I'm traveling to Colorado next week. I'll be towing my motorcycle and planb ot drive most of it, but ride a few days as well. My trip includes stays in Colorado Springs, Aspen and Estes Park.

Does it look like the Independence Pass, Mt. Evans, and Trail Ridge Road (RM Nat. Park) will be open on schedule? IP is sceduled to open May 24th, and the other two on May 25th for the Memorial Day weekend.

How is traffic in those areas that weekend. I was hoping it was going to be early in season so the tourists should be minimal.

I'm driving to Aspen on the 23rd, so I'm already planning on going the "long way" around. I was hoping to ride the motorycle up Pike's Peak (as far as possible weather permitting), Mt. Evans (might just drive it), and most of all, I was planning on riding the Top of the Rockies scenic byway on the 24th departing from Aspen and returning early evening. We have the riding gear (heated vests) to ride down to 40F comfortably when needed and rain if we must, but I try and avoid ice and snow on the motorcycle.

Any info or advice from the locals would be helpful.

All those passes are maybe's. The CDOT maintanence crews have been stretched this year cleaning up higher than normal rock fall incidents. Opening the passes is a priority, but not the top one. This winter & early spring was fairly normal as far as snow fall.

Pike's Peak is open & snow covered now, but will close if bad weather comes.

On Mt Evans, do not pay the toll if you are driving up. The fee is for hikers in the area around the road. The Forest Service has been scamming drivers for over 10 years & CDOT is actively informing drivers that the road is free.

Opening weekend is ussually one of the busiest times for these roads.

Check out http://www.cotrip.org/rWeather....html for the latest information on closures.

Glenwood Canyon on I-70 will be single lane, head to head for ~ 5 miles. This is the long route to Aspen from Denver.

Your Versa will do well out here in the thin air. Stick to the mid grade (87 octane) here.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that the week after Memorial Day would be the busiest, but that weekend in Estes Park I imagine will be pretty busy.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed on the weather.

Glad to hear the Versa will do OK in the thin air of the mountains. We're driving from St. Louis to Colorado at the end of June, with a stop in Colo. Springs and our ultimate destination, Breckenridge. I was a little worried about how the car might do, but it sounds like we'll be OK. Not looking for huge speed (obviously) but I also don't want to hold up traffic heading up the mountains!

The Versa has more than enough power up here. I can get up to Eisenhower Tower @ ~11,000 ft in 6th gear at 65 mph.

No problems with power. Chirping the tires is fairly easy.

I don't expect any problems with the mountains even with a 900lb trailer. I'll need to do a lot of downshifting, but it should do OK... mostly just hoping the weather is good and the roads are open.

Hey, I was just cruising your Versa forums ( bored ) and I see you're planning on hitting Estes Park on your trip. Well, you'll drive within like 100 yards of my house if you do so if you need anything while you're out here make sure you shoot me an email or catch me on AIM and I'll be glad to help ya out.

Estes is usally CRAZY busy that weekend. But it's busy all summer so really it won't get a ton better.

I was hoping it'd be a little better opening weekend, but oh well.

It's good to know there's help around if needed. I usually don't leave too much to chance. I have a spare tire, spare hub, tools and full AAA emergency roadside coverage for the car, trailer and motorcycle.

Update:

With a 900lb trailer, 2 people and about 200lbs of luggage, we managed to cruise at 75mph, only downshifting to 5th for the steeper hills. I averaged 22-24mpg over 900 miles, so not so bad. I was prepared for worse. The hardest driving will be tommorrow and Friday as I head further into the mountains and have to head over some 10,000+ passes.

The car was great. Comfortable quiet even with hte motor humming at almost 3500RPM at nearly full throttle. Even downshifts to 5th raising it to 4000RPM weren't overly intrusive.

The brakes are a little weaker than I'd like in traffic, but downshifts to 3rd or 4th help save the brakes a lot. And the 20mph crosswinds through Kansas were a little annoying having ot hlod the steering wheel almost 30 degrees into the wind. Can I install a trim control like on a airplane?

My only problem was related to the trailer. The bracket that holds the right taillight and license plate broke off. The repair I made with bailing wire and some adhesive mounting strips held until I reached either Limon or Colorado Springs, where the locals roads finished it off. I'm buying a cordless drill and some mending plates to make a more permenant repair. They unfortunaltely only sell trailer replacement light assemblies, not the mounting brackets.

Very encouraging to hear the Versa doing so well, performance and gas-wise, even with all that cargo in tow. Thanks for the updates. Please keep us updated as you head into the high country. Thanks.

Back in Iowa. The car performed great in all conditions. The final test was 2 days ago driving from Aspen to Estes Park. I crossed Independence Pass on 82 and later Loveland Pass on I-70. I needed 4th gear a couple time on Loveland pass but stayed over 45mph. The car corners great even with a trailer on the back. The gear spacing is perfectfor heavy loads like this whether your climbing hills or need a little extra engine braking for downhills. I was descending Fremont Pass and used 3rd gear with the A/C on to keep it under 65mph. She was humming but I didn't need my brakes.

Mileage Report- (much better than I expected, not terrible, even without a trailer)

leg 1 - 190 miles/7.7gal/24.7mpg - rough, hilly backroads @ 55-65 mph Bethany, MO

leg 2 - 241 miles/10.5gal/23.0mpg - expressway @70-75mph, strong crosswind. Salina. KS

leg 3 - 203 miles/8.8gal/23.0mpg - expressway @ 70-75mph, crosswinds, Colby, KS

leg 4 - 139 miles/6.1gal/22.8mpg - expressway 68 -72mph, ascending with cross tailwind. Limon, CO

leg 5 - 210 miles/7.6gal/27.6mpg - highway/backroads 45-70mph (over Hoosier Pass) Fairplay, CO

leg 6 - 221 miles/7.8gal/28.3mpg - highway/backroads 25-65mph (over Independence Pass) Leadville, CO

leg 7 - 280 miles/8.3gal/33.7mpg - Highway & expressway 35-72mph (Fremont & Loveland Passes + descending heading home, 30% in canyons on highway 36 & 34) Sterling, CO

leg 8 - 216 miles/8.0gal/27mpg - expressway 68-75mph descending Elm Creek, NE

leg 9 - 189 miles/6.8gal/27.8mpg - expressway/highway 60-72mph some descending

leg 10 - 250miles/10gal (est.)/25mpg - backroads/highway 50-65mph

A/C was used about 3/4 of the time. It was used most on legs 1-3, almost none on legs 5&6, and intermittent on 7-10.

I used M10 on 1, 2, 9 & 10. I filled up with 85 octane after leg 8 and didn't notice any difference.

Total used 73 gallons, 2139 miles driven = 29.3mpg!!!

In summary, the car seems to adjust very well to high altitudes. The cool, dry, less dense air actually seems to improve mileage.

Climbing - Independence Pass @ ~12,500 ft, 6 passes over 10,000 feet.

It's way cool watching the altitude change on my GPS unit.

For anyone thinking of towing with their Versa, go for it! It does a great job and still gets descent mileage, better than a small truck or minivan doing the same job. Only a midsized car or a 4 cylinder Corolla, Camry or Accord would have gotten better mileage, but their have less interior space and ar more expensive.

One more note, when compared ot my GPS, my speedometer on the Versa consistently reads about 1 mph slow at all speeds. compared to my motorcycle which is about 5% fast in direct comparison. So my mileage is about 2-3% better than posted.