I'm not sure if you are just looking for places to ride on your way through, Or just for stop over places to put your horse up for the night.

Montecello is at 7000 foot, So it will be winter there in january.  But south of Montecello is Blanding Utah at 4500 foot elevation. Temps well be warmer and less snow.  Lots of canyons and indian ruins to ride around Blanding.  Suggest you look at www.fourcornerstrails.com and look at some of Sarahs past rides in that area.

Most counties in Utah have fairgrounds.  There is a great facility in Moab UT that has an indoor arena, many stalls. A nice facility. Cost about $10 per stall per night.  Big parking area to pull into.   Moab is a tourist town and has an abundance of Motels, resturants etc.  There is a lot of Mountain bike trails, Jeep and ATV trails in the area. The Back Country horsemen, frequently ride three trails for the monthly rides. If I remember right, Ken's lake, Onion Creek and something else. The arena in Moab is called  "The Old Spanish Trails Arena" More info at:  http://www.grandcountyutah.net/arena.htm

You can get trail maps and more info from the SouthEast Utah chapter of Back Country Horsemen.  http://www.bchu.com/  Look under SE chapter.

A little father north is Green River Utah. Not much there except for truck stops. But just west of Town is the San Rafael Swell.  We often camp and ride that area in the winter months.  It would be Primitive camping. But some great areas to ride. I usually camp near Goblin Valley at  Buckskin springs. There is some water in the creek for the horses to drink. There are usually cattle on the open range in that area, that time of year.  If you are packing enough water for your horses. There are a LOT of places to just pull off and primitive camp.  This is Butch Cassidy and Wild Bunch country.  It is very big and very remote. Again the Back Country Horseman chapter can give you some info on this area.  Check the above website under San Rafael Chapter heading.

The ranchers have  random corrals scattered around teh Swell. I frequently use them when I'm in the area if the ranchers are not using them.

These photos are from riding in the area last February.  You can see the snow is not very deep. But it really depends on the storm patterns.

Hope this gives you a few ideas.  If not feel free to contact me and I would be willing to talk over the phone or email about suggestions.

Jon

If you are trying to shorten the hours behind wheel on the NM-UT  leg of the trip.  Cortez CO has  a smaller fairground that you can spend the night in. Not a nice as the one in Moab, but still very suitable for an overnight stay.  Cortez would be about 30-40 miles short of Montecello and Moab would be 40 miles longer drive past Montecello.

Both Cortez and Moab are reasonable sized towns.  Montecello is  one gas station, one motel and two cafes. And everything closes up around 7-8 pm in the evening during the winter months.

The area from Gallup NM to just south of Cortez is mostly indian reservation.  So populations are very sparse, it's wide open high desert country.

The area from Cortez into Montecello is most farm land.  Scattered homes and farms.

If you can't make it all the way into Montecello, I suggest you stay at the fairgrounds in Cortez.