Colorado in the summer!
 

Hello! I've just discovered these forum and got such wonderful responses from a previous post. To anyone reading and responding, thank you in advance for taking the time. I promise to return the favor when I return!

​I have been searching the information here on the boards, and wanted to get some opinions from experts here regarding a summer trip to Colorado. I have some parameters based on the previous posts here, and would love to hear your opinion on where to stay over night, hotels/resorts, companies to use for rafting, and sites to see. I'm so excited to see what you might say!

Here are some of our parameters/details:

Family of four, two young teens.

We are flying in and out of Denver and renting a car.

We are staying 5 or 6 nights. We'd like to stay at least 2 nights in each location. (so for five nights 2/3 or for six nights 2/2/2 or 3/3). We don't like to go to a new place each night.​

We don't like to drive more than 2.5 hours in between days - the shorter the drive, the better actually. We are okay with not seeing everything in the state! Just want to have a nice relaxing time.

We want to raft and buena vista seems like a good spot, although I'm not sure we want to stay there. Opinions? Other places to raft Class II and III?

We are traveling in late July.

We want to do great hikes, visit cool little towns, and have really nice mountain views from hotels.

We've heard Breckenridge could be a great place to stay for a couple of nights? If so, we'd like to stay close to restaurants. Any street recommendations?

Thanks everyone in advance! Any recommendations for trip itinerary are welcome!
Rosebud

Frisco is a cute little town with great restaurants and such, and you can visit a number of places nearby.
I don't think there will be much in the way of rafting that late.
I would think you would like to see Rocky Mountain National Park in that time frame.
Stay in Estes Park for the first 2 days and explore that.
Then maybe go to the Aspen area for a few days.

On the way back you might spend a night in Leadville.

Leadville is a very cool little town. It's actually the highest incorporated town in the lower 48, at over 10,000 ft. The only drawback is you can have trouble sleeping at night because of the elevation. We were there in the summer during the rodeo - so you might check out when it runs. The hiking we've done out of Leadville was up to a 14er, not sure you want to tackle that with 2 teenagers?

Rocky Mountain National Park is a must and you definitely want to stay on the east side of the park in Estes Park. The scenery and hiking is much better. Lots of trails to choose from, but these are some of the top trails in the park:

http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails...p-10-hikes.htm

Make sure you make the drive across Trail Ridge Road and plan on at least half a day exploring the views and even doing some short trails. The Ute Trail and the Tundra Communities Trail are both short, but at that elevation you'll be breathless!

As far as accommodations, try not to get anything in the heart of town as traffic and congestion can be bad in the summer. We like to stay out Fall River Road at the Woodlands. Although it doesn't have mountain views, your deck is right over the river and it's a very nice setting.

Thank you Wave725 and Gretchen! Should we try to do Pikes Peak train?

I like Estes and RMNP. The hike to Sky Pond, which goes by The Loch, is fantastic hike. I would have a meal in The Stanley Hotel.

Class II rafting isn't very much. Would have been boring for my now older teen.

You kids would likely enjoy an Alpine Slide. There are several in the state(I think).
You might look at Segway tours as well.

For six nights the loop Denver -> Estes -> Grand Lake -> Summit County or Leadville -> Denver is a classic. I've sent many out of town co-workers on that route (in either direction) with 100% rave reviews.

Aspen is superb but does add a few extra hours of driving. You could do it via I-70 and Glenwood Springs, return via Independence Pass. Your call on the driving time.

All of the hikes listed in wave725's RMNP link are fantastic.

I'd skip the Pikes Peak train. You can drive up Mount Evans and get to 14,000' that way. Evans is a more impressive summit.

Have a great trip.

Went on a supposed Class 3 rapids trip - outside of Vail - the Missouri river was it? - in the later part of the summer. Class 3 my axx - more like one and a half. So much depends on the level of the water/flow in the river.

When I later went river rafting in Costa Rica - they had some REAL Class 3 and 4 rapids. :)

Do the Mt. Evans as suggested rather than Pike's Peak. The latter is sort of off your best route.

Sounds like a great plan! I'm going to go ahead and create an itinerary that includes Estes, Grand Lake, Leadville and rafting out of Buena Vista. We'll probably stay at Estes and Leadville with the others being trips along the way or day trips. (We;ll hit Grand Lake on the way to Leadville...maybe Frisco for Lunch). We'll definitely do Mr. Evans instead of Pikes Peak.

I still want to add rafting. We are going to probably do a full day Browns Canyon. Although now based on these recommendations we may base in Leadville and just drive to Buena Vista for the trip. Looks like it's only 45 minutes away.

How do you recommend driving from Estes to Grand Lake? Or visa versa? By google maps it looks like they take me back by Denver. Is that the right way, or can we go around? It looks like there is a Route 34, but Google is not even allowing me to drag the route there! Is it closed? It's probably just a fluke.

The only wildcard is Aspen, but I might just see how the itinerary shakes out first.

Finally, now that I have some places to stay. Any lodging recommendations? We'll have a car but love to walk to things. We don't live in an area where you can walk to restaurants and town, so we love to do so on vacation.

As always, many thanks!

Highway 34 between Estes and Grand Lake is Trail Ridge Road, one of the most spectacular alpine drives in the western US. It is typically open from late-May through sometime in October. The road is closed now, but that is your route.

For lodging, the last couple of times my wife and I stayed in Breck, should you wind up there, we used the Wedgewood Lodge. Decent location and reasonably priced. The walk is just a few blocks to town and they have free underground parking.

Our last time in Aspen, if you go there, we used the Molly Gibson Lodge, which we liked, once again, for its great location and reasonable prices.

As you can tell, we are cheap SOBs! But both are quite nice, well situated, and great value. Lots of decent options in both towns.

Can't help you with Leadville or Estes as we've generally stayed at friend's places when there.

Thank you, Nelson!

I would really play the raft trip by ear--see what the water is like when you get there. it could be a float trip, which is fine if that is what you want.

The quality of rafting late in July is related to water flow. The peak of the rafting season is roughly mid May to mid/late June. It actually becomes more dangerous later in the season because the lower water levels exposes more rocks. However, the probability of a longer season this year is much greater. The snowpack report yesterday indicated that the central mountains drainage basins are all over 100% of average. Most unusual this early in winter. Obviously it could quit snowing next week but the probability of an above average snowpack this year is very high. But - (and there is always a but) an early, hot spring could have a negative impact. The Brown's canyon trips are about the best in the state. There are several companies running in the canyon. Have used a couple of them and didn't notice any difference.

Good luck.

I'm bookmarking because I'm interested too.

I always recommend Aspen. It has everything you want. River rafting there is good, as is fishing, hiking, sightseeing, shopping (expensive), horseback riding, music concerts, art affairs, etc.

The drive from DIA would probably be about 5 hours, but you could break it up with a night in Vail or Summit County.

Personally, I'd go the 5 hours, to get there and stay there. You could drive over Independence Pass on your way back to Denver, and go through Leadville (which isn't a big deal, IMHO).

We like staying at The Gant, a condo-hotel, which is easy walking distance into Aspen proper, and has a free shuttle service, also.

Wow-- late July is expensive in Aspen. The Gant's cheapest rate is $667/night, and Aspen Square is sold out. Something must be going on there. I just plugged in random dates around July 17- July 23.

Food and Wine week? Music festival?--any number of things going on in the Colorado mountains all summer long.
Wow, good news about the snow pack!!

Gretchen, news just reported another 32" of snow in Winter Park. It's snowed all day in Denver today, too.

Snow pack will mean no water restrictions, and great runoff for rafting. Everybody wins!

Our son said it snowed like 2 feet somewhere in the mountains last week. That is SUCH good news for Colorado--people think it is only for skiers!!
Rafting still..... stay tuned. We can hope. I only say that because people think it is just "there" all the time because it is the "mountains". 'o)

Hi Rosebud. Please look for the post under my name. We did the same trip last year and had a wonderful time thanks to the advice of the folks on this forum. I never posted a trip report but here is what we did. After flying into Denver and picking up our van we headed straight to Boulder for lunch at the Med. We then drove up Boulder canyon to the peak to peak hwy and stopped at St. Malo's before arriving at our rental in Estes. We found a lovely home overlooking Mary's Lake via VRBO. There is a lodge at Mary's lake that looked very nice as well with a pool for the kids. I liked the location as we were not in the middle of town and never encountered traffic getting to the park. From Estes we did a rafting trip with Wanderlust rafting. They are about a 1.5 hour scenic ride thru Big Thompson canyon thru Ft. Collins . After the trip we stopped at Ft. Collins for lunch. There is a cute downtown area with shops and lots of choices for lunch.
On one of the days , One of the hikes we tried from this end was the one to lake Haiyaha. This was by far the most picturesque lake I have hiked to. I could have stayed there for hours.
The other hike we did was to the pool via Fern lake trail.
For the second half of our trip we went to Grand Lake. We rented a cabin at Grand Lake Lodge. We absolutely loved this place. Please check it out. I would return there in a heartbeat. There is not as much to do but we were able to fill our days. We rented a boat one day and rode around the lake. Another day we went zip lining while the younger kids has an archery lesson at Devils Thumb Ranch. Though we visited devils thumb as a day trip you could check out staying there as we'll. They have cabins and rent rooms in the hotel. This place was gorgeous. The town of Grand Lake itself is also interesting for a few days. Lots of little stores to check out, jet skis to rent, etc. Grand Lake is very rustic and laid back, but like I said we loved it and would love to go back.
Hope you enjoy your trip. You'll find there is simply not enough time to do everything.

Near Buena Vista you might want to consider Mt. Princeton hot springs resort. This is a good resort if you like outdoor activities (horseback riding, biking,hiking, rafting, tennis) with gorgeous scenery of the Collegiate range. The resort has cabins for rent but we stayed in one of the "cliff side" rooms. We ate in the dining room there, which was fine.
You could drive there via Leadville and also see that town. the scenery along the Arkansas River on our way is beautiful

If you are going to Leadville, you should definitely read The Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. The novel won a Pulitzer in 1972.

My nephew is a senior at University of Denver.

Thin

I would recommend staying in Aspen instead of Leadville; it's an hour or so additional drive to go over Independence Pass, but there are many more lodging and recreation options.

If you stay in Aspen then you can hike by the Maroon Bells, possibly the most iconic of Colorado mountains. Leadville is nice enough, good hiking and views, and the mining museum there is great, but who want to be in a museum on a nice July day?!

However Aspen is fantastic.

I just did a quick search and the Mountain Chalet Aspen and Aspen Mountain Lodge are coming in at $152 and $199 respectively for two adults and two teens. Molly Gibson where my wife and I stayed last September is at $329. These prices are the last week in July. The music festival is in full swing then.

But I still would make sure you do RMNP and Trail Ridge Road. You have enough time. Then decide on the other half of your trip. Stay in two places for 3 nights each would be my choice, but people differ on that one.

Good luck with your planning.

A reminder !!!! Bring a jacket, sweater or fleece, gloves, stocking cap and long pants. It can be very chilly especially when sun goes down. Summer in the mountains is not always tank tops and short shorts.

Rent bikes in Leadville and check out the Mineral Belt Trail. www.visitleadvilleco.com/mineral_belt_trail

Leaving Leadville and on the way to Aspen you can make a stop at the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. An interesting stop with a nearby nature walk loop and hiking trails.

Your teens would probably enjoy sampling (or save for a hike) a few varieties of cookies from Cookies with Altitude when passing through Leadville.

Wow! We were without power for about 4 days and I return to 25 replies! Thanks! Can't wait to go through all of these...

Nelson gives you good advice.

I wholeheartedly agree that Grand Lake Lodge is a special place. If you don't stay there, you can have lunch or dinner on their 'front porch', facing the beautiful lake.

Everyone has been so helpful and I wanted to give an update. We've made reservations for the first two nights at Devils thumb ranch and three nights in Aspen. The last night we'll probably stay at the airport in Denver because our flight is early in the morning. Below is our tentative skeleton plan, although we usually change things a bit as we go. But at least it's a guide to follow. Thanks again to everyone for the advice, and let me know if you have any more suggestions now that we have reservations set (towns to visit, restaurants, etc.) I will post a trip report upon our return!

Day 1: Arrive Denver airport at 11:00am. Drive to Devils Thumb Range. Relax and get used to altitude.

Day 2: Devils Thumb Ranch Zip Line, etc.

Day 3: Depart at noon for Aspen. Slowly make our way - stopping in towns along the way. Vail or Glenwood Springs (or both?) Arrive late night in Aspen at Mountain Chalet

Day 4: Maroon Bells/Hiking or Whitewater rafting, depending on forecast.

Day 5:Maroon Bells/Hiking or Whitewater rafting, depending on forecast.

Day 6: Depart Aspen. Slowly make our way back to Denver, stopping in towns along the way. Leadville for lunch? Maybe Mount Evans depending on the time of day. Arrive at airport hotel late night.

Day 7: depart.

Thanks for reporting back. Sounds like a nice itinerary and good use of your time.

Have a great trip!

You will LOVE Devil's Thumb Ranch! If you want an elegant log cabin dining experience, their Ranch House restaurant is well-respected. It's been our go-to place for special occasions for many years (before this newest renovation of the Ranch).

Heck's Tavern is also very good. And happy hour served outside is awesome. Cocktails in front of the fireplace at the Ranch House bar area is also a favorite spot of ours. Hors d'oeuvres are pricey, though, and last time we discovered we should have just gone in to the restaurant and ordered meals. haha

I almost forgot: Since you are taking your time to drive, from Devil's Thumb Ranch to Aspen, do NOT go through Winter Park, over Berthoud Pass, to I-70. That's a pretty route, too, but when we have time, we go Hwy 9.

It's much prettier to take the back route from Kremmling on Hwy 9. Probably takes longer, but it's a pretty drive.

Ask at the Ranch and they will happily direct you. Our friends last summer hired a fishing guide through the Ranch, so they could stop and fish along the way.

If you are driving from Denver to Devil's Thumb via Hwy 40 (Berthoud Pass), here are some iconic stops for a meal along the way your boys would like:

Idaho Springs-- Beau Jo's pizza

Empire-- Lewis Sweet Shop, a funky little family-owned place, with a very misleading name. Because they make wonderful BBQ and fried sweet potato chicken tenders, in addition to outlandish sweets like chocolate covered bacon! It's a ramshackle little red & white frame building on your left as you enter Empire. Not really good for sit down, though.

Also in Empire-- Hard Rock Cafe, the "original" named for the local miners. Home made everything, log cabin inside, and nice outdoor patio.

Winter Park-- BEST pizza @ Hernando's, on your right as you leave Winter Park. Great family salads, too.

Here's my thread from our last visit to Aspen, including restaurants we like there:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...some-aspen.cfm

I logged in today and realized that I never posted a trip report. You all were so helpful and I hope this helps someone else in the community.

First - we loved our trip to Colorado. It was - so far - our favorite family trip ever. I took advice directly from this page - THANK YOU!

Day 1: Landed, drank water, rented car - drove immediately to Devil's Thumb Ranch for two nights. We are not snow people, but in the summer it was our favorite place of the whole trip. In 48 hours we did zip line, archery, swimming, and horseback riding. AND we felt relaxed when we left. I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Day 3: Left the Ranch and drove to Aspen. On the way we stopped at Leadeville for lunch. I would not recommend Leadeville unless you plan to do the bike path. It was a cool sleepy town, but also felt seedy. We really didn't enjoy it at all. I think it would be different if we decided to bike.

Arrived in Aspen. Mountain Chalet was perfectly described by all of you. Some folks may not appreciate the 70s feel of the place, but it was fine for us and the kids LOVED the pool. So funny.

Day 4: Maroon Bells. We hiked for miles and wish we brought more food to make it longer :)

Day 5: Whitewater rafting at Browns Canyon. It was definitely a highlight.

Day 6: Depart Aspen and stopped at a B&B in Frisco for the night. We loved the town and would definitely go back to explore another time.

Day 7: depart.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for your report. I'm glad you liked DTR. It's a special place.

bookmarking

Summer in Colorado. What memories! Your report RosebudAlley highlighted white water rafting and hiking mostly in the west slope Aspen area. Such fun!

If I did a trip report on our various visits it would be this. Hiking the trails, breathing in mountain air, fishing streams...and in our case a 50th wedding anniversary celebration ten years ago in my cousin's mountain cabins. This isn't far from Estes Park which is a very touristy place but not far away is the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park which I have loved driving the Trail Ridge Road. It can get quite chilly up there.

We climbed Long's Peak one summer which is a long way up and back down in one day. Besides the cousin's cabin we've stayed at YMCA center for a retreat and camped elsewhere.

Also there is Breckinridge and further southwest is Leadville which features the gold mining days. Some neat historic mine shafts and shops for tourists to discover.

So there's my Colorado remembrance report.