Check Routt County's road page before high-country county roads

A map line through the mountains around Steamboat Springs is a promise the weather can break. Routt County has enough high-country roads that “it’s probably open” turns into a long detour when a spring mudslide, a fallen tree, or a county crew is sitting across the route you planned.

The county’s Road Work / Closures page tracks this by road number and road name, with each road’s current status and notes on county projects. Those projects shift with the forecast (subject to change, weather permitting), which is exactly why a glance the morning of a drive beats a guess. It earns its keep before a run to a trailhead, a ranch, a cabin, a hunting area, or a pass on a county road.

State highways are a different list entirely. COtrip is the official state road-condition site, and it carries the highway closures, crashes, construction, and winter conditions that the county page will not.

So the whole trick is matching the road to its source: county roads on the Routt County page, highways on COtrip. In a storm or in shoulder season, when the line between dry pavement and a closed gate is thin, both are worth a look before you load the truck.