We’re lucky. We live in Colorado, the country’s fifth-dreamiest vacation destination. This is where the Clark Griswolds of the world bring their families for summer escapes. According to research firm Longwoods International, only Hawaii, Florida, Alaska and California rank as more desirable.
Because we live here, we Coloradans don’t need big blocks of time to see the sights and take in the adventures. On getaway weekends, we can experience places that flatlanders spend weeklong holidays hoping to reach, and we don’t have to drive with Aunt Edna tied to the roof.
For weekend vacationers, here are some suggested mountain pursuits. Some feature spots and activities that are popular with out-of-staters. Others are more Colorado-oriented, places where license plates will likely be green and sports-team T-shirts orange and blue.
Hike a hill
In Colorado, where mountains rise like whitecaps on a rocky sea, scaling the heights has become an avid pursuit. In the contiguous states, there are only 68 peaks that meet or exceed 14,000 feet in altitude, and 54 of them rise in Colorado. Some summits can be reached with trail walks. Others require nail-clawing ascents that would make a mountain goat squeamish.
Bagging a fourteener (www.14ers.com) is an ego-stroking accomplishment. Popular peaks for first-timers include Mount Bierstadt (14,060), south of Georgetown; Grays Peak (14,270), southeast of the Eisenhower tunnels; and Mount Elbert (14,433), Colorado’s highest, southwest of Leadville.
Just don’t expect solitude on a 14er. With hundreds slogging the slopes daily, it’s easier to find privacy at a Rockies game. To escape the hoards, climbing hermits should head for less lofty summits.
The state has another 150- plus peaks that top 13,500 feet in altitude. The air is nearly as thin, and climbers seldom have to listen to cellaholics phone home from the summit. “Colorado’s Thirteeners: 13,800 to 13,999 Feet,” by Gerry and Jennifer Roach, and “Colorado’s High Thirteeners,” by Mike Garratt and Bob Martin, provide guides to these shorter summits.
A good way to get started in climbing is to go with those in the know. The Beaver Creek Hiking Center (970-845-5373, www.beavercreek.com) offers Wednesday ascents of easy fourteeners for $130. The Colorado Mountain Club (303-279-3080, www.cmc.org) provides members ($70 per year) with a schedule of hikes and climbs led by trained volunteers.
Ride the rails
In our state, railroads provided the means to get supplies to the mountain mines and the ore back out. Many of these rail routes now carry camera-clicking humans.
The most famous is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge (970-247-2733, www.durango train.com). Trains depart with a belch of smoke and a throaty whistle. After a 3-hour chug up the Animas River Canyon, they arrive in Silverton, where passengers can wander a bygone boomtown where silver came by the ton. Round-trip adult tickets start at $65.
Another narrow gauge, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (1-888-286-2737, www.cumbres toltec.com), provides steam-driven nostalgia without steaming crowds. Fares start at $62 for 64-mile rides between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, N.M.
For those of us who prefer a shorter return to yesteryear, the Georgetown Loop (1-888-456-6777, www.georgetown looprr.com) offers 75-minute rides on the 4.5 miles of tack between Georgetown and Silverplume for $18.75.
Of course, not all scenic trains are coal-fired. The diesel-electric Leadville, Colorado & Southern (719-486-3936, www.leadville-train.com) makes 2-hour trips up tracks above Leadville for $28.50. The Royal Gorge Route (1-888-724-5748, www.royalgorgeroute.com) offers two- hour rides through the famed slot for $29.95. Colorado’s favorite winter route, the Ski Train (303-592-1444, www.skitrain.com), provides summer service to Winter Park for $44.
Finally, there’s Amtrak (800-872-7245, www.amtrak.com), whose California Zephyr offers $92 round-trip service between Denver and Glenwood Springs. If the trains are on time, and sometimes they are, passengers can depart Denver in the morning and arrive in Glenwood for an early- afternoon soak. The following day’s return arrives early in the evening.
Pedal a path
Colorado has become known as big-time biking country. We have rocky pathways where knobby-tire riders bound over boulders and mountain-pass highways where skinny-tire racers get lung-burning workouts.
Dirt roads and multi-use hiking trails are open to mountain bikers. One favorite is the Colorado Trail (303-384-3729, www.coloradotrail.org), which starts in Waterton Canyon near Denver and runs all the way to Durango. For more challenging terrain, there’s the 40-mile Monarch Crest Trail near Salida, which Bicycle Magazine touted as one of the top five rides in the country.
For riders preferring a lift, Winter Park (800-979-0332, www.skiwinterpark.com) offers mountain bike chairlift rides. Other ski areas offering uphill service include Crested Butte, Aspen, Snowmass, Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper Mountain, Steamboat, Durango, Telluride and even Silverton.
Although most stretches of blacktop are open to pavement pedalers, some of us harbor a morbid fear of being head-whacked by RV mirrors. For us highway-sharing worrywarts, Colorado offers numerous off-the-roadway bike paths.
The Mineral Belt Trail (719-486-4288, www.mineralbelttrail.com) features a 12-mile paved loop through the mining district around Leadville, passing the famed Matchless Mine (matchlessmine.com) once owned by Horace Tabor.
In Summit County, paved paths connect Frisco with Breckenridge, skirt along the northwestern edge of Dillon Reservoir and even lead to Vail in a masochistic grinder over Vail Pass.
The Glenwood Canyon Recreation Trail parallels the Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon. The 32-mile round trip between I-70’s Dotsero exit and Glenwood Springs is mostly flat and surprisingly scenic.
Hop a horse
If pedaling seems too strenuous and rails too confining, hooves may provide the answer for galloping into the backcountry. Colorado offers numerous opportunities for sitting in the saddle.
Near Crested Butte, Fantasy Ranch Horseback Adventures (1-888-688-3488, www.fantasyranchoutfitters.com) features 1.5-hour rides starting at $55. Their premier offering traverses the Elk Range into Aspen, 24 crow-flying miles away. Participants spend the night in a luxury hotel before trotting back the next day.
Del’s Triangle 3 Ranch (970-879-3495, www.steamboathorses.com) provide rides near Clark, 18 miles north of Steamboat Springs. Prices start at $40 for one hour. They also offer two- to five-day pack trips into the Mount Zirkel Wilderness for buckaroos who don’t need flush toilets.
Near Aspen, the Maroon Bells Lodge & Outfitters (970-920-4679, www.maroonbellsaspen.com) offers breakfast, lunch and sunset rides along Maroon Creek to Maroon Lake and the famous Maroon Bells. Rates start at $60 for a one-hour ride. They also do hunting trips, fly-fishing trips, camping trips and overnight trips to Crested Butte.
If one day on the trail is not enough, and the idea of camping in the wild seems totally unappealing, there are dude ranches. The Colorado Dude Ranch Association (970-641-4701, www.coloradoranch.com) represents 30 establishments. Facilities range from simple cabins to five-star digs where saddle-sore dudes and dudettes can get a massage after a rough day on the trail.
Raft a rapid
Bouncing atop a horse is one way to see the state. Bouncing down a river is another. When the snow pack thaws and streams rush with melt water, Colorado delivers rapid action.
The Colorado River Outfitters Association (303-280-2554, www.croa.org) lists more than 45 licensed companies who run 26 stretches of river. The most popular is the Arkansas, with runnable whitewater beginning near Buena Vista and ending near Cañon City. Its rapids vary from rolling splashers to gut-retching slammers. The most popular piece of river is Brown’s Canyon south of Buena Vista, which outfitters rate as moderate over most of its distance.
West of the Divide, the Colorado River offers three stretches of runnable whitewater. Above State Bridge, the stream plunges through the Gore Range with challenging runs. The middle reaches lie beside the freeway through Glenwood Canyon where motorists and bicyclists often ogle rafters sloshing through moderate rapids. The river’s lower section runs through the desert near Grand Junction and into the canyon country of Utah.
Other popular raftable streams include the Animas near Durango, the Eagle west of Vail and Clear Creek above Golden. The problem for rivers dependent on runoff is that the season often ends early. That’s not a problem for the Taylor northeast of Gunnison. Because its flow is controlled by an upstream dam, the river remains runnable well into late summer and early fall.
Tackle a trail
In addition to railroads, our mining heritage has left many parts of the Colorado Rockies crisscrossed with a web of rough rocky roadways. Once known as Jeep trails, these traction-challenging routes remind us that high clearance and four-wheel drive is not just for snow.
One of the state’s most popular backcountry drives is the Alpine Loop (www.byways.org
explore/byways/2105), an officially designated scenic byway connecting Ouray, Silverton and Lake City. Passing abandoned mines and ghost towns, the route crests two
Alpine passes where views seem to go forever. Although not technically difficult, the route requires high clearance and low-range four-wheel drive. Those not wanting to risk their SUVs becoming DOA can rent Jeeps in any of the three towns.
Other popular 4×4 drives in the San Juans include the road over Stony Pass between Silverton and Creede and the road to Yankee Boy Basin, which crawls upward from
U.S. 550 south of Ouray. Both feature enough colorful wildflowers to turn a florist green with envy.
Another popular route for four-wheeling is the 5-mile trail from Marble (near Colorado 133) to Crystal, site of the oft-photographed Crystal Mill. Closer to the Front
Range, the Mosquito Pass trail connects Alma and Leadville over a 13,186-foot saddle, reportedly the highest drivable pass in Colorado.
When four-wheeling, remember uphill-bound traffic normally has the right of way, always stay on established roadways, and give a friendly wave (two fingers, not one) when meeting another vehicle.
Sit in sloth
Active endeavors are not the only vacation pursuits available in the Colorado Rockies. The mountains are also ripe for inactivity. Some of us take great pleasure in sitting next to a lake, stream or meadow and watching clouds shift, wildlife feed or birds soar.
For lakeside lurking, it’s hard to beat Grand Lake, near the western edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mountains hem the water, animals wander the shoreline and the surface blushes with sunset alpenglow. Other pleasant haunts include Echo Lake, below the summit of Mount Evans; Molas Lake, south of Silverton and Trappers Lake, east of Meeker.
Although lakes look lovely, cascading streams provide more visible action. Leaves float, dragonflies hover and ouzels dip into the rushing water. A few favorite sloth-inducing streams include the Roaring Fork as it growls, snarls and bellows its way into Aspen, the San Miguel in and out of Telluride, and the Cache la Poudre, which descends from Cameron Pass northwest of Fort Collins.
Away from the water, mountain meadows, hillsides and valleys offer interesting places to sit and watch nature unfold. They include elk watching around the meadows of Rocky Mountain National Park (970-586-1206, www. nps.gov/romo), antelope watching in the sprawling San Luis Valley north of Alamosa or raptor watching in the skies over Crested Butte (800-814-7988, www.gunnisoncrestedbutte.com).
There’s just one problem with sloth. It’s easily spoiled by the urge to pursue more active endeavors.
