rimavip

Hi all, I need help again for my Colorado trip. We have planed to visit following areas.
Aspen
Pagosa spring
durango
ourays
tellurides.
we also would love to visit vail and Breckenridge. But I assume, it won’t be possible due to fire.any other recommendations welcome. We are worried for fire. BTW we have 2 weeks.
Thank you 🙏 stay safe..

Melnq8

What kind of help are you looking for? What time of year are we talking about? What are your interests? Are you flying into Denver or another city?

I assume you've chosen these spots for a reason - what drew you to these places? In other words, what do you hope to see and do in each area?

Give us some more info so we can help.

rimavip

Ohh, I forgot to mention. We are coming there from 09/19 to 10/05. Due to Fire, I feel like we have to change our itinerary. We love mountains, mountain towns, short trails and some kids activities for my 8 yrs old. We heard I-70 is closed so we won’t be visiting Breckinridge,vail. I still like to go to aspen but not sure due to fire. We are planing to visit million dollar highway. Anything else we can do?
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rimavip

We will be in Colorado from 9/19-10/05. We love mountains, mountain towns,short trails, some activity for my 8 yrs old and lots of relaxing time😀. My itinerary was to start from I-70 west to vail,Breckinridge.aspen and towns that I listed above. But due to fire in Colorado, we think that we only can travel south west part of CO. I need help in any input or any other ideas we can do instead.

oldemalloy

If you are safe going south then west, consider taking 25 south to 160 and visiting Great Sand Dunes NP. Then continue west on 160 to Durango, take the train to Silverton or just drive up and back. Then head over to Mesa Verde for a couple of days. Try for lodging in the park to avoid the drive up and down the Mesa multiple times. If it is still open, the Metate Resturant was one of the better NP eateries we have encountered.

Melnq8

I-70 isn't currently closed, although there are some restrictions, including the need for snow tires or chains. We're in the midst of a winter storm here in CO at the moment, but the storm should be a distant memory by Friday.

You'll find current road conditions here:

https://www.cotrip.org/travelAlerts.htm#?roadId=

You'll want to be flexible this time of year as our weather is a bit spastic.

I assume you're flying into Denver so you'll be starting there?

I think you'd be wise to narrow your options a bit. You can realistically visit Pagosa Springs, Durango, Ouray, and Telluride, but it gets a bit complicated when you throw Aspen, Vail and Breckenridge into the mix. I suggest you choose a section of the state instead of trying to cover such a vast area.

If you do opt for the SW part of the state, you could also easily add Mesa Verde.

If it were me, I'd go south, but I'm a bit jaded as I'm partial to that part of the state. IMO you get more bang for your buck and you can avoid I-70, which I try to do even at the best of times.

Nelson

+1 to the above, go to the southwest only and add Mesa Verde. The CO DOT site that mel posted also has a map where you can get a quick overview of the entire state.
https://www.cotrip.org/map.htm#/roadConditions

Here's a snip from right now. You can see the roads closed in red due to the fire. The blue is currently snow/ice conditions from yesterday's storm, and the green is wet. Yellow is dry.

Gretchen

With that amount of time and an 8 year old how about adding some dinosaur sites in. In Morrison, just on the outskirts of Denver there is Dinosaur Ridge and a small museum in the town of Morrison. Then just outside of Colorado Springs in the town of Woodland is a wonderful little eshibition with a laboratory doing preparation on other fossils. There are many other sites around the state also. Our grandchildren loved doing it at that age.

rimavip

All these post really helped me. I am relief from stress about CO fire now. Ya we have heard about dinosaur place. We will be visiting it sometime when we there. I was thinking about Mesa verde but I heard the park is open but tours are not operating. Will see what we can do for that place.