It’s a little-known fact that Colorado’s best trails for kids share the same terrain as the state’s best outdoor destinations for families. Campgrounds near these trails offer the kind of facilities and privacy families need.
The surrounding attractions, be they fishing ponds, a gold mine, a UFO tower or an alligator farm, are what kids like. Plus, parents appreciate the nearby nature centers or museums that hook kids into learning more about the region.
When Colorado’s afternoon thunderstorms dampen outdoor plans, these indoor sites welcome young minds and their guardians. “Affordable” describes the bottom line on these one- or two-day getaways.
The combination of hiking trails for kids, staying at a family-friendly campground and exploring the nearby attractions creates what many families later describe as their “great getaway.”
But finding that right combination at a location within a family’s travel-time tolerance is tricky, so the following Getaways represent different regions of the state. Each is based at a selected forest service or state park maintained campground with one or more great trails for children nearby. Additional kid-friendly trails and attractions are included.
High-country highlights
Where: The Mount Evans region. From Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs, take Colorado 103 south 13 miles to Echo Lake and its junction with the Mount Evans Highway, (Colorado 5) North America’s highest paved road. Enjoy the spectacular mountain views along the Mount Evans Highway, which provides access to several high altitude trailheads, campgrounds and a visitor center. It also is a designated Scenic Byway, officially open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.
What to do: When your crew’s not scanning the slopes for mountain goats, it may be fishing, hiking or exploring one of Colorado’s best nature centers. Everyone joining this getaway will climb a fourteener. Plan to photograph the occasion at the top of 14,264-foot Mount Evans, thanks to the easy quarter mile Summit Trail, accessed at the top of the Mount Evans Highway.
Camping: Echo Lake Campground and the West Chicago Creek Campground offer lower-altitude comforts after the day’s high-altitude treks. Both campgrounds are located near the junction of Colorado- 113 and the Mount Evans Highway.
Best hikes: This getaway’s two best hikes feature an alpine adventure and a forest walk to a lake. The Alpine Garden Loop Trail begins with a half-mile trek around the tundra’s flowering treasures followed by a 1.5-mile descent through stands of wildly wind-shaped bristlecone pines on the M. Walter Pesman Trail. After circling the Alpine Garden, groups with two drivers can separate; while some hikers continue on the Pesman Trail, an adult, perhaps with very young hikers, drives 1.5 miles north to the parking lot for the Dos Chappel Nature Center. Here the group reunites. The trailhead for the Alpine Garden and Pesman trail is 4.8 miles south on the Mount Evans Highway.
The Chicago Lakes Trail offers the comforting confines of a spruce forest for 0.2 mile as it edges Echo Lake, a fine destination for the littlest hikers or anyone with a fishing pole. (Anglers 12 and older need a license.) From here the trail gently descends 0.8-mile via shallow switchbacks through a limber pine forest to Idaho Springs Reservoir, another angler’s destination. The Chicago Lakes trailhead begins near Echo Lake campground.
Sensational sand and swimming
Where: The Great Sand Dunes National Park, in south-central Colorado, 35 miles northeast of Alamosa.
What to do: Your crew’s best hike of the summer could be up and down the park’s first knoll of sand or hiking to a nearby mist-spewing waterfall. Star-viewing while relaxed in a swimming pool or climbing to the top of a UFO tower promises to be the family’s best nights of the summer.
Camping: Complete camping facilities are provided at the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Best hikes: Hikes at the dunes begin by slashing across ankle-deep Medano Creek then evolve into an afternoon of leaping and sliding up and down the ever-changing terrain. Some hills are several cartwheels away; others require a morning’s hike to reach. Do wear shoes; the surface temperature of the dunes can reach 140 degrees. Feet cooling follows in the shade of Montville Nature Trail, a 0.5-mile loop around Mosca Creek, located near the park’s visitor center, another “cool” destination. The exhibits and films here show how the sand dunes formed and what lives in them.
Steamboat Stompin’
Where: Northern Colorado’s Great Getaway begins at Steamboat Lake State Park, 28 miles northwest of Steamboat Springs.
What to do: Families with mixed ages and abilities can choose from three of the best hikes and end their day together boating or fishing at Steamboat Lake.
Camping: Steamboat Lake State Park Campground.
Best hikes: Fish Creek Falls, near downtown Steamboat Springs, serves as a 0.3-mile destination that most children resist leaving, and the start of a longer trek for longer legged hikers. Wheelchair users also explore this accessible site. Swamp Park Trail offers a 1.7-mile hike along Mad Creek’s fuming torrent until it meets the stream in a calm, boulder-studded meadow – a perfect picnic place. Access to Mad Creek is 5.7 miles north of Steamboat on Elk River Road. The hike to Rabbit Ear’s Peak begins with a 2.0-mile walk through a wildflower wonderland finished by a 0.5-mile scramble up rocky “ears.” The trailhead on Forest Road 291 is 21 miles west of town, near Dumont Lake Campground.
Merry days in Marble
Where: The historic town of Marble, in west central Colorado, 22 miles south of Carbondale.
What to do: Climbing the path through the “spoils pile” of massive blocks of marble, wading in the Crystal River’s pools, visiting a friendly ghost town and fishing in a trout-stocked pond are what makes this getaway merry.
Camping: Bogan Flats Campground, just west of the Marble on County Road 38.
Best hikes: Bring your camera for the hike to Yule Marble Quarry, famous as the source of marble used to make the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But your kids will remember it for the fun they had climbing on and posing in front of huge, white blocks of marble.
Silver sights and gold strikes
Where: Southwest Colorado’s high country of Silverton.
What to do: Top of the world hikes and a tour deep into a mountain once mined for gold remain among the “summer’s best” for families visiting Silverton.
Camping: South Mineral Campground, 7 miles west of Silverton on Forest Road 585. Reservations not required, sites are first-come, first-served.
Best hikes: Start early and bring raingear for the Highland Mary Lakes Trail and Ice Lake Trail. Both 3.5-mile treks lead to lakes that jewel the flower-studded world above timberline. Short-legged hikers find delightful waterfall destinations along both trails as well. The trailhead for Ice Lakes is adjacent to South Mineral Campground. Access to the Highland Mary Lakes is about 5 miles northeast of Silverton, up Cunningham Gulch. See Silverton’s website for specific directions, click “summer recreation.”
Maureen Keilty of Durango is the author of the recently released third edition of “Best Hikes with Children in Colorado.”
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Great contacts
Reservations are a must at many of the recommended campgrounds. To hold a site, call these numbers or or visit these websites. Where reservations are not required, plan to arrive early in the day to claim a site.
Camping reservations for most national forest campgrounds can be made at reserveusa.com. For state park campgrounds, call 303-470-1144 or 800-678-2267 or go to reserveAmerica.com.
Camping reservations at the Great Sand Dunes National Park can be made by calling 719-378-2312 or at nps.gov/grsa.
For information on High Country Highlights, go to mtevans.com.
For information on Merry Days in Marble, go to the Marble website at marblecolorado.net.
Silverton’s South Mineral campground is a first-come, first-serve site. For information on Silverton see silvertoncolorado.com. For information on the Old Hundred Mine Tour see minetour.com or call 970-387-5444.
Getaway packing lists include the usual camping gear – sleeping bags, cookwear, food, insect repellant, first aid kit … and probably bicycles, binoculars, fishing poles and Frisbees.
– Maureen Keilty
