Traction/Chain Law Help
My boyfriend's family is coming into town next Friday. We are driving from Boulder to Grand Lake for the holiday weekend. Boyfriend was supposed to look into the chain law situation since I was in the thick of it finishing my graduate degree, but he didn't so now I have to figure out how all this works before everyone gets here in a week.
Can someone ELI5/chain law for dummies me, please? I know the chain and traction laws run through the 31st. We will be taking:
- 2WD Forester (option to take my 4WD Grand Cherokee, but would prefer to take Forester because of gas prices; will consider GC if figuring out the chain situation will be more of a headache for the 2WD);
- rental car (no idea what kind of car yet).
Even though we are going to Grand Lake I wanted to ask in this sub since we do not yet know if we will take 70/40 or go through the Park if TRR is fully open. Do we have to keep chains in our cars if our tires don't meet the minimum tread and tire type requirements? If the weather 'looks' fine (I'm a meteorologist so I know mountain weather can change quickly) are we gambling and risking getting in trouble if we don't have chains in our cars and it looks like there will be another warmup for next weekend? Has anyone navigated a rental car since the new laws were implemented and have advice on how to proceed in that realm?
Thank you, all!