Customer Reviews

Mountain Directory West for Truckers, RV, and Motorhome Drivers

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mountain Directory West was invaluable to me when plotting a course through 17 states from Georgia to Washington State and back again. Another silver haired grandmother and I traveled in my new 31 ft motorhome through mountains of S. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, the Oregon and California coasts, Arizona and New Mexico. By knowing what was ahead on our route, we were able to cool our engine and brakes before ascending or descending a particular stretch of highway, and never experienced a moment's trouble.

I highly recommend Mountain Directory West for any RV/Motorhome driver who is planning a trip over any US mountain range west of the Mississippi. The companion Mountain Directory East serves the same purpose for those traveling east of the Mississippi.

This book and it's companion Mountain Directory East are valuable publications to have handy as you travel by RV throughout the USA. They provide the elevation, the % of inclines, the length of the inclline, hidden curves, speed and so much more. Referring to these guides before a mountain pass helps prepare you for the amount of brake usage that will be necessary to reach the bottom safely. Richard has done a great job of researching the varied terrain, referring to the pass information can provide a significant peace of mind to all RV Getaways.

I am planning to take my first trip into the Rocky Mountains with a 5th wheel this summer. This book is extremely helpful. It gives enough detail on the different mountain passes for you to know if you can make the hairpin turns with your rig. It gives the percent of grade and the length of downgrade in miles. Something I had not thought of was the height of tunnels. This book makes planning the route to take much easier.

I insisted on buying this book before my husband and I took our first out-of-state trip pulling our travel trailer. We mainly traveled in New Mexico with a brief trip to Durango, Colorado. This book was a great help. We did find that a couple of the highways we traveled in New Mexico have been improved since this book was published (example, US Highway 380 from IH 25 to Ruidoso has been improved and is now an excellent highway with good shoulders and several rest areas; and, 550 from above Aztec to Bernalillo is now a four-lane highway). I just made notes of the improvements in the book for future reference. I still highly recommend this book and would purchase future revisions in a heartbeat.

I enjoy the information about the passes, but I also would like to know about the long 5-7% (or above) grades on hills that are present on the main highways that are not passes, but do last more than two miles. (I encountered one on West 2 just east of Wenatchee, WA that was quite a surprise.)

Nonetheless, I believe the books to be well worth the cost.
J. Harper

This is a very helpful guide for RV owners traveling in the west. We have found no significant omissions or errors in the coverage.

This book was extremely helpful in planning our trip along the west coast. Without it, we would have traveled through a difficult area to go with a travel trailer. It also let us know details about the grades on the roads. I recommend it for anyone who is traveling in the west.

Before I knew this book existed, I searched high and low for topo maps so as to actually see the grade in relation to roadways in certain areas. This book is exactly that. Has all such basic info and some notes as well. Does not have nor does it need every little mile marker/tourist trap, etc. It does show the grade, road and other important detail. Must have for RV'er's or truckers. Any flatlander going out west for the first time, in such a rig needs this book. Read and study the road along the selected route first! Worth ever cent.

This book is a must have for anyone who RV'S in the West.

This guide came in handy for us as we drove a 36 foot motorhome towing a car. We avoided several steep grades and knew what to expect on others. Invaluable.