Vacation Things To Do In Colorado

Vacation Things To Do In Colorado #1:At the Museum of Western Colorado , in Grand Junction, Colorado, the family can participate in a real paleontology expedition. This is no fake dinosaur theme park ride. Here you will help real museum scientist as they excavate Jurassic dinosaur bones and search for dinosaur tracks. These expeditions go out into quarries in Colorado for one to five day dino digs.

The Museum of Western Colorado actually has a number of different historic and cultural trips and tours that are participated in by over 100,000 people every year. The museum itself is a fun and educational place with some great immersive historical exhibits, an excellent Southwest pottery collection and an "underground" interactive uranium mine.

Vacation Things To Do In Colorado #2:During the 1800’s, Colorado was the site of a booming mining industry that spawned numerous towns. As the mines went bust, many of the towns were abandoned. One of the biggest was St. Elmo which was the hub for some prosperous 50 mines.

Today St. Elmo is just one of the many Colorado ghost towns but it is has been very well preserved as it was in the day. This is a great place to visit and get a real feel for life during that time over a hundred years ago. St. Elmo is one of the smaller ghost town but it is one of the best preserved with 24 of the original buildings still standing.

The mountain area surrounding the town is popular for its fishing, camping, 4 wheel drive trails. Rock hounds come here for the quartz and aquamarine stones.

Vacation Things To Do In Colorado #3:A good road tour vacation idea is a trip on one of America’s best scenic drives - the San Juan Skyway. This is a high elevation trip that Winds through the rugged and dramatic terrain of Colorado’s San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests.

The 227-mile loop runs north from Durango to Ridgeway, turns southwest through to Cortez and then back east to Durango. The mountain scenery alone is enough to make this a great trip. But there are also so many spots along the way to stop and enjoy vacation activities. Telluride is a ski town and during the summer it holds numerous events such as the Bluegrass Festival, the Jazz Festival, the Film Festival and others. Stop at the quiet Victorian town of Ouray known for its hot springs and artists studios. The San Juan Skyway passes right by the Mesa Verde National Park which is home to hundreds of years old cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians.

Vacation Things To Do In Colorado #4:Fort Collins, Colorado in June is a great vacation idea for all you beer lovers. The city’s historic Old Town Square is site of their annual two day Brewers Festival. Fort Collins is the largest beer-producing town in Colorado and the festival is their way of celebrating this fact.

There are five local breweries that that host this event. You can browse the festival grounds sampling over dozens of different Colorado ales while enjoying the sounds of live music. While you are in Fort Collins for the Brewers Festival, you can visit the area’s most popular outdoor recreation spot, the Poudre River Canyon. It’s part of the Roosevelt National Forest and a great place for hiking, biking, climbing, river sports, and more.

Poudre River is one of the best fishing spots around, known for its plentiful supply of brown and rainbow trout.

Vacation Things To Do In Colorado #5:Southwestern Colorado has some good hiking places. The Durango-Silverton area has some excellent hiking trails that take you through the beautiful San Juan National Forest and the Weminuche Wilderness Area. You can access the southwest portion of the Colorado Trail at Junction Creek from downtown Durango.

For some challenging hiking adventure take the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad up to Needleton. Here the 14 mile Needle Creek Trail provides ascents to three different 14,000 foot peaks.

Some 4,000 feet overlooking the Elk Creek Valley is the 8 mile long Elk Creek Trail.

For a short 4 mile hike, try the Purgatory Flats Trail which begins at the Durango Mountain Resort entrance off Route 550 and heads up into the forest to meet the Animas River. This is a favorite overnight camping spot. From here you can continue on to the Animas River Trail that ends in Needleton.

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