Denver Area Itinerary Suggestions
 

Husband and I just booked this itinerary. Any opinions, suggestions on routing (especially) or anything else would be helpful. This is for mid-June.

Day 1 - Fly into Denver and stay at University Inn Boulder. Wanted to be within walking distance to Pearl St. district. May visit Coors Brewery on the way. May stop at Red Rocks Amphitheater on the way.

Day 2 & 3 - Murphy's River Lodge at Estes Park. Will get there on a Fri. I had read traveling up Route 7 to the RMNP entrance might be less crowded.? Realize there is road construction. Main goal is scenic and short hikes.

Day 4 - Spirit Lake Lodge at Grand River; hiking and checking out the town.

Day 5 - Travel towards Black Hawk to stay at Ameristar (not big gamblers, so not in a hurry to get there!) i.e. a stopover before Colorado Springs. Plan to check out Central City. Open to any suggestions of area sights and best routing.

Day 6 - Drive to Colorado Springs. Another alternative for stopping at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Possibly drive or take railroad cog up to Pikes Peak and some of the following: Air Force Academy, Old Colorado, or Manitou Springs, and definitely Garden of the Gods. Staying at The Lodge at Garden of the Gods.

Drive back to Denver to stay at Best Western Plus on Quebec Street since they have a shuttle to downtown. May possibly change this to somewhere in the Cherry Creek North area.

Our main goal is scenery, and we enjoy walking around unique areas - nature-wise or shops and restaurants (tend to do the latter at night). Can't wait to check out the area and thanks for any help!

I have several comments but they are mostly personal opinion or what I would or would not do.

1. Univ Inn in Boulder would be at the edge of what I would call walkable to Pearl Street. But buses are available. Red Rock and Coors are not exactly on line between the airport and Boulder but can be easily completed on a loop via 93 into Boulder.

5. If you are not gamblers not sure why you would stop in Blackhawk. There is nothing but huge casinos stacked on top of each other. Not much is left of Central city either since the casinos ripped out the old building leaving only the fronts.
Go on to Idaho Spring. At least it is authentic.

6. Good time to hit red rocks. And if you really want scenery and have the time, stay on 285 and come in the back way via 24 into Colorado Springs. Probably a three hour trip.

The Best Western is cheap because it was part of the old Stapleton airport complex but it is not in a good as far as seeing anything or being close to anything. Cherry Creek North would be far better as would be staying in downtown Denver. An alternative would be staying along the I-25 corridor in the Tech center because of easy access to downtown via light rail and cheaper hotels.

Just had some further thoughts. What you propose is the typical tourist agenda. There is nothing wrong with it but it is popular, especially RMNP/Estes Park and Colorado Spring. It also is almost totally within the front range or the foothills of the Rocky mountains.

Why not go deeper into the mountains? The suggestion of the back road into Colorado Springs would do that. In my opinion, there is little unique about Colorado Springs and I would consider exchanging that portion for loop through up I-70 through Georgetown (and the train), Breckenridge, Leadville, Aspen via Independence Pass, Glenwood Springs and Glenwood Canyon. Staying in Glenwood Springs area would provide for some terrific hiking and scenery. And, if you can ride a bike, the bike trail along the Colorado River in the canyon is a great day. You would have to do some choosing because that loop could be a week by itself.

To me there is a lot more to Colorado than Colorado Springs and Estes Park. Just a thought.

fmpden - Thanks so much for your feedback. Wondered what you meant about Univ. Inn being "on the edge of walkable"? Also, the reason I chose the Denver Best Western is that they will shuttle you downtown. We will drive to other things in the area, but thought that would be nice for going downtown for dinner. Will sure consider Idaho Springs and other towns you mentioned.

Used to spend a lot of time in Boulder with two sons there and as I remember the Univ Inn was a couple miles (?), mile and half from Pearl street mall.

Quebec is the old airport area. The area around it is so so but there really no place to walk to anyway. There is redevelopment underway on the old airport property but still a marginal area at best. And you are a long ways - 30 mins - from downtown. How frequent does the shuttle run? I think you could do just as well, price wise, with hotels in the Tech center. Then you would have access to the light rail which runs at a max interval of 15 minutes.

Just looked up Univ Inn. Closer than I thought. Probably under a mile on the edge of the CU campus.

Use 285 as much as you can..Wonderful drive...If you could do it go all the way to New Mex on it. If not this time then next time.. Morrison was a cute little mountain town but I suppose it has grown up and come to an end for charm as most good things do!! Back door roads are such neat drives.

Morrison hasn't changed much in the last 30 years.

Morrison is great--and cute. Don't know about 30 years, but.. we enjoy it.
I am just so not taken by the CoSprings area as opposed to the mountains as Fmpden suggested.
In Boulder the Celestial Seasonings tour is really fun.
Gambling is such a big zero to me that I cannot really comment, but if it isn't "the thing" for you (OP), why go there. The mountains are just SO gorgeous, and there is a lot to do in the towns.
I love the Park

Don't stay at the Best Western on Quebec. It's a busy street, nothing to do there but a few small restaurants and some big box stores. The shuttle promise may not work as well as you think-- would they pick you up anytime at night downtown?

There are inexpensive hotels on Colorado Blvd, near Cherry Creek North.

fmpden, "To me there is a lot more to Colorado than Colorado Springs and Estes Park. Just a thought."

I could not agree more!

There will be road construction in RMNP on Bear Lake Road. Last year, we found out if you get into the park early (before 9AM I think) you can drive your car directly to the trailhead. Otherwise, you'll be forced to park and take the shuttle to the trailhead. We usually arrived in the park as the sun was coming up.

For a short hike, I would recommend hiking Emerald Lake, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake which can all be combined into one hike.
http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails...erald-lake.htm

On your drive across Trail Ridge Road to get to Grand lake, you could hike part of the Ute Trail - which is wide open and has spectacular views:

http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails.com/ute-trail.htm

In Grand Lake, a very popular short waterfall hike to Adams Falls (but it will be crowded)

http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails...dams-falls.htm

If you're looking for a little more seclusion away from the crowds, try Big Meadows. You'll hike through a forest until you reach a huge open meadow. The only drawback is that a lot of the trees you'll see on the mountainsides have been killed by the beatle infestation in the park, but I still think it's a lovely spot.

http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails...ig-meadows.htm

You will love Grand Lake, it's definitley the quite side of RMNP and is a quaint little town in a beautiful setting.

University Inn is a 5 minute walk from Pearl Street. Lots of great restaurants within walking distance.

University Inn is a great location for Pearl Street, just a couple of blocks.
The Ameristar is a good location, nice hotel (nonsmoking everywhere up there is nice). Drive past Central City (still lots of historic buildings like the Teller House ["Face on the Barroom Floor"], museum, etc. up there), and a few miles farther will open up into some lovely scenery, mining remnants, even the old Dory Hill cemetery (http://okaadaak-cemetery.blogspot.co...k-hawk-co.html), etc.
BTW, driving into RMNP, Hwy 36 is very scenic; but so is Boulder Canyon and the Peak to Peak Highway (119 to 72 to 7). I'd drive (maybe before the weekenders get off work) the more direct, faster route 36 from Boulder (just go straight down Broadway to 36) to RMNP and take the reverse (7 to 72 to 119) back to Blackhawk; kind of a loop and you won't miss any scenery.

Looks like comments to my post are winding down. Just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone that replied!!!!

Have a wonderful time!