Help me please!!! I have 9 family members coming in next week (ages 2-75) and I am trying to figure out what they need to see. We live in Fort Collins so Rocky Mtn Ntl Park is a must, the Poudre Canyon, Estes. We are thinking about the Royal Gorge and the historic train in Leadville (???) I think it is called th Georgetown loop.

Everyone was looking forward to Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods and evertyhing down there. We were planning on spending 3 days down there but now with the fires it is out of the question. Any ideas?????

Angela: Sorry can't help you, but suggest you re-post with Colorado in your header.

Anglea why not Grand Lake/Granby area? would be easy to incorporate with estes. We often take vistors and rent a sailboat, with captain or pontoon. Pontoon maybe more suitable for the wee one. The kids have always enjoyed that. Bring lunch and a cooler. I Do not remember the price but it was reasonable.

Also Fraser has great condo rentals cheap in summer, www.vrbo.com

The Georgetown Loop is in Georgetown, just off I-70. The Leadville train is a different one.

I didn't like the Leadville train very much; it was just a long ride on the side of a mountain - no plunging cliffs or views you couldn't get from the road. I like Leadville itself, though; the melodrama there is fun if you want an activity.

The Georgetown Loop is okay, but not worth going too far out of the way for. It's called a loop (even though it's a there-and-back trip) because the train had to gain so much elevation in such a short distance that the track was laid to loop over itself once, like going around one turn of a spiral staircase. Again, the views were about the same as those from the road. There's no roller-coaster-like feeling that you might hope for with that description.

Angela,
Do you have time to visit the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore? I'm thinking it's a 6 hour drive at most. No fires there at the present time.

The young ones would enjoy the Pueblo Zoo and there is a lake park nearby, (sorry can't remember the name of it) with swimming and inner-tubing and waterslides etc.

Pikes Peak/Garden Of the Gods is not out of the question. The smoke from the fires is at least more than 20 miles away and the wind has been blowing away (NW) from those sites. I havent seen any ash in Colorado Springs like our family has in Littleton and even then, it wasnt much.