Hello All! newcomer here!

Me and 3 of my closest friends are planning a road trip for summer 2017 from Eureka Springs, Ar to CO. Our main itinerary is to visit CO's National Parks and Monuments.
We are looking for stops along the way, as well as in CO.
I have vacationed in CO about 4 times, visiting Breckenridge, Telluride, Ouray, Aspen, Durango, Colorado Springs, SteamBoat Springs, and Denver. My friends havent been to CO before.

We are looking for some fun places to visit while we are making a loop through CO visiting the National Parks and Monuments.

So far we have decided on Great Sand Dunes NP, Mesa Verde NP, Black Canyon Gunnison NP, and Rocky Mountains NP. We have not decided on the National Monuments we are going to stop at yet.
We are looking for places on the way of interest, places to stop and eat, places to do outdoor activities and have good fun.

What we like to do (so you know what we are looking for): Hiking, site-seeing, Eating good food, rock climbing, kayaking, camping, Off-roading ( i have a well equipped off-roading daily driver), Night life, scenic drives, fishing. That covers most of what we are looking for in our trip!

I know there are many places to go sight-see and enjoy the outdoors. Just need some help putting together a list of places we want to visit so we can map out a route. I welcome any ideas and interests you have with the great state of CO!
- Thanks, Wolfgangallee

Also forgot to mention, we are looking for towns and hotels to stay at throughout our drive. if you have a favorite town or hotel to mention, please do!

How much time do you have? The national parks that you mentioned are a 7 1/2 hour drive apart (Mesa Verde to Rocky Mountain).

I'm a bit biased, because I live in Colorado, but there are many, many gorgeous places that are not in national parks. That being said, the parks you mention are worth going to, ESPECIALLY Mesa Verde.

What part of the summer are you planning your road trip for? If you want to hike in higher elevations, you won't be able to do that until mid June at the very earliest.

Every part of the state that you mentioned, there are plenty of places to do everything you included for what you like to do, except possibly eating good food and nigh life.

Dinosaur National Monument is partly in Colorado, where the Green and Yampa rivers meet. If camping, it's a great location.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7622636845987/ and the next six pictures

For some awesome off roading, go a little farther west and hit Canyonlands NP. While you are there do some hiking at Arches NP too.

Since you are planning on visiting multiple NPs, consider getting the America Beautiful Pass. I think it is $80 and is good for a year for entrance to all the NPs, NMs etc., for everyone in your car. If you are a geezer you can get the Senior pass for $10, good for a lifetime and also lets the others in the car in.

For Mesa Verde, try to get lodging in the park. It takes longer than you would expect to get up/down the mesa.

Hello All! thanks for your input! my friends and I are 20-22, and i have purchased a National park pass. We are planning on doing the trip in mid July and planning on staying in CO for about 2 and a half weeks. We are looking for other places to hike and camp other than NP's. We have originally chosen to visit the National parks because me and one of my of my buddies are attending college in Wildlife Biology to become park rangers/Game and fish Wardens and all of us plan to move up to CO together. Were going to make a big loop around the CO NP's so anything in between that is great for outdoor activities and such, let me know below! again, thank you for your input!

For camping, look at National Forest campgrounds, which are generally cheaper than campgrounds in National Parks.

http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/list/nflist.htm

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/c...510-spry.shtml

or Bureau of Land Management campgrounds, which generally are more primitive.

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo/...s/camping.html

Not all of these campgrounds have potable water.

There is great rock climbing in the Lumpy Ridge section of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Just below Black Canyon of the Gunnison is Curecanti National Recreation Area. That would be a great place for fishing. Otherwise, the state has a lot of trout fishing destinations.

There's some great hiking/camping in the national forests. Where to go depends on whether you are backpacking or car camping, and how primitive you want to get. Rawah Wilderness (north of Rocky Mountain NP) is great. It also borders Colorado State Forest which is a good place to visit as well.

South of RMNP is Indian Peaks Wilderness - similar terrain as RMNP but not as many people.

San Juans and specifically Weminuche Wilderness are amazing.

I would also second the idea to visit Moab since you will be relatively close anyway.