My wife and I are thinking about taking our 2 kids aged 5 & 8 to Colorado for a few days. We would drive from Kansas City. Does anyone have any tips on where to stay and what to do? We want to go white water rafting and horseback riding provided those activities can be tame enough for my 5 yr old. I was also thinking it would be nice to stay at a hotel with a water park.
Colorado Vacation
- Thread starter OPButtrey
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We had a good time in Colorado Springs. Did the Pike's Peak cog railway ride to the top and back down, went to the Air Force Academy, did the Cave of the Winds thing, as well as rafting in the Royal Gorge.
Just went in June. Colorado Springs we did the same as Ctown above and also Garden of the Gods.
One of the pleasant surprises for me was a visit to Glenwood Springs. Pools fed by hot springs and a cool little town.
Estes Park is also a great town. Lots of shopping and dining and relaxing.
One of the pleasant surprises for me was a visit to Glenwood Springs. Pools fed by hot springs and a cool little town.
Estes Park is also a great town. Lots of shopping and dining and relaxing.
I blocked Garden of the Gods from my memory. While it was a pretty neat place, it was hotter than the surface of the sun. Combine that with the altitude and low humidity, and we were all hurting. Make sure to drink extra water.
With kids? Hyland Hills water World is a really fun water park and is Denver. http://www.waterworldcolorado.com/
East of Denver also has a unique place if you kids are zoo animal obsessed like mine was; The Wildlife Sanctuary is a big cat sanctuary: http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/
If you want more mountainy Colorado, stay in Summit County and hit some of the resort towns to hike, bike, shop etc... Lots of reasonable condos for rent in Keystone.
East of Denver also has a unique place if you kids are zoo animal obsessed like mine was; The Wildlife Sanctuary is a big cat sanctuary: http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/
If you want more mountainy Colorado, stay in Summit County and hit some of the resort towns to hike, bike, shop etc... Lots of reasonable condos for rent in Keystone.
If you can take more time and go further west than the front range, the San Juans are awesome. Ouray has hot springs/jeep trails. Might be the most beautiful part of Colorado.
We just got back from Durango, wife loved the shopping and we hit some epic hikes/views.
We just got back from Durango, wife loved the shopping and we hit some epic hikes/views.
Where you should go depends a lot on what you want to do and how much time you have... Personally, my favorite things in Colorado are in the far corners of the state - Dinosaur National Monument in the far NW corner (technically the quarry is in Utah, if I remember correctly) and there should be some rafting opportunities on the Green and Yampa rivers in this area. My other favorite place is Mesa Verde. It's a National Park full of old pueblos in the far SW corner of the state. If you want to see any of these things, keep in mind that Colorado is a huge place and it is going to take most of the day to cross the state from one side to the other.
Personally I think rafting with a 5-year old is a bad idea. If you're going on anything more than Class I rapids you have to be aware of your surroundings, and be able to think fast. Also, you are probably going to run into a lot of companies that will have minimum age, height, and/or weight requirements. I doubt a 5 year old is going to make the cut. An 8 year old might not, either.
If you want to see the mountains, you can hardly beat Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park (right outside the east entrance) is a nice, although expensive, place. If you want to save money you would be better off staying the night in Loveland or Ft. Collins and driving up Big Thompson Canyon in the morning.
I don't know much of anything about horseback riding, so I can't help you out there.
Personally I think rafting with a 5-year old is a bad idea. If you're going on anything more than Class I rapids you have to be aware of your surroundings, and be able to think fast. Also, you are probably going to run into a lot of companies that will have minimum age, height, and/or weight requirements. I doubt a 5 year old is going to make the cut. An 8 year old might not, either.
If you want to see the mountains, you can hardly beat Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park (right outside the east entrance) is a nice, although expensive, place. If you want to save money you would be better off staying the night in Loveland or Ft. Collins and driving up Big Thompson Canyon in the morning.
I don't know much of anything about horseback riding, so I can't help you out there.
I have to say Estes Park CO.
1: Gateway to the Rockies, there are multiple entrances to the park from Estes. That really get you into the mountains with out having to hike. Trail ridge road will take you about as high as you can get (I think it's the highest elevation road in the US). You will see big horn sheep, elk, moose and bear more than likely depending on season.
2: Activities: There are several places in estes to horseback ride. You can choose from meadow rides or up the rocks into the mountains (id do meadow with young kids). You mentioned white water rafting, It is a short drive into fort Collins to raft the poudre but it depends on when you go, later in the year the less appealing it is to have kids on the river the shallower it gets (more likely to tip). There is also a fun park that has bumper cars, go carts, water rides, some kind of kids obstacle course that looks awesome, a big tram that takes you way up, multiple trout ponds that you can catch your own dinner (think closed real not fly rods). Kids love catching those big trout. The Stanley hotel is also located in Estes and even if you don't stay there, you can spend half a day just walking around it. It is where the shining was written and parts of dumb and dumber were shot as well as one of the most historic hotels in the world. There is also a couple of decent breweries to check out and multiple good cheaper restraunts.
3: shopping, main street has about 60 stores, you can easily spend half a day just walking up and down looking at stuff.
4: hiking, with little kids you wont want to do Longs peak by any means but you can do alluvial fan and alluvial falls in horseshoe park (inside rmnp) that will make your kids think you just hiked a while when in reality it took about 10 minutes, you could also go to bear lake ect which is pretty awesome short little hike.
Ive made that town my second home every summer since high school and while there is less touristy and more isolated places by far in the rockies, no town ive been to has the variety that Estes provides.
1: Gateway to the Rockies, there are multiple entrances to the park from Estes. That really get you into the mountains with out having to hike. Trail ridge road will take you about as high as you can get (I think it's the highest elevation road in the US). You will see big horn sheep, elk, moose and bear more than likely depending on season.
2: Activities: There are several places in estes to horseback ride. You can choose from meadow rides or up the rocks into the mountains (id do meadow with young kids). You mentioned white water rafting, It is a short drive into fort Collins to raft the poudre but it depends on when you go, later in the year the less appealing it is to have kids on the river the shallower it gets (more likely to tip). There is also a fun park that has bumper cars, go carts, water rides, some kind of kids obstacle course that looks awesome, a big tram that takes you way up, multiple trout ponds that you can catch your own dinner (think closed real not fly rods). Kids love catching those big trout. The Stanley hotel is also located in Estes and even if you don't stay there, you can spend half a day just walking around it. It is where the shining was written and parts of dumb and dumber were shot as well as one of the most historic hotels in the world. There is also a couple of decent breweries to check out and multiple good cheaper restraunts.
3: shopping, main street has about 60 stores, you can easily spend half a day just walking up and down looking at stuff.
4: hiking, with little kids you wont want to do Longs peak by any means but you can do alluvial fan and alluvial falls in horseshoe park (inside rmnp) that will make your kids think you just hiked a while when in reality it took about 10 minutes, you could also go to bear lake ect which is pretty awesome short little hike.
Ive made that town my second home every summer since high school and while there is less touristy and more isolated places by far in the rockies, no town ive been to has the variety that Estes provides.
Vail. It has everything. We've gone there a few times during the summer with our kids, tons to do. There's Adventure Ridge, which has summer tubing, zip lining (a kids' one too), pony rides, biking, frisbee golf course, ropes courses, huge trampolines, etc. Tons to do. There's also a ridiculously good Farmer's Market in Vail. You could go trout fishing at Piney Lake, which is beautiful. And obviously there's all kinds of biking, rafting, horseback riding (kids may be too young but you never know) right around Vail. We rented a house the last time we went, it was a blast. Give it a look.
Do not stay in Loveland or Fort Collins (Loveland is a dump for one) if going to estes park daily. The canyon is one of the coolest parts of the trip but driving it twice a day every day youre on vacation will make you hate your life especially if at night.
We just went to Steamboat Springs. It was amazing. I could have spent 2 weeks there and did something different every day. There are a ton of events and festivals there all summer long.
Having done a lot of different places, this would be my answer. The "amusement park" at mid mountain is great. Breckenridge as a town is really nice as far as restaurants, etc. Plus great hikes all over the area, including ones that would be fine for kids your age. Rent bikes and take a ride one day. White water rafting is a bit of a drive (and is from most places you would go), but you can find pretty tame rides for kids that age. Have had great luck with Performance Tours. http://www.performancetours.com. We left from Buena Vista, which was about an hour and a half drive from Breckenridge.
Only issue with Breckenridge is altitude as Breckenridge is at a higher elevation than other places. May want to prepare for that. One of my sons and my wife had issues with it in the past, so took something to prevent and was fine.
Having said all of this, Estes Park is also great with kids that age.
Enjoy-Colorado is my favorite family destination.
I was there too. Looks like they missed out on panning for gold on Cripple Creek and the Kissing Camels in the Garden of the Gods, though.
My Dad also swung us thru Ft. Collins on the way back and the Budweiser brewery. At that time A-B was making the Eagle snacks, so I was mowing thru a bag while he was putting down some diesels in the tasting room.
