I am planning an 8 night trip to Colorado in early September. We are in our mid 40's and enjoy anything outdoors. Our tentative itinerary is as follows:

1. Drive directly to Colorado Springs from airport
2. Two nights Colorado or Manitou Springs - Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods
3. Drive to Durango with a stop at Great Sand Dunes
4. Four nights at Durango - Mesa Verde one day, train one day, horseback riding and/or hike one day.
5. Drive to Buena Vista via Montrose with a stop at Black Canyon.
6. Two nights at Buena Vista - Ghost town, hike
7. Drive from Buena vista to airport.

I am wondering if this all seems doable and if anyone has any suggestions of other things to see or do? We would love to horseback ride somewhere, and it seems like Durango has a lot of options. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good stable?

I would also appreciate any suggestions on lodging and dining. We are not interested in luxury, just clean rooms in a location that we can preferably walk to some shops/restaurants.

Is there any cuisine that is unique to Colorado? We are up for anything although we will not be bringing any "nice" clothes.

Finally what's the deal with the hot springs? Is there any that are in a natural setting or do you have to go to some sort of a spa? Is it worth doing?

Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Stop at Great Sand Dunes is worthwhile. I suggest renting a 4 wheel drive high clearance vehicle and drive the backroad. That road will take you 3 hours or so, if you have the time.
Doubt if you will have any water flow on the creek, which is nice.

I would stay one or two nights in Mesa Verde at Far View Lodge. Rooms are just so so. Food is really good at the lodge.

If you are adventurous, one of our favorite things we have ever done was ziplining on the Durango Train.

Photos are the last week of May. click on links for pics of Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Train, Durango. There is other pictures of four corners area as well.

http://www.photoworks.com/slideshow/...F?source=pw980

http://www.photoworks.com/slideshow/...4?source=pw980

I agree---the Sand Dunes were very cool.

I also agree that staying in the park (Mesa Verde) is worthwhile...it is a LONG drive from Durango to the parts of the park where there is stuff to see so it makes for a really long day to have to drive back to town again at the end of the day. The ziplining thing looked fun, just out of our budget.

Realize that there are two parts to Mesa Verde. My photos just show one. The Wetherill section would take a day to itself. See as many houses/ruins as you can as they are a little different and unique.

I would try to fit in Ouray, and I would give up Buena Vista for Ouray.

In Ouray, you could do a jeep tour, sit in their hot springs, hike, peruse the shops on the main street, visit their small, but interesting historical museum. There are ghost towns around Ouray/Silverton (Animas Forks is intersting - several wooden buildings have been preserved).

If you are set on BV, I would highly recommend a white water rafting trip on the Arkansas River - you could do a 1/2 day trip. Not sure what water levels would be in Sept., but the scenery would be nice, even if you had smaller rapids.

In Durango, Tremble Hot Springs http://www.trimblehotsprings.com/

You can hike at Mesa Verde NP

I would take the train only one way; round trip takes up whole day and the return trip is same as the outbound. Take the bus for the return.

I just posted a lot of info on this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...o-colorado.cfm

Spiro - I loved your photos, but are you really allowed to do that with a rental jeep? I did look at the ziplining, but I think it is out of my budget. I then got distracted googling spiro bulldogs.

My only concern about staying in Mesa Verde is that it makes an even longer drive the next day. Unless we spent one night in ouray, and final night in Buena Vista. That might be a plan. The only reason that I am looking at Buena Vista is that we want to have a relatively short drive to the airport the last day.

DebitNM - Thanks for the links, they're very helpful. You always post such good information about Co and NM, not to mention recipes.

spiro - loved your pics. We've never been to the Great Sand Dunes, my kids would love that. (They liked the Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Kanab, Utah, but they look a lot smaller).

BlackandGold - I'd go with the Ouray/BV combo. I'm not sure there is all that much to do around BV. (We've only been there as a starting point for the Arkansas river rafting, which we've done twice).

I think your original plan sounds pretty good, though I've never been to Buena Vista so I can't comment on that. I personally would skip Pike's Peak (absolute tourist hell, and I don't find the view very pretty--CO has much prettier mt areas than that) and Garden of the Gods (this is very cool for a city park, but if you've been to southern Utah, very skippable). But, that's just my opinion and many people love these stops.

Except that the cog railroad to Peak Pike is fun and scenic. To make it work well you really need at least an overnight in MVerde. BVista is not that close to the airport. It has been a while but I thinking that the drive would be around four hours. Maybe a little less. You are OK if you have a late PM departure.

The only place I have ever gotten altitude sickness was taking the cog rail to the top of Pikes Peak - I couldn't get done soon enough. Granted, that was before I lived here, but just saying that it is really "up there"

I'd second the recommendation for a stop in Ouray--its my favorite place in Colorado. We stayed at the Hot Springs Inn and it was fabulous. We did one of the jeep tours and a barbecue dinner in the mountains the mountains which was alot of fun.

Some places rent jeeps specifically for offroad type action. Typical car rentals will tell you not to go offroad. This is offroad, but it is on the NPS Map. Most accidents would be covered by your insurance. Now, if you were to have car trouble, no telling how much it would cost you to get out of a situation. I have rented and gone offroading in Death Valley with no problem, but it is risky.

For what its worth. I live in the town Spiro. Our school mascot is Bulldogs. I raised American Bulldogs at one time and owned the domain to spirobulldogs.com These dogs are like big well manored pit bulls. They catch wild hogs.

Third vote for Ouray--we've been all over the Rockies (not just Colorado) and that area is still one of our favorites. We've jeeped twice and it's a blast.

I just looked at Spirobulldog's photos and yes, you are allowed to do that with your Jeep rental. You will be surprised what you are expected to do with them.

You can either rent your own if you feel comfortable on some rough, narrow roads, on the edge of a cliff, with two way traffic OR you can take a tour with a driver.

We've used Switzerland of American in Ouray twice and been very impressed with their vehicles and people.

www.soajeep.com

typicalplaces like Hertz, Alamo, etc frown on offroad.

Ouray IS beautiful...on our trip there Summer 2008, it is the only place we stayed two nights. Sweet and pretty little town.

Check the road work into Mesa Verde before you go. We stayed there Monday night and there were fairly long waits on the way in and out in sections that were down to one lane where you wait for a lead car to follow through sections. This adds to the already very long, but beautiful, drive in. Get lodging at Far View if you can. It is basic and typical NP lodging, call for a cancellation if they say they are full when you go.

Sorry, I should have posted about the road into MV, but I think it should be done by official start to summer season, Memorial Day.