Last minute Colorado vacation planning

If your wife wants to see RMNP, there's enough to do and see just there for your entire trip. Estes Park would be a fine home base, or you could stay in Loveland or Lyons and have about a 1hr drive through some pretty canyon scenery to get to Estes and the park. From any of these places you can be in the mountains outside Boulder in a 1-2 hour drive as well.

If you guys want to spend most of your time hiking and experiencing the park Estes would be a good base. I can't spend much more than a day exploring any town so if the goal is to get out and really see the park and do some hikes Estes would be the easiest access.

If there's a chance your wife wants to spend a day or two exploring towns and shopping you could probably pretty easily spend those days in Estes, Ft. Collins, Boulder, Loveland, or Granby/Grand Lake if you head west through the park. Granby and Grand Lake would be a great day on the water if you had any interest in renting a pontoon or something for a day. If you guys wanted to do a casino day or something like that you could head down to Blackhawk/Central City.
 
I live just south of Boulder so I might be a little biased but I think basing out of Boulder or up the Canyon in Nederland is the most ideal since you can literally go in any direction with pretty good ease, endless food options, The flatirons and easy but awesome hiking should you want a low key travel day. Boulder itself is worth a day of walking around, Golden/Clear Creek Canyon just 20 minutes to the south, Loveland just to the North and of course, Fort Collins.

Beer/Food Worth Checking out
Twisted Pine - Boulder
Avery Brewing - Boulder
Holiday Brewring - Golden
New Terrain - Golden *My local spot, esp after a MTB ride
Denver Beer Co - Arvada
Sherpa House - Golden *100% put on your list
Bonfire Burrito - Golden
PARISI - 44th & Tennyson



Things to do besides RMNP that are amazing and high bang for your buck.

Rockies Baseball game - They are absolute trash and tickets are almost free but Coors Field is worth a visit.

Brainard Lake Recreation area **You do need a parking reservation from Recreation.gov but go in the evening, generally 15-25% capacity, lighting is amazing, wildlife viewing, great hiking loops and many larger alpine lakes that can be hiked in 30min to 3hrs depending on what you want.

Nederland is always a fun time, not as fun as it use to be but still pretty chill. Good coffee/bike shop combo named Salto and a local BBQ/Brew Pub named Busey Brews

Head up Highway 14 through Poudre Canyon. The drive is excellent. Take it to State Forest State Park and go and check out Lake Agnes. High Alpine lake that is only about 1 mile from the parking area(Stock Subaru does just fine on the road up to the parking area). Google it, great hike that is high up but isn't long enough to make you pay for the elevation and has a massive pay off at the top. Highway 14 will also give you access to tons of great hiking trails on the NW side of RMNP that see little use.

Tour New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins

1/2 day Fly Fishing. Rocky Mountain Anglers in Boulder is a great shop but there are so many great shops. You can get 1/2 day guided for 2 with everything you need for sub 500$. Its primo fishing right now until winter and a awesome way to see some things outside the norm. Cheeseman Canyon(fishing can be tough due to pressure) is amazing, South Boulder Creek, South Platte, Gore Canyon all worth a day wading.

It's endless but just a few ideas that give high return value and low crowds.
 
I would also recommend SW CO. I rented a VRBO north of Durango near Purgatory ski resort. I think it is the prettiest part of the state and there is so much to do in the area. I would ride the train from Durango to Silverton one day. Ride the train up and the bus back. This gives you time to eat lunch and check out Silverton which is a cool town. Do not miss checking out Telluride. It is a pretty town and the only place that rivals Jackson, WY in beauty IMO. Other day trips could be Ouray, Mesa Verde NP and possibly Pagosa Springs. This trip was one of my favorite family vacations and my wife and I are headed back there in a couple of weeks.
 
Go West Old Man said:
We’re looking to take a Colorado vacation the last week of this month. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get it done! 😁 Rokslider’s advice has been a great help for trip planning before. I took advantage of Roksliders good advice for two trips to WY in 2023, and both times the suggestions and recommendations were spot on!

OK, so let me hear your best recommendations for a Colorado vacation. It’ll just be me & my wife, and we tend to enjoy the typical sightseeing, scenic drives, national parks, good restaurants, etc.

As of tonight, the idea is to fly to Denver (we live in GA) , find accommodations at a “home base” location, and day trip from there. We probably will focus on sightseeing Rocky Mountain NP and the surrounding area within a couple hours drive. The main thing I am looking for advice on is where to “home base” and what are your recommendations for accommodations. We probably would prefer nicer lodge or cabin type accommodations, or an Airbnb, but nicer hotels especially independent hotels/lodges in good areas are also an option. We can’t break the bank for absolute top tier, but “cheaper is better “ is not the priority. Nice, clean, friendly , & safe area are good “filters” , and well spend the funds to be a a nice place. Tell me what you advise and recommend?

What about Estes Park? Accommodations?

We’re prone to try to do to much when we vacation /travel, but we have made the most of our past trips! Last June, we drove 1700+ miles in 8 days covering western SD over to northwest WY & back. Whew! On that trip we had good suggestions from the Rockslide populous for accommodations in Cody, WY. One of the best was for staying at The Cody. We stayed there 4 nights and it was 👍 A++.

One side note from our WY June 2023 trip …….. one evening at a bar in Cody we met a whisky drinkin’ rodeo cowboy from Ten Sleep. Funny as heck, LMAO story about him and his horse, ….. but I’ll have to save that for later. 😁

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Headed to vail right this second (currently I. The Atl airport) for a 15th anniversary getaway. Will report back. As to other Colorado trips, in 2022 we did the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs and then drove several hours north to Estes park. That was one of our favorite family vacations. If you can make it to Colorado Springs, the Broadmoor was one of the greatest hotels we’ve ever stayed at. Lots to do there like pikes peak, garden of the gods, fishing the south platt river (hour away) and good restaurants.

We also loved Estes park. We stayed in a condo on the Fall River and that was perfect for that trip as it was very close to the park. I highly recommend it. If we did it again, I’d like to stay in the actual town of Estes just to be closer to the action in town. The Stanley hotel is probably where I’d stay next time as it was the inspiration for “The Shining”, which intrigues me, and it looks decently nice. One thing to consider about Estes Park is whether the Trail Ridge Road will even be open at the end of the month? I would guess yes, but maybe an early snow could change it.
 
Right now due to the leaves changing hotels are at a premium where you’re talking about going. I know of somebody who had an event this weekend in Fort Collins and the La Quinta there was $350 per night and this is not even in the mountains. If you want to see you may have to pay for it to be close to them or there are awesome drives.


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Evergreen CO...find an airbnb there or stay in the hotel. Then on the way up to Evergreen stop and see the Bison herd....once in Evergreen go drive around downtown and the Elk Meadows park and see the local Elk herd. Drive the hwy 103 for incredible views and stop in Idaho Springs for a steak dinner. You can also tour the gold mines there and visit the hot springs.

Thats a quick and simple vaca with none of the madness of the NPS's reservation system and you can still drive over to Rocky if you do get a reservation but see alot along the way.

Stay your first night down in Denver...maybe Golden...to avoid altitude sickness...its not fun puking on vaca. If it becomes an issue on your trip then stay down near Golden.

Bring your fishing gear and get a license as there is good fishing all around too.

Go drive Guanella Pass if its not closed....your welcome!
 
We stayed in Steamboat Springs for a week, and took day trips from there back in June. Estes Park and the drive there and back was beautiful. Take a tour of the Stanley hotel there. For sure keep an eye on the RMNP app, we didnt know about it, showed up around 10 and didnt know we needed a reservation. Thank God the nice girl park ranger cut us a break. But if you get there early or late ya dont need a reservation. But we have been to Colorado before and stayed in Durango and Grand Juction, really is turning into our favorite state. Just this past weekend my daugher had to present at a Conference there in Denver, they caught a Rockies vs Cubs game and Broncos vs Steelers. They had a blast. but........the flight into Denver was nerve wrecking for them, just google Denver crosswinds.... They both said that was their last flight to Denver lol. From about 60 miles out, they were at 34,000 feet, and landed sideways and hot lol. So good luck! Yall should have a blast.
 
Bumping this up, has anyone flew into Denver then stayed in Breckenridge for a home base? I was considering…
Rmnp/estes park
Idaho springs
Steamboat
Buena vista
Colorado Springs.

Need to find a mix of sight seeing and fun stuff for kids. Let me know if I’m crazy. Best wishes
 
Breckenridge is nice, but it's bit of a hike to few of the places on your list. What were you planning on doing in the Springs?
 
I'm not sure if I've been to Idaho Springs, but that little area (Black Hawk, Central City) used to have gem mines and stuff like that your kids might enjoy. I don't know if they still do that or not.
 
Highvoltage1 said:
Bumping this up, has anyone flew into Denver then stayed in Breckenridge for a home base? I was considering…
Rmnp/estes park
Idaho springs
Steamboat
Buena vista
Colorado Springs.

Need to find a mix of sight seeing and fun stuff for kids. Let me know if I’m crazy. Best wishes
Click to expand...

We didn’t fly in, but drove in with our bike on a trailer and got a real nice and very reasonably priced 2 BR VRBO in Keystone. Then headed out on the bike a different direction each day. Pikes Peak, Aspen, RMNP, Mt Evans, a show at Red Rocks, and a bunch of stuff in between. This worked great for us.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Panning for gold at IS.
Shops/ waterfalls/ sights at Breckenridge
Shops/ falls/ fish at steamboat
Shops/ fish Buena vista
Pikes peak, garden of gods, top golf CO springs
Considered glenwood springs and scrapping steamboat too.

I considered mt Princeton for a hot springs. Never done the hot springs before
 
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