Colorado state is the most geographically diverse state we have ever visited. It has a beautiful Rocky Mountains range, glacier lakes, medieval ruins, canyons and to top it all, the largest sand dunes park in North America.
With the below itinerary, you can experience it all in just 10 days. Pretty exciting right?
We visited this state during a pandemic and there were a lot of changes in the national park management. Most of the parks/ attractions were operating based on a Timed entry system and needed booking months in advance. At the time of booking, I was totally unaware of these changes. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, we could make most of it in our 10-day stay. I am going to share all my experiences below.
Best time to go: Colorado is a popular destination during both summer and winter. It’s just that the range of activities changes. For example, in summer the most popular activity is mountain biking vs winter is famous for skiing. Remember that most of the roads in the parks are closed during winter.
Below itinerary is ideal for summer.
Day 1: Arrive in Denver
DIA (Denver International Airport) is the most accessible airport if you are flying into Denver. We arrived here in the evening and picked up the rental car.
Note: 4X4 vehicle would be an ideal choice for this road trip.
If you are arriving in the morning, then you can surely spend this day exploring the city. But for us, we decided to drive farther from the city and closer to the Rocky Mountain national park to reduce the next day’s driving time. We stayed in North Westminster.
Day 2 – 3: Rocky Mountain National Park
For years 2020 and 2021, NPS has decided to operate based on Timed entry passes. There are two types of passes you can choose from:
- Bear lake road + remaining park
- All Park except the Bear Lake Road
You will also need to buy a Park entry ticket. It is $40 but not required if you have an annual “America the Beautiful” pass. More information can be found here.
With this itinerary, you will need Bear Lake Pass only for the first day.
We started our day early around 5:30 AM to find a parking place for our car near Bear Lake parking. Even though we reached the trailhead around 7:00 the parking lot was all full (what a bummer!!). We had to come back and take the shuttle.
We had decided to do the Nymph, Dream & Emerald Lakes hike. This hike is 3.6 miles round trip and is of moderate level. We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful vistas of surrounding mountains and serene lakes. Emerald lake is the last lake on the hike but ohh boooyyyyy it’s so beautiful, worth every extra step. 😊
The reason to do this hike first thing in the morning was to avoid afternoon thunderstorms. Apparently, RMNP always has afternoon showers/storms every day during summer.
We spent around 3 hours on this hike and came back to the trailhead. From here we did the loop around Bear Lake and started our next hike to the Alberta Falls.
Alberta Falls hike is 1.7 miles roundtrip and it’s a moderate hike. In the end, you are rewarded with incredible views of falls. We spent around an hour or so soaking in the freshness of the air and the sound of falling water.
After this hike, you can either go back to Bear Lake trailhead if you have parked the car there or else walk towards Glacier Gorge trailhead to catch the shuttle back to the parking lot which is what we did.
We were so tired after doing all the hiking that we took a break to get ourselves some snacks/coffee. Thankfully, because of summer, we had plenty of daylight in our hands.
Estes Park is the closest town to the park and has nice cafes and restaurants. I highly recommend Kind Coffee. Get the coffee and sit in the back of the café alongside the creek. (Now I am wanting to go back there again) 😜
After this break, we took a stroll in the town, got ourselves some souvenirs, had early dinner at Rock Inn Mountain Tavern. We didn’t enjoy it much but it’s a popular local restaurant.
Around 5:30 PM we were all ready to go back to the park and enjoy the drive on Trail Ridge Road. We stopped at a few overlooks along the way; witnessed some wildlife and reached Alpine Visitor Center.
By the time we reached the visitor center; it was closed but anyways we had it covered the next day, so it all worked out perfectly.
Here we witnessed the most magical sunset on the Rocky Mountains, and I cannot describe enough in words how awesome it was!!
Day 3
On this day we reached the park before 7:00 AM (You don’t need timed entry) as we had to do one of the best hikes of the park Ute Trail. It’s a 4-mile roundtrip and again a moderate hike. We spent around 3 hours on this hike. We had packed some breakfast which we enjoyed with beautiful mountain views.
After this hike, we started the most thrilling and gorgeous drive of the park on Old Fall River Road. It’s an unpaved gravel road. We made a quick stop at Chasm Falls and ended the drive at Alpine Visitor Center. This is the highest visitor center in all USA national parks. We took some souvenirs here and did a hike on Alpine Ridge Trail. This is a 0.6 miles hike and even though most people describe it as easy I would not say so because you are hiking at 13000 Ft elevation, and you feel a lack of oxygen which is quite common here.
After the hike, we got another opportunity to drive back on Trail Ridge Road to go to Estes Park. We had our favorite coffee again in Kind Coffee Cafe. Took a stroll alongside the creek and had early dinner at Nepal’s Café. We had Chicken momos which were delicious.
That was the end of our stay in RMNP. Next, we headed towards Glenwood Springs. You can also stay in Aspen, but we could not find any good accommodation here and to be honest, Aspen is overall very costly. We were going to spend 3 nights here, so we chose Glenwood Springs as our base.
Day 4/5
On Day 4 morning we did a hike of Hanging Lake. It’s the most popular hike and has limited availability. You must book your timed entry passes months in advance. You can book your pass here.
The hike is 1.5 miles but has a 1000 ft elevation and is very strenuous. But on completion; you are rewarded with the magical views of Hanging Lake.
After this, we went on a scenic drive on Independent Pass. We spotted some wildlife such as moose, bears while on the drive.
The next day we had booked a shuttle to take us to Maroon Bells.
You can book shuttle/parking tickets here.
We spent that evening in Aspen. We had the best burger in White House Tavern. It’s a popular joint in the area so don’t be surprised if you had to wait. Trust me it’s worth it.
Day 6
This day we started around 11:00 AM towards Black Canyon of Gunnison. It’s the least visited National Park but I would say it’s highly underrated. It’s a small park and unless you want to do hikes, I would suggest spending 4-5 hours in this park. We were very tired with all the past hikes so decided to skip it in this park.
Here you can do the North rim and south rim but not in a single day. To do both you will need 2 days as even though the distance between two rims is short it takes two and half hours to drive rim to rim.
We covered only the south rim and did the scenic drive which is 7-miles long and has 12 viewpoints. Some overlooks are just a few steps away from the parking whereas the rest needs some walking. After some points, you might feel it’s getting repetitive. My favorite points are – Gunnison Point, Chasm View, and Painted wall.
Day 7
Before I started planning the Colorado trip; I had no idea about Mesa Verde National Park, but this park is home to more than 5,000 archeological sites, 600 cliff dwellings. It is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. I had no choice but to add it to my itinerary
Cliff Dwellings built in this park were built and inhabited roughly 1500 years ago. This Park offers guided tours of some of the cliff dwellings. Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House are popular tours. Cliff Palace is Mesa Verde’s largest cliff dwelling. Unfortunately, when we visited the park; the road to Cliff palace was closed due to construction and we could not get any of the guided tours. We did a self-guided tour of Step House. Drove on the Mesa loop road and covered all the viewpoints along the way. We spent around 4-5 hours in the park. We stayed in Cortez that night.
You can find park entrance fee details here
Book guided tours of Cliff Dwellings here
Day 8
This day we were supposed to leave for Sand Dunes National Park first thing in the morning per my plan, but you know how things work on a road trip. Four Corners Monument was only 45 minutes drive from Cortez so how can we miss it. The drive really takes most of the time as once you reach the monument, you hardly get to spend 10-15 minutes. Also, because we went at 8:00 AM when it opened, we didn’t have to wait at all for the pictures. If you are short on time; you can totally skip this attraction. But this is the only place where you can be in four states at the same time😉
After this detour, we started our drive to Sand Dunes National Park. We reached around 2:00 PM.
Before entering the park, make sure you take rentals for Sand sled/ boards if you are planning to play in the sand. It’s not available inside the park and closest rental place is five miles away from the park so you don’t really want to drive back.
We rented ours from Great Sand dunes Oasis. I think we paid $24 for one sled.
Please click here for park entrance fee details:
We already had decided not to do any more hiking in this park. We just wanted to have fun with sand sledding and that’s exactly what we did. We spent 4 hours climbing up the sand dunes and sledding down like a kid.
We left the park around 6:30 PM and started driving towards Colorado Springs. We had added a stop on the way for Skyline drive.
Skyline Drive is a one-way road. There are no guardrails and the drop-offs on either side are 450 feet high. It’s a scenic drive but you must be extremely careful.
Day 9
On the first day of our stay in Colorado Springs, we started with a morning stroll in the Garden of Gods. Later in the day, this attraction gets really crowded, so I recommend doing this first thing in the morning.
Operating hours are 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM and the good news is you don’t need to pay any entrance fee. Plan to spend around an hour and a half here.
After this, we drove on a Pikes peak highway. You need to purchase a pass to drive this road. Here is the link to book it online. This is the only highway where you can drive on one of the many Colorado fourteeners.
You will need 4×4 to drive this road and its little scary drive if you are afraid of heights.
We spent around 3 hours here and then visited The Broadmoor Seven Falls. You don’t need to prebook the tickets for this attraction. A shuttle drops you to the falls and the price is included in the park fee. We visited this in summer, but falls were not in full force. Honestly, I was underwhelmed by this attraction.
Day 10
On the last day of our trip, we had a flight back home in the evening and had morning time to spare so we decided to make a quick stop at Paint Mines which is 50 minutes away from Colorado Springs. The mines are famous for their colorful mineral formations, and we loved the landscape. Spent around an hour here and drove back to Denver to catch a flight back home.
Well, this was all we did in our Colorado gateway. I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to post them here. Also, would love to see your comments. Happy traveling you all!!