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Anyone here familiar with Southwestern Colorado?

R

Riprorin

Banned
I'm going to be arriving in Grand Junction on Friday afternoon June 13 and need to be back in Denver on Wednesday afternoon June 18.

Any advice on how I should partition my time and what I should see and do?

Here's a tentative intinerary:

Arrive Grand Junction Friday afternoon
Sat- visit Colorado National Monument drive to Ouray.
Spend Saturday night in ouray.
Sunday drive to Cortez - visit Mesa Verde National Park
Monday visit Ute Mountain Tribal Park - Drive to Durango
Monday night in Durango
Tuesday drive to Gunnison - stop at Black Canyon
Stay in Gunnison Tuesday night.
Wednesday - sight see in Gunnison and drive to Denver.
 
Distances in Colorado are not the same as distances in other states of the union. You cannot go 80+ miles per hour on Colorado Mountain roads. Even on I-70, which cuts through the middle of the state, you will average 55 to 60 with a big engine.

I live in Colorado Springs, so I'm pretty familiar with the state. You've picked out some absolutely gorgeous places to go see. Ouray and Durango are incredible towns, Ouray particularly.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Sat- visit Colorado National Monument drive to Ouray.
Click to expand...

That's about the only thing to do in Grand Junction - visit the Colorado National Monument. I went to school in Grand Junction for a year, it's a nice little town.

 
Most roads that go through mountain passes have trail heads that let you hike the rest of the way up to the mountain tops. ....

Also, i remember a little national forest park near Rabbit Ears Pass, named for the rock formations at the top of the near by mountain that looks like rabbit ears. There were a couple of small alpine ponds with trout (buy a license if you fish) and trails.

There is was also a train (old diesel or steam engine) ride near Durango, that you could waste a half day on....
 
I've got a lot of family in Colorado, although mostly in the Denver and Pueblo areas. Nevertheless, our favorite area is in the Southwestern portion of the state. You've definitely got most of the major things I'd recommend seeing covered. Just one word of advice - DON'T waste your time at 4 corners! With that out of the way, the things I enjoyed most:

-Mesa Verde National Park: Absolutely gorgeous, although it's a long (but very scenic) ride in - even from the entrance. We only got to spend half a day there. I wish we would have been able to spend the night.

-Durango: The surrounding area is some of the most beautiful country in Colorado and the town (while full of touristy trap shops) is still an enjoyable place to visit. The old train to Silverton is also very cool, although it can eat up a whole day if you go round trip. Just the car ride up to Silverton alone is nice, but the train adds extra charm. We camped in a campground about 5 miles outside of Durango. It was easily the most beautiful campground setting I've personally ever experienced. I felt like I was in a Coors commercial.

-Ouray: The town of Ouray itself looked to be about the size of my neighborhood if memory serves me correctly. VERY small. But the coolest part was just getting there. The road from Silverton was one of the most terrifying roads you'll ever drive on if you're scared of heights. It was already very narrow with barely a foot of buffer between the white line on the edge and the cliff. Then we saw a sign that said 'Road Narrows Ahead.' I laughed because I couldn't contemplate HOW it could get any narrower. My girlfriend was freaking out and leaning in toward the middle the whole way up as the white line on the side would disappear at times from where the road had crumbled away. They were actually in the process of improving the road at the time, but hopefully they didn't take all of the fun out of it. VERY fun drive in some of the steepest terrain you'll encounter in all of Colorado.
 
The other thing that occurs to me is that some of the country was devastated last summer in the fires. I know that a lot of the area around Durango was hard hit. Just be aware of that.
 
Originally posted by: Hoober
The other thing that occurs to me is that some of the country was devastated last summer in the fires. I know that a lot of the area around Durango was hard hit. Just be aware of that.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we faced the same issues with that at Mesa Verde. A good portion of the park was closed off to visitors due to the fires.
 
When you visit Mesa Verde, make sure you stop at the main visitor center. It's usually packed and the parking lot is always crowded... but that is where you pick up the admission tickets for the individual sites.

Several years ago, the park service set up a system where you must have a ticket to enter the popular sites, (Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Spruce Tree House). You pay a fee at the entrance gate to get in the park, but you must have a ticket just to stand in line to actually see the sites. If you don't have tickets, you have to drive all the way back to the visitor center, or be content to observe the sites from the observation areas. It's a silly way to run a national park, but the crowds dictate that only small groups at a time can actually walk around amidst the ruins.

I live in the Denver area, and I have traveled in that area many times. When you see something that is outstanding in the San Juans near Ouray- stop and get out of your car. It is one of the most scenic areas in this state.
 
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