Which Direction to drive 1 way trip to avoid as many mountains as possible?

Family of 6 2 adults 4 kids 18,12,5,and 3. 2 cars plus luggage
Family is moving to AZ and we need to get both our cars and some luggage there with us. We are not moving anything else right now. Both cars are 2018 SUVs. Question is my husband thinks we should drive through/towards Colorado and take the road that follows the mountains down. Since we are splitting up the kiddos 2 in each car I don't want to be driving (18 yo doesn't drive yet) down any steep mountains...Can we drive heading towards Colorado and not have to drive through any severe mountain roads. Trip will start in May FYI and we have have a week to get settled before he has to be back to work so we thought we would stop along the way and do some sightseeing as well. So this is a leisure/mission trip.
Thanks for any help you can offer...
Side note I did want to drive through St. Louis and check out the ST. Louis Arch and City Museum as it might be our last chance before we leave IL for a while.

Chicago (Illinois) ⇨ Gilbert (Arizona)

3 Answers

answered by

Marc

If you take only interstate highways you won't encounter any "extreme" mountain roads. They are all a minimum of 4-lane highways with reasonable speed limits because they are made for long distance travel. It's the state and local routes that are more challenging. Stay on the interstate system and you'll be fine.

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answered by

John from Chicago

If you drive through Colorado Springs, the elevation there is like 6,000 feet. By the time you get down to Phoenix, it's like 1,000 feet. So that's a pretty big difference, and you will be going down mountains, but you'd have to research the specific roads to see how steep the drop can be.

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answered first by

Hazel from Port St. Lucie

Drive straight down to Mobile, Alabama. Drive straight across to AZ on I-10. No mountains.

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Marc
But then you have to drive through New Orleans and Houston. Ugly ugly drive, and far more congested than just flowing with the mountains. Plus, Illinois to Mobile really doesn't make directional sense.

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