One Week Out West In Colorado: Exploring the National Parks- There is so much to be explored in the state of Colorado. We started with the National Parks, which we were there for one week and a half, about 10 days. We had 10 full days to make our itinerary and schedule to see both National Parks and both big and small mountain towns. This schedule is for the summer months of May, June, July or August schedule for Colorado due to the long daylight hours and less snow on the mountain tops for higher elevation hikes.
This itinerary is best for the person who loves hiking (both short and long), scenic views, and doesn’t mind moving quickly to see a lot. If you can get a rental car or campervan (like we did with KuKu Campers) it would be best for this itinerary as well. You can read about our experience renting a campervan in Colorado. Staying in the National parks, tent or campervan will put you in a spot to make the best use of your time in these areas. This schedule is possible with a rental car and staying in AirBnB’s or hotels, I listed suggested options below.
*We did a lot of longer hikes, but many of these areas have shorter hikes leaving more time to explore towns and go on some excursions.
*Alicia Marie Travels is a participant in the AirBnB Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AirBnB.com.
This itinerary is best for one that doesn’t mind long day hikes, camping, and moving fast on a trip. You will need to at least have a rental car to complete this route.
Overview
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Hiking in Aspen, Vail, and Crested Butte
- Maroon Bells
- Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park
- Garden of the Gods
A Short Outline By Day
- 1: Arrive in Denver Airport, Grocery Shop, Short Hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park, Acclimate to Elevation
- 2: All Day in Rocky Mountain National Park, Sky Pond Hike
- 3: Mt. Ida Hike in RMNP, Drive to Minturn
- 4: Tuhare Lake Hike, Drive to Carbondale
- 5: Maroon Bells, Drive to Crested Butte
- 6: Blue Lake Hike in Crested Butte ,Stay in Crested Butte
- 7: Hike the Scarp Ridge near Crested Butte, Drive to stay at the Black Canyon of Gunnison South Rim Campground
- 8: The Gunnison Route in the Black Canyon of Gunnison, Drive to Colorado Springs
- 9: Colorado Springs and Gardens of the Gods, Stay in Colorado Springs
- 10: Return Campervan and Depart from Denver Airport
**If you wanted to go to Mesa Verde or The Sand Dunes to fit in more National Parks you could easily cut out Day 4-7. You days would be longer drives but completely do able in a week.
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-3 (Arrive and RMNP)
Day 1(Pick Up Car & Drive)
Drive and Groceries
We arrived fairly early in the day to the Denver Airport from Cincinnati, Ohio. Immediately picking up our campervan with KuKu Campers. We then got lunch, and picked up groceries at a nearby Trader Joe’s. Trying to get on the road fast we did these things quickly with a pre-made shopping list and drove straight to the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Bear Lake Hikes
Getting to the park around 4:00pm we knew we couldn’t do any long hikes. We also wanted to keep in mind our adjustment to altitude. It might be a good idea to spend the day in town first if you get altitude sickness. But monitoring how we felt we did the short Bear Lake Area Hikes.
These hikes can be done in a loop. We hiked the Best of Loop which is about 5 miles.
Getting late we headed back to our campsite for showers and to cook dinner.
Where We Stayed: Estes Park Campground at Mary’s Lake
Other Great Non-Camping Options: If not camping check out this post on all of The Best AirBnBs and Cabins near the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Day 2 (Sky Pond)
Sky Pond
The next day in the Rocky Mountain National Park was dedicated to hiking to Sky Pond. The Sky Pond hike is 9.5 miles, it is moderately difficult. It doesn’t not become difficult until the last part of the trek up the side of a rocky and wet terrain. But all very much worth it. Check out my article about the Sky Pond Hike for everything you need to know about the trek.
If not wanting to do as long as a hike I would recommend at least hiking to Loch Lake.
This was the only hike of our day, including some extensions mentioned in the article above. After this we ate again at our campsite and stretched out.
Shorter hikes in this area of the park would include:
Day 3 (Mt. Ida & Drive)
Day 3 was our last day dedicated to the Rocky Mountain National Park, we wished we could spend more time here. We started the day very early, around 7:00am. We drove the 1.5 hour drive to the trailhead to hike to Mt. Ida. This is an incredible drive, so leave time for some scenic stops on this route.
Mt. Ida
Mt. Ida was my favorite hike in the RMNP. It is also a 9.5 miles round trip hike. Make sure you go early to avoid thunderstorms, this is a ridge hike and can become dangerous stuck in a lightning storm. Read all about the Mt. Ida Ridge Hike here.
Drive & Vail Brewery
After this hike we drove 2.5 hours towards our campsite at Camp Hale. We stopped at Vail Brewery to enjoy a drink and eat at their permanent food truck (Rocky Mountain Taco). The town of Minturn also has great options for food.
Where We Stayed: Camp Hale
Other Great Non-Camping Options:
Day 4 (Minturn)
Tuhare Lakes
Today’s big hike was to the Tuhare Lakes. This hike is located right outside of Minturn, CO. But you do need a higher rise vehicle or 4 wheel drive to get up to the trailhead of this hike. It took us a while dodging the potholes but made it, and so glad we did. This was a great hike. A nice slow incline to incredible views. Read all about it on my post on Hiking to the Tuhare Lakes.
Drive to Carbondale
After our hike here we had a 2 hour drive to our next camp spot near Carbondale, Colorado.
Mt. Holy Cross Hike would be another great hike to do in this area.
If you have time you can stop at the Penny Hot Springs along this drive if you are interested in a relaxing soak.
Where We Stayed: Bogan Flats
Other Great Non-Camping Options (Aspen & Carbondale would be great options):
Days 5 (Aspen)
Maroon Bells
With another early morning start we headed to Maroon Bells. We had to start pretty early as we wanted to drive to the parking lot of Maroon Bells instead of paying for the bus and parking. To do this you need the appropriate ticket and to be through the gates by 8:00am. Maroon Bells is a stunning area in which you could spend 30 minutes to a few hours here or even all day. We hiked to Crater Lake and a few smaller trails, as we only had about half a day here until we needed to get on the road. If we had more time I would have loved to hike more on the longer trails. Read all about it on my post A Complete Guide to Maroon Bells and What To Do There.
Carbondale
It was just after lunch time when we left Maroon Bells, we did a short drive down to Aspen to get lunch, but quickly realized it was crowded and hard to find a place to park our campervan. So we decided to head towards Carbondale since we would be passing through there anyways and stopped at Carbondale BeerWorks for food. It was a great call because we ended up loving their food and beers.
Drive to Crested Butte
From Maroon Bells we head to Crested Butte. There are two ways to get to Crested Butte and both should take about 4 hours.
From Aspen is it a 4 hour drive to Crested Butte. There are two routes to get to Crested Butte from Aspen, we took the 133 route as it is more scenic, we even saw moose!
Where We Stayed: Oh Be Joyful Recreation Area
Other Great Non-Camping Options: If not camping check out this post on all of The Best AirBnBs and Cabins in Crested Butte.
Days 6-7 (Crested Butte)
Day 6 (Blue Lake Hike)
Blue Lake Hike
Today was dedicated to hiking to the Blue Lake in the Oh Be Joyful Area with some relaxing at the end of the day. We stayed at the Oh Be Joyful Campground, in which the hike started at. But if driving from in town this will be about a 20 minute drive to the trailhead. This hike was one of my favorites in Colorado. There were valleys, wildflowers, waterfalls, mountain peaks and of course a Blue Lake. It was a relatively easy hike as well since most of it was a flat through the valley Read all about it on my post The Blue Lake Hike in Crested Butte.
We made it back to our campsite where we stuck our feet in the creek, read a book and enjoyed a beverage. But this would make a great day to enjoy dinner in town or visit a brewery.
Day 7 (Scarp Ridge Hike and Drive)
Scarp Ridge Hike
Another great hike in this area would be to the Scarp Ridge Hike. Because of the back roads this hike was an hour from our campground but it is a 25 minute drive from town. The trail actually starts at another campground, Lake Irwin. This hike is a family hike, it has high altitude but the path slowly inclines since it is along a ridge. Read all about this hike on the post A Guide to Scarp Ridge in Crested Butte.
Downtown
After this hike we stopped in town for lunch, I highly recommend the Sherpa Cafe. After lunch and looking in some shops and browsing around town we got in our car/campervan and started on our 2 hour drive to the South Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
**If planning to do the Gunnison Route hike as we did, make sure you get to the South Rim Visitors Center the day before by 4:30. This is when they start to hand out permits for the next days hike.
After we got our permits it was almost sunset so we went ahead and checked out some of the main viewpoints on the South Rim before finding our campsite, making dinner and heading in for the night. We had once again another early morning to beat the crowds and heat the next day.
Where We Stayed: Black Canyon South Rim Campground
Other Great Non-Camping Options:
Days 8 (Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP)
The Gunnison Route
It is important to start early this day. One because this Gunnison Route hike can get very warm, so it is best to hike before the sun gets too hot. You also have a long drive at the end of the day, if you don’t want to be pulling in super later get started early today.
South Rim Viewpoints
You might be also interested in squeezing in any South Rim Viewpoints today that you might have missed or didn’t have time for the night before is another reason to get an early start.
If you have time and the energy I definitely recommend a hike to the bottom of the canyon, we did the Gunnison Route which is the ‘easiest’, but still hard. They also have the Warner Route and Tomichi Route as a trail to the bottom, all needing a permit. If you can’t do one of those trails a trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnison is still worth a day visit.
Downtown Gunnison
After we finished our hike we ran into a hiccup and noticed we had a flat tire. We stopped in town to get it fixed and got on our way. Realizing we will now be getting into Colorado Springs fairly late at night we stopped in the town of Gunnison for dinner.
Gunnison is a small town, but has a few great restaurants and breweries. We stopped at High Alpine Brewing Company and it did not disappoint.
Drive to Colorado Springs
From Gunnison it was about a 3 hour drive to Colorado Springs.
Where We Stayed: AirBnB’s Carriage House
Other Great Non-Camping Options:
Days 9-10 (Colorado Springs)
Day 9 (Garden of the Gods)
Gardens of the Gods
Being that we rolled in later the night before, and out of our campervan we cleaned up, organized and slept in a little while at the end of our trip in Colorado Springs. After a little breakfast we explored the Garden of the Gods Park.
The Garden of the Gods Park is free, it was donated by Charles Elliott Perkins who wanted to make sure the park was forever free to the public. Due to this and being closed to the city it does get crowded. But it is amazing to hike around, even climb around on some rocks and view their bright red and orange colors.
Lunch
After a few hours at the Garden of the Gods we head for a Cerberus Brewing Company
Then picked up take out to eat on the porch of our adorable AirBnB.
Day 10 (Return Car & Airport)
Pikes and Brunch
Depending on your flight time might have time for a quick drive to Pike’s Peak or enjoy some brunch places (we like Denver Biscuit Company). Make sure you leave plenty of time as Colorado Springs is about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Denver’s Airport.
You May Also Be Interested In These Articles:
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What To Pack For Washington in the Summer
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