My husband and I are planning on taking the first 2 weeks in August for an RV trip. We will be departing from Denver but that is all we have determined thusfar. Our goal is to not travel more than 400 miles per day and to see many sights along the way. We just got back from Mt. Rushmore 2 days ago, so don't want to head that direction again. We also went to Vegas 2 months ago, so that is out. Ideally, we would go somewhere, stay a day or 2 and then move on to the next location. Can anyone offer suggestions on where to go and what to see?
Cheryl, If you like to travel in CO you are in luck. Travel down I-25 to Walsenburg and take Hwy 160 west. Travel over to Durango and ride the 148 year old steam railroad up to Silverton and return. Couple things from here, if you like great views of the Sam Juan monuntains travel up Hwy 550 to Silverton, Ouray, Montrose, Delta, and on into Grand Junction with trip back to Denver on I-70. Vail pass is 10,666 feet. Very nice roads to travel on. The road from Silverton to Ouray is over 12,000 feet in places so take your time and drive slow. Camp sites in Silverton and Ouray. Silverton and Ouray are old gold mining towns. Second item, at Durango west on Hwy 160 to Mesa Verde. Tour Mesa them travel west on Hwy 491 to Utah. You have hold bottom end of state full of Canyons to look at. Them travel north back to I-70 and back home. That will take some time to do. You have RV parks all over the place to stop at. You have so much to look at in CO. You may wish to travel down I-25 into NM. Santa Fe and Albuquerque are nice places to visit also. We like CO and plan a trip back soon. Have fun on the road!
John, thanks for your reply. Ouray is actually one of our favorite places. We started going there 15 years ago when we still lived in Dallas. After moving to Colorado (Denver) in '92, we still continue to meet our friends from Texas there every summer. We have never been there in the RV, we have always rented a condo previously, but the trip route you suggested sounds wonderful, so will present it to my husband. I think that highway 550 between Ouray and Silverton would probably scare the beejeebees out of me in the rv - scares me enough in a jeep!!!
The United CG just north of Durango on Hwy 550 is a fairly decent place. The Durango to Silverton train runs right through the park. I also heard good things about the CG across from the entrance to Mesa Verde. Been to that area twice and it's great there.
Cheryl, The information from Navigator is also good to know. The train ride up to Silverton is the best we have every found to date. The views are some of the best you could ask for. Train in couple places runs very close to 2000 ft drops. Remember Hwy 550? Train is like that also. Our motorhome had no problems with the hills up or down. You do need to use great care to stay away from edge of road due to no guard rails on most of the long drops to bottom. I understand over 10 snow plow workers have been lost. On United CG, it was fun to see the train run through the CG at 8:00 am and 5:00 pm each day. We looked at CG inside Mesa Verde and it was a mess at best. You could not see the sites due to weeds. No one around to talk to over the problem. We did not look at one outside park. We could do the two weeks in Denver to see all the nice places. Love that 16th Street Mail. Great food and Coors also!
Ride down to Santa Fe New Mexico. It is beautiful country side down in New Mexico then go to Taos and you can go to Albequerque(sp)
My suggestion is that you start by slowing down! Why travel in an RV if you try and race to see how many miles per day you can make? We are fulltime and we have discovered the joy of traveling slowly. Let me suggest that you start by getting off of the interstate highways and use the US routes. Plan to stop in the small towns and spend the night in the many free or nearly free public parks that you will see. We seldom go amy more than 200 miles per day and frequently stop in 150 or less. But we meet many local people and we have found that small town America is the very best part. It is a very rare day that our motorhome is not parked and camp set-up by 4pm, latest. The people that we meet in our travels are the very best part!
