Denver--Moab--Mesa Verde in 4/5 days
 

Hi all, I've been reading the fabulous suggestions for people with 10-14 days to tour the area but am wondering if I'm completely crazy to consider taking my two boys, 10 and 12, on a 4-5 day loop IN AUGUST from Denver to Moab, then to Mesa Verde (and 4 corners unless I can convince them otherwise), Durango, and back up to Denver. We will be travelling to Denver from the East coast for the first time. Right now, the itinerary I'm considering is as follows:

Day 1: Drive Denver to Moab, along the 128 for scenery, visit Arches or Dead Horse in the early evening.
Day 2: Arches in the a.m. Maybe the Fiery Furnace hike though I don't know if it's available/ strenuous
Drive Moab to 4 Corners, then up to Cortez
Day 3: Mesa Verde, stay nearby
Day 4: Durango/ Ouray, horseback ride(?) gondola (?)
Day 5: Drive back to Denver

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

When are you arriving in Denver? Is that day 0? You know that Denver to Moab is close to 400 miles. With two kids that is an all day drive. And day 5 is another huge driving day. For a five day trip you are going to spend a lot of time looking out of a car window. Dropping the Utah portion for just SW Colorado would still leave a hurried trip for five days. Totally it is too much.

"wondering if I'm completely crazy"

"Any suggestions would be most appreciated!"

For your own sanity, spend the extra money and fly into Grand Junction.

Spend Day 2 & 3 in Moab. See Arches, Canyonlands, ride a mountain bike, or do a half day raft/float trip, or horseback ride. You could spend a week here and not run out of fun things for 10/12 year olds. They'd rather DO things (than look out of a car window as fmpden said).

Day 4: Four Corners, take the picture then head to Mesa Verde. Stay the night in Durango.

Day 5: Durango. Briefly. Drive to Grand Junction and fly home.

Flying into Denver will ensure numb-butt from sitting in a car and being bored. 10/12 year olds are not going to like that. You'd have to eliminate almost everything else for the sake of the loooooooooong car ride. Are you spending that kind of $$$$ and your precious personal time to sit in a car? To a 10/12 year old, even a 2 hour car ride feels like an eternity.

"We will be travelling from the East coast for the first time." Oh boy. Don't forget jet lag, that affects kids, too. Be mindful of the time difference.

If it was me + 10/12 kids, I'd fly to Grand Junction, & spend ALL the time in/around Moab on a 4-5 day trip. Especially w/kids ages 10/12. Next year plan another trip and hit up Four Corners, Mesa Verde, Durango. Leave something out so you have a reason to go back.

Thanks for your replies fmpden and like_2travel. We're flying into Denver to visit family there and will be there a few days prior to starting our 4/ 5 day loop, so anything we see will have Denver as a starting point. I looked into flying Denver to Durango but it's $400/ pp. Not an option. Sounds like I need to consider doing one or the other.

I should add, it will be our first time in Denver/ Moab/ Mesa Verde but we're pretty seasoned travelers!

Don't underestimate the effect of altitude on all of you. Drink LOTS of water [WAY more than you think you need/want]. Dehydration is very easy to have happen here;, it is a dry heat so you don't sweat like you do on the East Coast. Well, you do sweat but it evaporated almost instantly so you don't get "sweaty"

Hats, sunscreen and sunglasses are also very important.

I lived in SW Colorado for 5 years. I would go from Denver to Durango and spend the time in that area. Lots to see and do. Take the train [1 way only, bus the other way] from Durango to Silverton. Go on an off road adventure. Spend a full day or more at Mesa Verde - be sure to go to Wetherill Mesa. Not many visitors go there as it's a 45 minute drive from the main areas of MV. The big difference is the for most of the ruins you are outside them, looking in. At Long House, you climb into the ruins and look out at the landscape and it is almost as it was 1000 years ago.

Check out the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores; it's small but has a great collection of artifacts. Also, Lowry Pueblo ruins in Canyon of the Ancients is worth a drive; they are ruins but different than MV [smaller but unique because they are 2 levels deep].

Hovenweep Natl Monument is interesting too as is Crow Canyon in Cortez.

http://www.mesaverdecountry.com/see-do

I would not attempt this. I don't think it's feasible. You will very likely not actually have any time to do anything besides drive on day 1, then you have to leave moab on day 2? You won't actually get to see much of anything in Arches. I would use these days to see things closer to Denver. Utah will be there for you on another trip.

bookmarking

I think 4/5 days keeps you in Colorado and closer to the Denver side of the state as well. Just day 3 to 5 is a lot of traveling with so much to see and do in that span of time.

It will be two full days of driving to/from Denver just to get down to Mesa Verde. While it's very scenic and interesting you don't have the time to do anything else.

Don't shortchange the other areas of Colorado as they are full of fun, outdoor activities and scenery for your 10 and 12-yr old boys. Rafting, hiking, mountain biking.

Thanks everyone! I'll rethink our route.

Skip 4 corners. Just do Moab and Mesa Verde. That is plenty!!!! You will want to see Arches (one day), Dead Horse Point, Canyonlands (one day) and then 2 days in Mesa Verde. I would focus more on Mesa Verde because it will be cooler. Remember that Moab will be in the 100s in August--ugh.

....It will be two full days of driving to/from Denver just to get down to Mesa Verde. .....

Not true. Granted it would be a long day but you can do it around 7, 8 hours.

7 to 8 hours is a full day for us. That doesn't leave much time to do any hiking, exploring and other fun things to do on vacation.

IF OP doesn't already have air tickets - fly into Denver and out of ABQ; will save the long drive back. Southwest flied from Philly to both DEN and ABQ

I would consider flying out of Albuquerque but the rental car companies charge a fortune to drop off in a different location, and the drive back to Denver promises to be spectacular.

(The difference in airfare leaving ABQ vs DEN "might" make up the difference, especially on 4 tickets.)

Way too ambitious. Sounds miserable. Please scale it down, as DebitNM suggests.

And, Four Corners is a big nothing, IMO. So is Cortez. Sorry, residents there.

We've done several trips to this area, most recently in October, click my name and scroll down to check my TR.

Similar to what others have suggested, I would drive to Moab and spend 2 days then go to Mesa Verde and try to spend the night there at Far View Lodge, then head to Durango. In an earlier trip we took route 160 east from Durango to 25North. It was very scenic and more relaxed than going back up to I-70.

The drives are beautiful, so spend some time looking out the window. Do drink much more water than you think you need.

I agree with emalloy and others. I think you can do both. I've been to Arches and Mesa Verde at least twice for short trips and didn't see everything, but I'm glad I went.

Here are my notes from the Mesa Verde portion of a quick trip weekend trip to SW Colorado from Denver several years ago:

We arrived at Mesa Verde mid-afternoon and bought tour tickets for the last tour of Cliff Palace that evening and tickets for the first tour the next morning for Balcony House. We had time to tour Spruce Tree House and visit the museum before our tour of Cliff Palace.

We should have done Cliff House/Balcony House in reverse because according to the ranger, Balcony House is in the shade in the late afternoon and Cliff Palace gets the morning sun. It wasn't too bad the way we toured, but the ladder at Balcony house was hot by 9:15.

We love hiking, but by the time we finished touring Balcony House late morning, it was hot and we passed on the hiking.

We stayed at Far View Lodge and while one night was enough for me, it really is the best option (besides camping) for seeing the park in depth. We had the most basic room and it definitely could have used some renovation, but it was worth staying in the park rather than making the drive from Cortez or Durango.

We have done many loop drives from Denver with our kids. When they were your kids" ages, we would stop and do alpine slides or hot springs pools. At Glenwood Springs, you can do an alpine coaster and a huge hot springs pool.

It is a really long drive to Moab from Denver. We love SW Colorado and have included a loop drive that included Ouray a couple times.

Another reason I would reconsider your itinerary - Moab is extremely, incomfortably hot in the summer. We were there one July and it was 105. We ended up leaving early and adding the day to spend extra time in the cooler temps of Ouray.

<<"We will be travelling from the East coast for the first time." Oh boy. Don't forget jet lag, that affects kids, too. Be mindful of the time difference.

It's a two hour time difference. Jet lag?