Durango to Colorado Springs?
 

We're planning a trip to Colorado in September. Would driving from Durango to the Colorado Springs area, with a stop at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, be too much travel for one day?

You could do this in a day {I assume you meant one way to Colorado Springs and did not mean round trip back to Durango}.

The drive from Durango to Colorado Springs would be about 5 - 6 hours, not including the stop in Great Sand Dunes NP.

Hope this helps...{Thanks to DH for answer to this one!}
Debi

A few weeks ago my wife and I drove from Monument Valley, past Durango, to Colorado Springs, all the way up to Boulder, with a short stop at the Dunes park...all in one day. It is doable.

Fwiw, we were not that impressed with the National Dunes Park, but that may have been because of the drizzly weather. We found very little of interest between Durango and Colorado Springs.

S22812

An alternative route to consider would be to drive by way of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison skipping the Great Sand Dunes. http://www.nps.gov/blca/
I found the Black Canyon much more interesting than the Great Sand Dunes. Yes, this trip can easily be driven in one day.

Gosh, we really ejoyed the Great Sand Dunes. We took the jeep tour which was very interesting, and hiked out to the dunes. Didn't climb much though, and sled down like a lot of people do. We told a friend with a 13 year old about it, and they made a stop while they were in CO and loved it too.

That said, we also really liked Black Canyon of the Gunnison. A little spooky, and very cool looking.

It's doable, as said, but it is a pretty long haul. Of course, we had friends in Alamosa and also made a stop in Creede (absolutely loved Creede as well, and wished we had allowed to spend all day there) on the way to Durango, so we split the trip in two days.

With travelled from Durango to Manitou springs(right next to Colorado springs) but in 4 days. Durango take the route 550,check out Silverton. This route was stunning what with the aspen in full fall foliage. We visited the Black canyon of the Gunnisson ans stayed the night in Gunnisson. Thenext day we went to Aspen by the Independence pass(Xmas landscape in snow)Visited the maroon bells:beautiful.We then went to Manitou springs bij the pass.Paul