Favorite places you've visited in Colorado in the summer?

[justlearning]

We live in Colorado but haven't done much exploring, so I'm curious to hear from those of you have vacationed here (or also live here). What in your opinion are the best places to visit in Colorado in the summer? We want to plan some weekend trips and I'm trying to put together a list of places to go. Thanks!

[KpbS]

Estes Park--so much to see and do. It is huge.

[DebbieJ]

Estes Park--so much to see and do. It is huge.

:yeahthat:

[kijip]

My family enjoyed Trapper's Lake. We have been going there for 4 generations.

[tylersmama]

Front range or anywhere? There's SO much to see and do here!

Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park, although it can be crowded in the summer. Steamboat. Any of the mountain towns, really. Telluride is awesome, although a little expensive. Durango is fantastic...TONS to see and do. Grand Junction makes a great weekend trip, the wineries are lots of fun, and the next month or two is the perfect time for fresh fruit. Oh and when the Olathe sweet corn starts coming in...YUM. I took the "long" way home from Durango last September, just to come up through GJ and get Olathe corn and Palisade peaches.

Glenwood Springs is a fantastic weekend getaway. Lots of great hiking and biking, the hot springs, Aspen is really close.

Closer to home, we spend a lot of time hiking in the foothills. Jefferson County has phenomenal open space parks with great hiking trails.

Manitou Springs is a nice weekend getaway, too.

[MartiesMom2B]

A bunch of friends and I met in Keystone and had a wonderful time. They had plenty of activities for the kids. I'd love to go there again.

[crl]

Estes Park is great. I remember going to Steamboat Springs when I was a kid and loving it, but I don't remember what I liked about it. . . . The ski resorts in general are nice in the summer, although I've never been there with kids.

[swrc00]

I went to Estes Park over twenty years ago and it was the first thing I remembered when I saw your post. You will love it.

[eidean]

Front range or anywhere? There's SO much to see and do here!

Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park, although it can be crowded in the summer. Steamboat. Any of the mountain towns, really. Telluride is awesome, although a little expensive. Durango is fantastic...TONS to see and do. Grand Junction makes a great weekend trip, the wineries are lots of fun, and the next month or two is the perfect time for fresh fruit. Oh and when the Olathe sweet corn starts coming in...YUM. I took the "long" way home from Durango last September, just to come up through GJ and get Olathe corn and Palisade peaches.

Glenwood Springs is a fantastic weekend getaway. Lots of great hiking and biking, the hot springs, Aspen is really close.

Closer to home, we spend a lot of time hiking in the foothills. Jefferson County has phenomenal open space parks with great hiking trails.

Manitou Springs is a nice weekend getaway, too.

:yeahthat: Lots of great ideas there.

Also Garden of the Gods in Colorado springs, the Royal Gorge, Sand Dunes, Red Rocks...

Some of the ski resorts have alpine slides (Winter Park and Breckenridge are the ones that come to mind), giant mazes, mountain biking, hiking, etc.

There's lots of 14ers to climb, for any skill level. If you have zero skill level (or not enough time to devote to a whole hike) you can still get to the top of Mt. Evans via a road or Pikes Peak via road or train.

Of course, there are the museums and such (DMNS, Children's museum, DAM, Butterfly Pavillion, Aquarium, Denver Zoo, etc)

You can tour the Capital building and the Mint

Cherry Creek and Chatfield reserviors for small beaches

Come fall, be sure to check out a corn maze

Have fun!

[cdlamis]

We just returned from a week's vacation to Colorado Springs and LOVED it! There is SO much to do there- Garden of the Gods, Pike's Peak, waterfalls, great hiking, etc. All of this is within city limits and most of it was free or cheap! We spent most of the week just exploring and driving around. The weather was amazing and we didn't want to leave. The zoo is supposedly awesome but we never made it but wish we had.
Have fun wherever you go!

[kmak]

Grand Lake is really nice. Lots of hiking and water activities.

[L'sMommy]

Estes Park!! We went there several years ago (pre-kids) and absolutely loved it!

[rlu]

Here's a link to a thread about things to do in Denver from a bit back. We had fun at the Buffalo Bill Grave & Museum in Golden.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=306253&highlight=golden

And - "nth"ing Estes Park and the Denver Zoo.