denver to Ouray is a lot prettier if you go south on I-25 from Denver to Pueblo, then take US50 west over Monarch Pass, then catch 550..

I don't know your expectations for lodging, but a lot of those cities are pretty limited. Of course, that can be part of the charm too.

I make the trip from Denver to Scottsdale in a Porsche a couple times a year. I carry oil and a tire plugging kit, and have insurance that will cover towing to the nearest Porsche dealer if worse comes to worse. So far, it hasn't on this route, but I did need a tow from Red Lodge, MT back to Ft Collins, CO (nearest P-car dealer) and State Farm didn't bat an eye.

Gas will be fine, you won't be in a 3rd world country.

Check out the Rocky Mountain Region website of PCA for local activities. Relax and enjoy, your car is made for those roads!

llis

To build on what red carrera suggests:

The real joy (and actually the fastest way) is to take Highway 50 through Gunnison. You could take dreary 25 all the way down to Pueblo, then cut across, or you could go south only as far as Colorado Springs and catch 24 to 285 to 50. If you want to avoid 25 altogether (which is my preference — I-25 has perhaps the highest percentage of idiots driving, and quite a lot of trucks, too, making for a rock-chip party) take 285 straight out of Denver and drive up into the mountains from there. Note that getting anywhere out of Denver on a Friday can be a nightmare.

Ouray to Durango will be stunning. Three passes on the Million-Dollar Highway. There's some sporadic construction here and there, especially south of Coal Bank Pass. Catch a meal in Durango. Not much between between there and Chama.

Chama - Santa Fe you have a few routes. All beautiful. Going by way of Taos can be nice, especially for the canyon that suddenly appears under you. Taos - Santa Fe has a gorgeous canyon along the way, but can have quite a bit of traffic.

AZ - UT drives will be stunning. You might see if you can replace 89 by taking 191 north. 89 is dull. If you take 191, you could rejigger your route to catch Monument Valley first, then Zion etc.

In general, I-70 will be pretty boring. There's MAJOR construction through Glenwood Canyon (East from Glenwood Springs) so it's good you're planning to avoid that. I suggest taking 24 SOUTH though and catching 285 in Johnson Village and going through Fairplay. Leadville and Climax are okay, but I-70 from Copper has lots of construction and will be dull with traffic. (If you do go through Leadville, watch your speed. Very slow speed limits and they ticket.)

With warmer temps lately, you should have a nice temperate drive. However, it is not unknown for snowstorms to hit Utah and Colorado in October, so if you don't have no-season tires, you might allow for layover times for a squall to pass. (When I first moved to Colorado, I drove through a blizzard on a not-very-high pass on 160 on JULY 8th.)

You're going to have a great time!

Mish1785

red carrera and llis-

Thanks so much for your super useful suggestions! I'll definitely change my route from Denver to Ouray. Also, the 191 route instead of 89 is welcome suggestion. I will keep oil for sure and I didn't even think of a tire kit (great advice).

As for lodging, we're set with nicer hotels/spas in Santa Fe and Aspen. In Ouray, we're staying at the Strater Hotel and along the rest of route we found some interesting B&Bs and ranches. In Moab, we're actually glamping!

As to your point re: speeding tickets, what are your thoughts on getting a radar detector. We're not allowed to have them in the DC/Virginia area, otherwise I would have an integrated one. Worth picking up the new Escort or Valentine?

llis

Yes on the radar detector, if for nothing else a reminder.

Mish1785

That's a great point. A reminder and peace of mind will be good on some of those quiet and desolate roads.Thanks, llis.

red carrera

One final observation; I think the Strater Hotel is in downtown Durango, not Ouray. That might create a bit of tension:-)

Also agree on the radar detector. I'm a V1 guy and it sure helps with situational awareness, especially when you're admiring the view, not your speedometer.

Mish1785

Holy crap, red carrera! Thanks for pointing out my oversight.

My wife and I have routed and re-routed this trip so many times that we've gotten our lodging mixed up. I think there was a point we had thought we'd make it all the way to Durango the first day but then decided we wanted to do the million dollar highway first thing in the morning and avoid as much "traffic" as possible.

Thanks also for your suggestion on the radar detector. I'll also make sure they're legal in all 4 states.

Mish1785

I just checked our most up-to-date itinerary -- it's the Beaumont Hotel in Ouray. And we still need to cancel the Strater in Durango so thanks again for pointing it out.

873/1960

Congrats on the car!

I'd recommend purchasing Buttler Motorcycle Maps for the states you'll be driving through. I'm over 10,000 miles into my own round-the-country road trip and have found them to be a invaluable as a refence when I've been forced to or chosen to change my route for some reason. Even though I reserached my routes online beforehand, I would've missed out on so many amazing drives without them.

Mish1785

Thanks much, 873/1960. We've owned the car for a couple of years now and have been planning this trip since. You sound like you're on a life-changing road trip! I'll check out Butler Motorcycle Maps. You learn something new everyday on this site. Thanks again and safe travels on your journey.

MuffinMan

It sounds like a phenomenal trip, Mish! In regard to your question about drones, there are a lot out there and many good ones, but the best pick still seems to be from DJI. There are a few different models depending on your needs and budget; a few notes on each:

Phantom 3 "Standard": the Phantom 3, or P3 series was released in spring 2015. They are generally very good birds, and the Standard is the most affordable of them all. It comes with a controller that integrates with a smart phone or tablet as the display (First Person View) and to manipulate settings. The controller communicates to the drone through a wifi protocol, so the range is a few hundred meters, or basically around your line of site. The environment determines the ultimate range. The camera captures video in 1080P. Can be found around $400-450

Phantom 3 "Advanced": some of the hardware is slightly upgraded from the Standard, but the main difference is the communication protocol. It uses something called Lightbridge, and the drone can fly up to about 3 miles away. When the drone is out of site, you use the FPV on the display for control. There is a return to home feature (gps on the drone) in case things go south. Most people say this is the go to model in the P3 family since the range is so much greater than on the Standard and it's less susceptible to interference. ~$600-$650

Phantom 3 "Professional": same as advanced, but has a 4K camera and the batteries charge faster. $750-900

Phantom 4: a new model release in March 2016, it builds on the P3. Hardware quality is generally a little higher, it has redundant sensors to improve overall stability (in wind, etc), it has IR sensors coupled with software algorithms for basic obstacle avoidance, software has a follow mode where you tap an object on the display and the drone follows it using computer vision algorithms (the p3 can follow based in gps location of the controller/phone), and is much faster (up to 40mph vs around 25 for the P3). These are $1400 retail but have been dropping and can be had for ~$1100.

There are bundle deals all the time (additional batteries or cases), and your best bet is to visit someplace like slickdeals.net and do a search on DJI. It does take some getting used to, so be sure to set aside a few hours for orientation and flying before your trip (if you end up buying a drone). The flying is relatively simple, as the drone will hover in place unless you move the stick, this isn't like old RC planes/helicopters that required a high skill level to not crash. Still, there is a learning curve. One note is the cases for these things can be big, so you may want to find a suitable soft bag in the sake of efficiency. The P4 has propellers that very easily pop off (push and twist), so there's an advantage if you go soft bag and want to remove the props for protection during transport.

There cheaper drones, but most are somewhat a waste for video capture since the camera is low quality and/or flight isn't stable so the footage is all over the place. One other note is you need to be mindful of where you fly, as it's an issue in some places. Generally, you can't fly over people and you have to be a certain radius away from airports (or other restricted flight zones). There are apps and software, including from DJI, that help with this.

Enjoy the road trip, I always love epic journeys like you're planning!

Mish1785

Holy moly, MuffinMan, thanks so much! My wife and I were going to do some research on drones tonight and you've done most of the work for us.

I was looking at the Phantom 4, as well as, the Lily drone. I'm not even sure if that's an apples to apples comparison. Also you make a good point re: transportation. I'm thinking of the difficulty/ease of handcarrying by plane and then storing it in the Porsche in a safe way. Will it fit in the back seat?

MuffinMan

The Lily is a cool drone with really nice industrial design. It is marketed heavily toward the "follow me" crowd, where you throw the drone in the air, it follows a (huge) gps tracker you can wear on your wrist. If you want this thing to follow you around while you bike, run, or hike, it's great. He advantage here is the wearable tracker pops in a weather resistant case (wrist strap) so you can go about your sporting without carrying a remote control. It also claims to be waterproof, which is cool in case of any unexpected landings over water.

It is a brand new offering and company, so it will likely have some growing pains during the first release while they work out the bugs. It's in a preorder state right now and they say they will shop winter of 2016, which could technically be the end of March, and who knows if that date will get pushed. This drone also doesn't seem like the best forbid you want to fly it yourself and capture footage that way. So, it's all in what you're looking for.

The phantom 4 will follow you based on computer vision analysis (you tap the object in the screen and the drone follows that object). It isn't perfect, as it needs some sort of differentiating contour between the object and environment. Also, if the object goes too fast, the drone might lose it. I've seen a bunch of videos of the p4 successfully following people on a bike through a neighborhood. It also does obstacle avoidance (good, but not perfect) along the way. Alternatively, you can have the drone follow the controller, which may or may not be convenient depending on the tax of the bulk. (Not exclusive to P4).

The 3D robotics solo is not a bad option, but not seems less user friendly and I think it needs more time to work through the kinks. Yuneec is the last brand to consider, they have solid reviews but I still choose DJI for user friendliness. It's just a little more mature of a brand/product.

Feel free to shoot over any questions you have during the research process, I'm happy to help.

MuffinMan

Also, it should fit in the back seat. Popping off the propellers makes it a pretty robust package, and that's easy to do on the p4. The p4 comes in a foam "package" that doubles as a case after purchase. It protects it very well, but won't be the most compact transportation means. The p3 models will need their own case or some sort of "bag" if you don't want to transport the bare drone.

One last thought is the p4 has a neat feature where you select an object on the screen, and the drone will rotate around it to give a 360 degree view. This is actually a pretty complex flight path, but is super easy with the software and even works if the object is moving (slowly).