Maria_so.

Since you have mentioned hot springs I'll have my say. Ouray, at the foot of Red Mountain Pass has several nice hot springs. One is the town of Ouray's public pool. Ouray is also just an hours drive from the Black Canyon and is much more scenic than the Aspen bedroom community of Glenwood.

There are also several private hot springs like Box Canyon

http://www.boxcanyonouray.com/

And the charming Wiesbaden spa

http://wiesbadenhotsprings.com/

Orvis Hot Springs is just a few minutes north of Ouray.

http://www.orvishotsprings.com/

You could incorporate Ouray and the Colorado National Monument just outside of Grand Junction into a circular tour of Colorado easily and still ski at A basin or perhaps Loveland. The April temperatures of The Grand Junction area will be very nice for hiking and any other outdoors activity you would like to engage in, much more so than the Front Range area of Colorado. Denver is just another Big City and would be in my opinion a waste of your vacation days.

Beanman

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been back to update but we've needed to talk about this trip and make a decision since it just seems that our timing is a bit off for all we want to see and do in Colorado, especially having decided to spend more of our vacation time this year in Wyoming and SD this year. It just seems like in 3 days, we won't be able to enjoy much of what Colorado has to offer, especially in April where road closings may be an additional hindrance so we've decided to not do the circle this time. We're going to come up the Friday before the conference (which starts on Monday) and we'll spend the first night somewhere up near Rocky Mountain then come back and spend the rest of the time in Denver for conference with nightly outings. During the day, my DH is going to rent a bike and explore Denver.

Thanks for all the advice and we will sure to use it when we come back during a more flexible season.

Driving back to Denver from RMNP, if you have the time take this route:

Take Hwy 7 south out of Estes park for about 18 miles to its intersection with Hwy 72.

Take Hwy 72 south (Hwy 72 is actually an east-west route, but this particular section of it runs south if you're looking at it on a map) toward the town of Nederland. From Nederland, take Hwy 119 east, following Boulder Creek into the town of Boulder.

Its a pretty drive.

As you drive along Hwy 72 toward Nederland, keep an eye out near the hamlet of Ward for a sign indicating the turnoff to the west for the Brainard Lake Recreation Area. I'd suggest turing west onto this road and into the Rec Area. During the summer there is a fee to use this area, but in April access should be free. The Rec Area is small, but has a pretty lake (actually 2), some nice short hikes, and offers some absolutely beautiful views of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area to the west.

In RMNP,

1) ask the ranger at the entrance station or visitors center how to get to the "Alluvial Fan". When you do get there, park your car and take the very short hike out onto the fan, read the sign explaining the fan's origin, and just imagine what it must have been like on that day nearly 25 years ago when it was ceated.

2) Take your car as far up Trail Ridge Road (Hwy 34) as you can. It will be closed off at one of the bigger turnouts, but pulling over here you'll be high enough to get a beautiful view of the eastern side of the park.

3) Take the drive up to Bear Lake. At this time of year you should be able to drive all the way up to it's parking lot.

4) Take the short hike to Alberta Falls (the trailhead is found along the road to Bear Lake).

5) Don't eat any pink snow. Also know as "watermelon snow", it is created by the growth of a cold-loving algae, and can cause intestinal discomfort..... if ya know what I mean.

thanks furledleader! We just rented a compact car for 2 days. Is that ok to drive to the areas you mention? Also, since we have the car for 2 days, on Sunday I think we will venture out to see south park area and perhaps the fossil beds. What do you think? We need to return the car by 5:30 on Sunday. What would you suggest as a day trip? Also, any recommendations for a place to stay by RMNP for the Friday night?

Thanks!

There are some nice places between the town of Estes Park and the Hwy 34 entrance to the park. One of them is the Fawn Valley Inn (http://www.fawnvalleyinn.com/index.htm).

A compact car will be just fine. The trip to south park may be cutting it close if you need to return the car by 5:30, but it is do-able. I'd suggest leaving real early in the morning though. Take U.S. Hwy 285 out of Denver and up into the mountains toward Conifer, over Kenosha Pass, then down into Fairplay. In Fairplay, Hwy 285 junctions with Hwy 9. Take Hwy 9 South to Hartsel where you will catch Hwy 24 east toward the Florissant Fossil Beds, then on to Colorado Springs.

The drive from Colorado Springs to Denver is about an hour to an hour and a half. If you have the time, check out the "Garden of the Gods" in Colorado Springs before heading back to Denver.

If you leave Denver at the crack of dawn, an alternate route would be to take I-70 west from Denver, through the Eisenhower tunnel to the town of Frisco (about an hour and a half drive). Heading west on I-70 the expressway starts to rise into the foothills at about mile marker 260. Between mile marker 256 and 254, look to the ridgetops to the south (drivers side) for the futuristic mushroom shaped house featured by Woody Allen in the 1973 movie "Sleeper".
The bridge over the expressway at exit 254 is an award winning span than has no central column and nicely frames the mountains to the west. From Denver to exit 247, I-70 consists of 3 westbound and 3 eastbound lanes. At exit 247, the westbound lanes narrow down from 3 lanes to 2 for most of the remainder of the trip west through the state.
Just before you pass under the bridge at exit 221, look again to the left (drivers side) - the two big mountians that you can briefly see are Grays Peak & Torreys Peak and are the two highest points on the continental divide in the United States. These twin mountain peaks can also be viewed by looking east from the scenic overlook pullout between exits 205 and 203. Just look for the 2 highest peaks in the line of mountains to the east.
Get off the expressway at exit 203 in Frisco and take Hwy 9 south through Breckenridge, over Hoosier Pass and down into south park to Fairplay. From Fairplay, follow the remainder of the route I outlined above.

Sounds great furledleader! Thanks again for all your advice. Will do a trip report when we get back!

Thanks a billion!

ttt

Hi All,

Just wanted to thank all of you for your suggestions.

Estes park is a cute little town and I really liked our room at Silver Moon Inn. We had a fireplace in the room and a mini fridge and microwave - right
by the river and next to the little ampitheater they have in the town. We got there about 7:30 and most of the town was closed. We didn't want to drive
anywhere for dinner that night so decided to walk somewhere within walking distance. Well, most of the places the hotel recommended was closed so we
went to the only place opened - the wild rose. Dinner was ok. It tasted like most of the veggies and seafood were frozen products - still, it wasn't bad.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at the Egg and I - which was great! Huge portions and on the way, we saw the elks huddled around at the town center. It was
funny to see them there - tolerating the tourist taking pictures of them and they never left the whole day! We saw them later after RMNP! We walked back to
the hotel after breakfast and bumped into Kirk's Fly Fishing Shop who also rented snow shoes ($10 with poles for each person) so we did that and said we would
pick it up on our way out to RMNP. Got back to the hotel, rested a bit since I was feeling a bit of the altitude sickness.

At RMNP, with furledleader's recommendation, we visited the alluvial fan area, smiled when we saw the "watermelon snow" and thought of furledleader, got up
to where they blocked off the Trail Ridge Road, took pictures and sat amazed at the beauty of the mountains and the all that snow, then we went to bear lake
area and did a hike with snow shoes up to bear lake and nymph lake. At this point, I was really having problems with the altitude sickness (which I turned
out to be quite sentsitive with, to my dismay, I think it's exacerbated by the fact that I have a mild heart murmur to begin with but DH was feeling it a bit
too), so we called off also going to dream lake and emerald lake. It was kind of funny because when the ranger kept saying lake, we were really looking for
a lake - with water! and of course, it on ice under all that snow so we figred it would be the same with the falls ;-) and because I was having issues with
the altitude sickness, we said enough for the day. We ended the day with a nice pint and some pizza at Estes Park Brewery then headed back to Denver.

After checking in at the Marriott, we had made reservations to Rioja for DH's birthday as suggested here at Fodors. I have to say, this was a bit of a
disappointment. First our reservations were for 9:15 and we didn't get our table until about 10:30 and actually, we never did get a dining table but one by
the bar (because one didn't become available and we were getting hungry). The hostess was nice though and arranged for us to have appetisers on the house.
Both were good if not VERY small portions. The pea soup was delicious and the cheese selection was also good but again, very small portions. For dinner,
DH's duck was good (not great) and my lamb was tasteless and it was supposed to have 5 spices. Dessert was good but nothing to call home about. In the end,
they didn't charge me for my entre (I didn't complain but when the waiter saw I didn't even finish a single slice of the lamb, he took it out of the bill).
In the end, I just didn't see this place as spectacular as some people have said.

On Sunday, we again followed furledleader's advice (except the waking up at the crack of dawn - we woke up at 8:15 but was in the car by 8:55 to take I-70
west from Denver, through the Eisenhower tunnel to the town of Frisco through Breckenridge (had lunch at a really cute place in Breckenridge), over Hoosier Pass and down into south park to Fairplay. Then to
Fossil beds (where we did the mini hike) then to Colorado Springs for a pint at Phantom Canyon brewerey, a stroll through downtown, then to the airport to
drop off the car (we skiped valley of the Gods for next time and that we thought it looked alot like what we've seen in Utah).

Back in Denver, we had dinner at Vesta Dipping Grill - LOVELY place and MUCH better than Rioja! We have alot of really good mexican places here in Houston
so we skipped those recommendations. My DH did some mountain biking and mooched around town and found the breweries and really enjoyed himself. On one of
his jaunts, he found a sign for 75cents oyster happy hour at Jax and knowing how much I LOVE seafood so we had happy hour oysters there and then dinner with
the rest of my colleagues at Rialto Cafe - good food, good location. I ended up taking my colleagues back to Jax for dinner and it Was FANTASTIC! Kept
thinking I should've brough DH there for his birthday - that our Vesta - oh well. Jax is a really great place and I would highly recommend it. If I had
known the place sooner, I would've visited more than I did! We had snow on Wednesday and DH and I had sushi (Sonodas - quite good but a hole in the wall type
place - but really, better food than what I expected) then went to the conference party. Fun night.

On my last day, I was by myself by then. I had all day Friday before heading out to the airport. Woke up late (10:30 - had really bad sleep throughout the
time in Denver) and went to Palletes Restaurant at the DAM then spent the afternoon in the museum with my earphones on. What a really beautiful building and
the views from the sculture "garden" was superb.

All in all, I really liked Denver and LOVE the mountains of Colorado. RMNP is breathtaking during winter and would really like to see it during sumer time
too! Thanks again for all your advice, it was really useful. I hope someone gets good ideas or answered question with this trip report too!

Oh, I forgot to mention, my colleagues and I went to see a show at Comedy Works on 15th street (hubby went home that morning) and it was a good fun time!