Denver -July/August Weather and travel tips?
 

I looked up average high/low temps, but heard that this time of year in Denver may see daily afternoon rains such as we saw in Santa Fe in July. Can anyone give me an idea if this is accurate? Any "must do"s for the outdoor adventurist? Looking for great hiking trails and bouldering within 2 hours of Denver...Going to camp, and also need funky little restaurant tips that I can eat at in my camping clothes, trying to find good alternatives to the usual Perkins, etc. Hoping for ethnic (Mexican in particular) or good sandwich shops. Thanks!

Forgot to ask...if it is likely to rain at night, I was looking for tips for clean but budget lodging, just to be used to sleep. Nothing fancy, just clean and cheap.

They would probably pray for afternoon showers!! The drought is an incredibly serious thing there. It doesn't rain that much--don't think my children even own an umbrella.<BR>You might try bidding on Priceline for a place to stay in Denver. Bouldering is good in, well, Boulder.<BR>Colorado is real informal for dining in our experience.

July and August is a perfect time of year in Colorado for hiking! While the mountains do get the occasional afternoon shower, usually Denver doesn't get much. Most of the time, the showers aren't enough to drive you indoors for a long period of time, but it is wise to be off the mountain--especially above the tree line--before it starts raining due to the lightning risk. If you are camping, it's fine to just sit out the rain in your tent! My husband and I usually try to hit the trails first thing in the morning in order to be back to the car (or tent) by 2 or 3 o'clock. <BR><BR>There is no shortage of great trails in the front range--I would suggest buying a book with maps. If you are looking for some challanging hiking, you may try to summit a &quot;14er&quot;, which is a mountain whose peak is above 14,000 feet. There are many of them in Colorado--buy &quot;Colorado's Fourteeners&quot; (a book) for trails, campground, and general information. It is a difficult task, but worth it when you get to the top! <BR><BR>I only have one restaurant recommendation and I can't even remember the name of it, but there is a GREAT pizza place in Idaho Springs, which is just West of Denver on I-70. Maybe someone else could think of the name. It's a great place to stop on your way back after some hiking or camping. <BR><BR>Have fun! My most wonderful moments have occured while hiking and camping in the Colorado Rockies. <BR>

It sounds like you're planning on staying in Denver. If you can, I'd recommend staying somewhere in the mountains, Breckenridge or Vail, or even Georgetown. You can easily do lots of great hiking from any of those locations. As we have young kids, the only specific hikes that I can tell you about are short hikes (under 5 mi.) - but I know lots of those in the Vail/Breck area.<BR><BR>In the mountains (less so in Denver) there do tend to be afternoon rains - we'll be lucky if they're daily! As the previous poster said, you do want to be off the higher elevations by the time a storm rolls in, but other than that, the rain isn't much.<BR><BR>And definitely Denver and the surrounding areas are casual, so your camping clothes will fit in, especially if you're up in the mountains.

To the top! Anyone else have any tips for me? Thanks!

July/August are likely to be hot in Denver. Hopefully there will be rain this year to end the drought!! If so, you can watch the thunderstorms come in for the afternoon showers around 3:30. If you are going to camp, you won't find anywhere in Denver itself - major metropolis. I would consider going into the the mountains into one of the campsites near a mountain town. If you want to be on the front range, you could base yourself outside of Boulder. You could then drive in to town, where as a university town, you can get loads of really good cheap/informal eats. Or there are loads of other mountain towns where you could camp sort of 15 mins to half an hour outside. Get a good guidebook on Colorado and figure out where you want to base yourself and then people on this forum could give you better suggestions to more specific questions.

What about visiting Rocky Mountain National Park? www.nps.gov/parks

The restaurant in Idaho Springs is Beau Jo's.

I find this time of year the best in Colorado. Denver is a fairly large city, so you'll need a map! You can find many informal restaurants. I recommend Little India on 6th, good food, and quite unique. The mountains tend to be about 10 degrees cooler than in Denver. Nice hike trails in Jefferson County, which ownes their own Mountain parks(which you cannot camp on, except two of them, which require a permit). If you are looking for a place to stay just out of town, stay up in Deckers, in a cabin you can rent. This is about fourty minutes from SW Denver, and is near South Park and good fishing spots. If you happen to go into Evergreen, and want an informal eat, stop at the Evergreen Mountain Market, which is on Hwy 73 heading to Conifer, just past Buffalo Park Road. They have a sandwitch parlor in the back that makes A+ subs.<BR>As for rock climbing, there are more places to rock climb on the front range than could be named. Try Coal Creek Caynon, I've climbed up there a few times. Well, good luck on your trip!