re: Colorado in the Summer

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Durango.

Great downtown
River running through town with raft tours
Great hiking and biking
Narrow gauge railroad
Purgatory with alpine slide and coaster
Mesa verde 45 min away
Ouray 45 min away

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I will second this, and I would also add

Winter Park as they have a lot of kid friendly stuff in summer plus you have Rocky Mountain National Park, you have the Georgetown railway about 45 min away, river rafting within driving distance and stay in Winter Park the whole time. Fishing the Granby Lakes, they also have a YMCA with some cool options for room and board with tons of activities.

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riding bikes essentially on the shoulder of a nasty stretch of interstate

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Wait... what?? I think you are confused.

There is a bike path that funs alongside the I-70, and sometimes in between the west and east bound lanes, for the entirety of the length of the top of Vail Pass to Fisco, and even further around Lake Dillon to Dillon.

Not once would someone ever need to ride on the shoulder of I70. If you saw someone doing that they were either lost, or high (or both).

There's so much to do in Colorado it can be overwhelming. My dad worked there and then retired there so I've been several times. Some of my favorite things have been.

1. Drive some high passes, like independence pass.
2. Mollie Kathllen Mine.
3. St. Mary's Glacier
4. Garden of the Gods.
5. Black Canyon of the Gunnison
6. Rocky Mountain National Park
7. Mesa Verde
8. Phantom Canyon Road

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If you’ve never been to Colorado, you have to spend time in RMNP. Estes is the jump off spot. Easy drive from Denver

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I’m looking to take my teen early this summer. We can only fit in three nights so I’m thinking Estes or Winter Park may be good options for being close to Denver. For those that have been to these areas can y’all provide some ideas on neat places to stay.
I might just get lazy and go to Keystone because I have some Hyatt points so I could stay at a few properties there.

I can’t speak on Winter Park, but usually opt for a cabin in Estes. I can’t remember any specific places but can dig up my last place in emails if needed. It worked well for us and had a creek outside the cabin.

If you go the cabin route, make sure you confirm they have a/c. Some do not and although it doesn’t matter a large portion of the year, in the summer it does matter.

We love to hike so we always fit in a day or two in RMNP when we go to Colorado. And Estes is convenient. I can recommend some hikes if interested

Can't speak for the kayaking/rafting, but RMNP was an awesome place to go and hike and relax. We weren't a huge fan of the town of Estes Park, but the NP more than made up for it. Just an awesome place. Wide range of hiking. Just an FYI - there was a lottery last summer to get into the different parts of the park. I'm assuming they'll do that again.

We also went to Telluride and Ouray. Absolutely loved the town of Telluride and the outdoor activities outside of Ouray. We went in mid June and a lot of the higher up 4wd trails were still closed.

Wasn't a huge fan of Breck. I liked pjabs comment on the first page.

BV/Salida were the recommendations I got for kayaking/rafting, wife wasn't interested in either so we didn't make it. I did some research though for a future trip and will definitely make it there one day.

Second both of these. Will also add, even if you can't make it to Sky Pond, there are a couple of lakes on the trail up to Sky Pond that are great and worth the trip. One in particular (wish I could remember the name) that we really loved. About half of our group brought hammocks and stayed at this particular lake/pond while the rest of us continued to sky pond. -- I believe it was Loch Vale