I have 7 days, including travel(flying into DEN) to spend in the Rocky Mountain state. I’ll be with my wife and adult daughter. I’d like to include a trail horse back ride at some point and am considering the Silverton Durango railroad. The round trip on the train seems like a very long day but there is an option to train one way and bus the other. Anyone here have experience with the trips? Thoughts on the Million Dollar Highway? Black Canyon? Do all the ski resorts have lifts to the top open in the summer? White water rafting suggestions for non-experts? I’ve skied out west and backpacked in Rocky Mountain Nation Park but that was 30-40 years ago and my travel companions are looking for fun but not hardcore outdoor activities. They’ve never been in the Rockies and I’m open to suggestions. Thanks!
The Million Dollar Highways was good to drive on to get to or from Durango, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a destination itself. I mean, it’s curvy, and has great views, but that describes most of the roads in the western part of the state. There are more fun driving roads, and possibly better views.
I’ve never spent much time at the Black Canyon of the Gunnisons, but it is very impressive from up top. I do recommend it, and I would like to have the opportunity to spend more time there.
Most of the larger resorts will have some lifts or gondolas open in the summer. Check their websites for summer activities. Be prepared to pay. If you are not the type to hike to the top (I’m not), then this is a great way to get the high altitude experience. They also have other things, like riding a mountain bike down to the bottom.
I recommend driving to the top of Mount Blue Sky (former Mount Evans), and skipping Pike’s Peak (unless you’ll be near Colorado Springs, anyway). I think the drive is more fun, and there is a very short hike from the parking lot to the actual summit.
If you are planning to camp, enter national parks, or do anything else that will accept a reservation, make one. There may be places you can drive up and camp, but don’t count on it. Similarly, get a time of entry reservation for RMNP or any other park you plan to go to.
Anything that is going to be at the tops of mountains, such as ski lifts, plan to start as early in the morning as you possibly can. There is a good chance weather in the afternoons will close the lifts, or send people off the mountain.
It depends when you are visiting–mid to late summer will see afternoon monsoonal showers quite often. We used to live in Telluride–it’s about as scenic as it gets. Ouray and Silverton also–the train will be spectacular, although it kind of parallels the highway with a big elbow into the wilderness. The Black Canyon is awesome, but if you aren’t rafting it it’s tough to really see. Jeep tour out of Telluride or Ouray will really get you in the midst, and a lot of history also. You can also do the same out of Georgetown if you want to stick closer to Denver…
I would suggest a visit to Hanging Lake but the whole trip is about 2½ hours from Denver, one-way, and only entrance or exit is from the west. You’d have drive halfway from Hanging Lake to Glenwood Springs and turn around.
If you do the Durango-Silverton Narrow gauge, I’ll wave as you go by…
Silverton is nice, and worth a visit, but there is much more to do in Durango, in terms of restaurants and shopping. The railroad has a very nice, free museum in Durango - it’s worth a look if you are a train fan.
If you have a couple of hours, and a rental SUV, there is a really nice road that leads to a beautiful mountain lake (Henderson lake). If the weather is dry, it’s easily doable even in a 2wd car, but I wouldn’t try it if it’s been raining. You can read about my experience with it here:
In case you didn’t know, Durango has an airport. If you are going to be spending your vacation in that part of Colorado, consider flying into Durango instead of Denver and save yourself 6-7 hours of driving.
Based on this, I would recommend staying in the Frisco/Dillon area. It’s about 1.5 hours west of Denver. It’s a nice town around a reservoir lake surrounded by mountains. Boat and kayak rentals are available. Several ski resorts are in the area, like Keystone and Breckenridge, with activities at the ski basin. It can get touristy, but it’s pretty nice regardless. Great hiking for all levels. The Durango/Silverton area is also really nice, but it’s a few degrees more rugged.
Consider a visit to Boulder, CO. It’s pretty great. Lovely college town. You can drive there from Denver in about 45 minutes (give or take) or you can take a train (about an hour I think).
Train to Boulder from Denver will take at least 10 years, but I wouldn’t count on that either, as it’s been “10 years” since 1997 or so. Perhaps it will be fusion powered. Sorry, we’re just a bit sore about it. There are some buses.
If you have a car it is an easy drive, and there are a variety of recreational things to do in Boulder. Many of them involve breweries, hiking, and gummies.
I did just see that Men’s Journal just voted Ouray the best vacation spot in the country. I’m not sure if your wife and daughter will like it though (joke, as my wife said, “what about top vacation spot for women?”) This article specifically calls out the horse back riding.
I 100% believe you but I would swear I saw a train running along the highway between the two cities when I drove it. My memory is not what it once was though.
My wife and I took a summer road trip to Colorado back in about 2000. She was originally from there, so there was a lot of “that was our house, and here’s where I went to school, and there’s where I worked in summers,” and catching up with old friends, which I found interesting, but which I wouldn’t suggest to a stranger.
I’ll admit, I got a kick out of visiting Rocky Mountains National Park, and driving US Route 34 up to the lookout at over 12,000 feet. Way above the tree line. No problems breathing; there was enough pressure that we and the other tourists could stay alive, but I sure wouldn’t want to be doing anything physical up there. Still, the air was so thin that a bag of potato chips that we had bought in Michigan exploded.
We took US 34 to US 40 on the way down, and met up with I-70, where we went east into Denver. Loved the overhead signs saying, “Truckers use low gear,” and then a couple of miles later, “Truckers, we’re not kidding.”
We also visited Estes Park, where we spent a night at the Stanley Hotel. It was what gave Stephen King the idea for The Shining. Very nice and comfortable. It even had a Stanley Steamer car on display in the lobby.
We also enjoyed visiting the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Nearby was the Garden of the Gods park, with stunning rock formations—look for the Kissing Camels. In Denver, LoDo was a nice place to find pubs and restaurants, and we took the tour of the Denver Mint. Manitou Springs had a great pinball museum, and the machines remain playable. Pueblo had a nice, if short, riverwalk, and was the home of one of my wife’s favourite pizzarias.
A great place to visit, and I hope to return someday. Have a great trip!
I was going to say that if you’re already in Denver, Colorado Springs is just an hour or so south of there, and the Garden of the Gods and its visitor center are spectacular, and IIRC free of charge. It’s a Colorado Springs city park in fact.
The Manitou Springs Penny Arcade (the pinball museum mentioned by @Spoons) is just 20 minutes or so away, and is pretty neat- it’s working arcade games from the earliest days all the way through the present day, and all are playable for the original listed price. So some cost a nickel, others a quarter, etc…
Thanks. These responses are helping a lot. I wish we had more time to spend but we’ll make the most of it. My daughter said she spoke to someone who once lived in Colorado and they said to do a counter-clockwise loop. I’m not sure that it would make any difference. Maybe the more scenic stuff in the second half? My vague recollection from 40 years ago was that its’ all beautiful once you are in the mountains.
I’m not sure when you plan to travel, but US-50 between Gunnison and Montrose is closed in both directions due to cracks in a bridge. That is a region you mentioned possibly visiting (Black Canyon, Million dollar highway). This won’t keep you from going there, but it will change your route.
Emergency repairs are planned, so it may be open before you visit.
Thanks. Good info. Hopefully it will be open by mid-June but at least I now know to check.
How much time do you want to spend driving versus boots on the ground? I tend to pick one area and explore it so I don’t spend a big chunk of the vacation in the car. You can certainly spend time in RMNP, Summit County, Leadville, Aspen, and not be bored. If you are going to the southwest corner of the state, Ouray, Telluride, and Crested Butte are great towns to visit. If you mountain bike there are some great places to ride in the ski towns.
In Ouray, definitely check out BoxCanyon Falls - good way to spend an hour.
Ouray has 2 excellent free-to-use Via Ferrata routes, along the very narrow Uncompahgre River gorge. You must have proper equipment (helmet, harness, VF lanyards), which can be hired in the town. Extremely scenic and even spectacular, but probably ranking as hardcore by most people’s standards.
I’m not a huge fan of Telluride the town - just another hyper-fashionable ski town where, as the saying goes, “the billionaires are driving out the millionaires.” But its setting - in a narrow, deep, improbably scenic mountain valley - is impressive. I recommend driving through the town to a parking lot at the east end of the road (Rte 145). From there you can follow a popular hiking trail to the base of Bridalveil Falls - or to its top, if you’re game.
The 100-mile drive WNW from Telluride to Gateway (via routes 145 and 141) is very worthwhile. The last half of this follows the canyon of the Dolores River through scenery that would easily rate its own national park in most areas of the world.
And a true gem is the Colorado National Monument, just southwest of the city of Grand Junction - scenery that only a few US National Parks can match. This really should be world famous.
Given one of my travel companion’s preferences, I don’t see anything more than easy walks on trails or horseback riding. Maybe some mild rafting. Those Via Ferrata things are definitely out. I never even heard of them. She has a fear anything remotely like that. Telluride & Ouray look like places I’ll want to spend a couple of days in and around. We live in coastal NJ so anything more than a bump will be a nice change of pace. I love the mountains and miss my annual ski trips out there (Wyoming, Utah, California but never Colorado).