The Rockies start here.
Rocky Mountain sunrises, Red Rocks at showtime, Clear Creek whitewater, and the ghost stories the old blocks keep after dark. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Book these seven before you land.
First visit or fifth, these hold up the itinerary: the drive up Trail Ridge Road, a night walk through haunted downtown, and the whitewater run half an hour from your hotel.
Small Group Tour of Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods from Denver
Small-group day trip from Denver to Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, and Pikes Peak with bottled water and included park fees.
From $179 per person
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One road, straight to the tundra.
Leave Denver at dawn, clear the Beaver Meadows gate before the lots fill, then climb Trail Ridge Road past the treeline to twelve thousand feet. Bear Lake, the Moraine Park elk, and the highest paved road in the country, all in a day. This is the trip people plan a whole visit around.
Which Rocky Mountain day is yours?
Everyone wants the mountains; the right way up depends on your trip. Three ways to do it, so pick the one that sounds like you, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Up Trail Ridge
The scenic drive
8 hours (approx.) · from $199 · 3,419 reviews
Up Trail Ridge Road to twelve thousand feet, with pullouts for the Continental Divide, marmots on the open tundra, and Bear Lake before the crowds. Most of the day is the view from the road, which is exactly the point when the altitude is new to you.
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Dawn and dusk
The wildlife day
3 hours (approx.) · from $119 · 366 reviews
Moraine Park at first light when the elk bugle, bighorn sheep on the canyon walls, and a guide who knows where the moose feed. Built around the hours the animals move, so the pace is slow and the binoculars come out often.
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Boots required
The hiking day
4 hours (approx.) · from $85 · 366 reviews
Past the parking lots and onto the trail: an alpine lake, a stretch of tundra, and a summit view you earn on foot. A guide handles the altitude, the route and the weather, so a first high hike stays a good memory.
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The dark has the best stories.
Cheesman Park was a cemetery before it was a lawn. The Croke Patterson mansion still unsettles the people who stay in it. Walk the old blocks with a guide who knows which corners went wrong, then find a RiNo barstool once the tour lets out.
Green chile on everything.
A food hall on every other block, Rocky Mountain trout done right, and green chile smothering the rest. If you could book only three food hours in the city, spend them here.
Cold water and long cables.
Whitewater on Clear Creek, a canyon zipline that runs for a quarter mile, treetop courses in the foothills. Half an hour from downtown the ground drops away. Pack a change of clothes and pick from these.
Larimer Street remembers.
Denver started as a gold camp on Cherry Creek and grew up on the railroad. Larimer Square, the LoDo warehouses, the gold dome of the Capitol: the boom years are still standing, and a good guide reads them block by block.
The Front Range, one trip at a time.
The region spreads out, and each corner is a day. Rocky Mountain National Park for the tundra. Red Rocks for the show. Downtown for the gold-rush blocks. The foothills once you want the big view.
Sort by the kind of day.
Twelve ways into the same region: pick the one that sounds like your kind of day, and every option behind it is already reviewed and priced.
An hour out, a different world.
The interstate climbs fast. Fourteeners, red rock parks, alpine towns and a whitewater canyon all sit a morning from downtown, and you are back before the evening cools.
Three days, mountains included.
You cannot see all of Colorado in one trip, but you can nail the right three days. This is the order to hand a friend flying into DEN tomorrow.
Day 1
Start downtown
Union Station, Larimer Square and the gold dome of the Capitol on foot, a food hall for lunch, the art museum when the afternoon heats up. Easy pace, mile-high air.
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Day 2
Red rock and fossils
Red Rocks at sunrise before the hikers arrive, the dinosaur tracks on Dinosaur Ridge, then Golden and the foothills on the way back. A show at the amphitheatre if the calendar lines up.
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Day 3
The mountain day
The early gate at Beaver Meadows, Trail Ridge Road up to the tundra, Bear Lake or Moraine Park depending on the elk. Check the forecast two days out and give this day the clearest sky.
Plan the mountain day →
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