Best spots in Colorado

Hey!

OK, so do you want to DRIVE (will you be in a Ferrari?), or do just want to "Do Stuff"?

 

Go west out of Buena Vista and enjoy the incredible scenery all the way up to Cottonwood Pass. Take the hike up to Lost Lake for a real treat.

 

See the Gateway Auto Museum in Gateway, CO.

Do the Rim Rock Drive at Colorado National Monument.

 

There's enough stuff to do to full the summers for the rest of your life. So, let's narrow it down a bit. What do like to do? Hike? Climb? Fish? Raft? Pan for gold? Ride horses? or just see the sights? There are 3 more nat'l parks besides Rocky Mountain.

BTW Cottonwood pass summit is about 20 miles from where I live. Makes a great Ferrari run on the east side. West side is gravel.

Dave

 

Well, of course I like Glenwood Springs and Aspen... but I'm a little biased that way!

Actually, one of my favorite summer spots is Fraiser and Winter Park. My wife and I used to go a couple times a month to hike and mountain bike. This was years ago, before kids. Not much of a hopping night scene, but it is beautiful Rocky Mountain country. I liked Durango for the same reasons, but haven't been there in ages.

 

In the summer of 2006, I went on a 6,360-mile roadtrip to visit every single county and county seat in Colorado (there are 64). I've been to most towns, all the national parks, most of the state parks, and, indeed, every county (and county seat). While I honestly find the entire state beautiful, if we're going to limit it to central and southern Colorado, my nominees would be:

US-24 from Florissant to Hartsel. In my view, this is the absolute most scenic road in the state of Colorado. Leaving Florissant heading west it's pretty boring until you get to Wilkerson Pass, about 20 minutes away, which provides one of the most breathtaking 'I can't believe I'm actually here' moments imaginable. You look across a vast valley ("South Park") and can see the plains, lakes, and in a relatively near distance, snow-capped mountains. Photo.

Ouray, Colorado is a small town in the southwestern portion of the state, not far from Telluride or Durango. Unlike most small Colorado mountain towns, it's set up in a cohesive manner (as opposed to, say, Silverton, which has various discarded items and junk strewn about and is little more than a haphazard arrangement of buildings). It's the most beautiful town in the state, and there's no shortage of things to do, which is also a little odd for a town its size during the off-season. Photo.

Great Sand Dunes National Park is pretty cool. It's somewhat crowded and far from most things (except boring Alamosa), but if you're in the area you can't miss it. It's quite an aberration in this part of the country, and if you're up for a fun time you can hike to the top of the dunes. Just don't do it in shoes, like yours truly. Photo.

The Million Dollar Highway is the name of US-550 from Ouray (mentioned above) to Durango. It's well-known as one of the most scenic highways in the country, but I honestly wasn't particularly impressed with it. That said, you can make your own judgements, as Automobile included it a segment of "Top Ten Roads" a couple of years ago. Photo.

The Gunnison area is pretty cool. One of my favorite drives of the entire 6,400-mile caper involved taking a few backroads east from Gunnison into an area labeled by my guidebooks as being "easily passable by passenger vehicle." I ended up having to reverse down a rutted one-lane dirt road with a 200-foot drop on one side because a boulder the size of a desk was blocking the road. Somehow I managed to U-turn and get the hell out of there. It scared me at the time, but I still discuss it, and mostly because the scenery was just so damn good. Further up the road from Gunnison is Crested Butte, which is surprisingly vibrant during the summer, and has some stunning scenery. Gunnison County is the most beautiful county in central Colorado by a wide margin. Photo.

Royal Gorge is something everyone should experience once. It's the highest suspension bridge on Earth, by virtue of its perfect location (the "suspension" part is only a couple hundred feet - it just happens to be placed above 1,000 feet of canyon). It's a pretty cool spot. Photo.

Cottonwood Pass was mentioned. That's pretty far north, but truth be told, no trip to Colorado is complete without a visit to the Aspen area. Maroon Bells is the most beautiful single spot in the state; Aspen is the coolest place in the state. The whole area just makes you happy. The entire thing is best experienced coming from the east and taking State Highway 82 over Independence Pass, which is a slightly difficult journey. The curves and (at points) extremely narrow road end in Aspen - the second the curves stop, you're on one of Aspen's main roads. Maroon Bells, and Aspen.

Pike's Peak is a must-do, but in my view it's the only must-do in the Colorado Springs area (skip the over-hyped Garden of the Gods and touristy Seven Falls). It's a long, winding, mostly dirt drive up a 14,110-foot mountain, which may not sound like much, but there really aren't many of these in this country (a shorter, paved road leads to the top of Mt. Evans, a couple hours north in Clear Creek County, which is better in many ways, but since we're sticking to central and southern Colorado, this is the one to do). The view from the top is good - not great - but just the idea that you're 14,000 feet high is pretty satisfying. Plus you can have your picture taken at the summit and claim you "summitted" a 14,000-foot peak. Photo.

I have to say I was left extremely unimpressed with Mesa Verde National Park, which is near Cortez. It's extremely touristy and surprisingly is quite restored, rather than preserved. You can get "up close" with the cave dwellings (on guided tours only, of course), but they're not too ancient anymore - the ones they let the tourists on were mostly rebuilt in the last few decades. Photo. Furthermore, I have been to Telluride multiple times and have never left impressed. It's hard to get to, if you stay the night the setup with Mountain Village hotels is positively puzzling, and the town isn't particularly well-developed. Perhaps the only bonus is that on the way out of Telluride you may run into Ralph Lauren driving some crazy exotic car. Photo of Telluride. In central Colorado, you can gamble in Teller County's seat, Cripple Creek, if you so desire. It's mostly filled with elderly Colorado Springs residents, but there are literally dozens of casinos in the area for a little fun. Cripple Creek itself is visually uninteresting and actually somewhat depressing as it's an ex-mining town from which all the trees on all adjacent hillsides have been completely removed. Photo.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Honestly, if you're thinking of it, I've probably done it, or at least considered doing it, so I'm here to help!

 

I love it too, and you're welcome - feel free to ask any other questions.