what to see in colorado

[vinmanr2d2]

hey guys,
I am headed to Colorado for a vacation
heading there in 2 weeks .
we have been there before and spent almost a week in the Rocky Mountain National Park .we also went to Granby lake and caught some rainbow trout and kokanee salmon that was awesome ! we will be near Rollinsville .
we may head to Utah to see Moab and then possibly onto Brice ,then Mesa Verde . if you guys have any ideas be it food, bbq , bbq, bbq .arcades, we really would love to visit a junk yard ! car museums . possibly a ghost town ? custom bike shops "Harley ,Indian ,Triumph"
we just want to have some fun

 

[stoned-trout]

watch out for cops...lots of speed traps there..i got a big $$$ ticket for speeding ......

 

[Midnight Tokar]

Pueblo West. Quite a few dispensaries off of Industrial...........

 

[Jhhnn]

There's a self sevice junkyard in Aurora, a Denver suburb-

http://www.yelp.com/biz/pull-n-save-auto-parts-and-recycling-center-aurora-2

$2 admission fee- walk around all you want. It's not far from DIA.

From Rollinsville you could head south to blackhawk for some gambling, take the central city parkway over to Idaho Springs, west to Georgetown to ride the Loop railway.

http://georgetownlooprr.com/

There are several other tourist railroads- Royal Gorge, Cumbres & Toltec, Silverton Durango

I think you need reservations for the last 2.

Continue west thru the Eisenhower tunnel to Copper Mountain, Turn south for Leadville, see Mt Massive & Mt Elbert. Take Independence Pass to Aspen, keep going to Glenwood Springs for the Hot Springs, or enjoy really nice one at Mt Princeton-

http://www.mtprinceton.com/

Independence Pass is quite the drive. You'll like it.

That's really just scratching the surface. CO is a big place, so it's easy to spend too much time driving, if you know what I mean. You can't possibly do it all in 2 weeks.

 

[Jhhnn]

Oh, yeh- if you're going to Utah, leave the stash in CO. They're very straight laced & fairly vigilant about it, too.

 

[Sóley]

I will be monitoring this thread.

 

[MIway]

blackhawk is fun + u get ur pseudo ghost town checked off... not really a ghost town but they have the old part of town fr w the mines were running.

spend a day in boulder, u'l love the place. then jump off a mountain... really, u can parasail out there & get a great view looking back to denver. or a glider. not woodsy, but fun.

 

[vinmanr2d2]

i have been to Blackhawk and had a great time in that area . yeah , we will do our best to observe traffic laws ! the last thing I need is to support the man ! I have been to winterpark , granby ,Blackhawk , and that area . it is so beautiful there .
anyway thanks for the heads up and let me know if you have any other ideas as we just want to see some really cool stuff . thanks again guys and have a great day.

 

[Jhhnn]

i have been to Blackhawk and had a great time in that area . yeah , we will do our best to observe traffic laws ! the last thing I need is to support the man ! I have been to winterpark , granby ,Blackhawk , and that area . it is so beautiful there .
anyway thanks for the heads up and let me know if you have any other ideas as we just want to see some really cool stuff . thanks again guys and have a great day.

There's also Dinosaur National Monument & the Great Sand Dunes national monument. Mesa Verde, of course. Some of this stuff is seasonal- both Trail Ridge Road & Independence pass close for the winter when they get snowed in, as does the road to the top of Mt Evens near Idaho Springs.

The countryside around Dinosaur is rather bleak canyonlands, so you need to be very interested in the dinosaur part to go there. Access to the sand dunes in thru the San Luis valley, flat farm & sagebrush country, not terribly interesting in itself.

There's also the Royal Gorge near Canon City- cool in it's own way. It's a very narrow canyon with a wood suspension bridge across it- 1200 ft straight down between the boards. I think they have railrodd tours on the tracks at the bottom. not sure. The railroad tracks are no longer used for freight.

Like I offered, it's important to pick & choose, plan excursions accordingly or you'll end up just driving.