30 Years of Award winning service
Independent on Sunday - 1993-1999
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14 March 2010
Colorado Rocky Mountain High
10 Days/9 Nights
Gateway: Denver
Standard Tour from £486pp
Car Hire: from £18 per car per day
Day 1: Arrive Denver
Welcome to Denver, Colorado’s Mile High City. The Colorado State Capitol has a brass cap positioned at 5,280 feet above sea level, exactly one mile high. The 16th Street Mall connects the Capitol Building with LODO, the cultural district, which a century ago was home to Bat Masterson, Calamity Jane and other frontier icons. The Colorado State History Museum, which explains the dramatic geology of the region, the Denver History Museum, the Denver Visitor Center, and the Molly Brown House, home of the “unsinkable” local heroine with a really interesting story, are all nearby. Try one of the interesting restaurants in LODO for dinner.
Standard: BW Central Denver
Deluxe: Capitol Hill Mansion
Day 2: Explore Denver
If you explored the Golden Triangle Museum District yesterday, today you may want to get out into one of Denver’s great neighbourhoods. The Santa Fe Arts District has Denver’s largest collection of art galleries. Cherry Creek has the best shopping and dining in Denver. Quaint Old South Pearl Street has a Farmer’s Market every Sunday. The Highlands neighbourhood was recently featured in National Geographic Traveller and Travel + Leisure Magazine. Golden, Colorado, the state’s first capital city, is today a great western town at the base of a mountain with huge buttes ringing the town. It’s also the home of Coors Beer.
Day 3: Denver to Colorado Springs
70 miles
Today, it’s Pike’s Peak or Bust in Colorado Springs. You can drive up or take the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. Continue your journey at the Garden of the Gods through red rock landscapes and at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument which encompasses some of the oldest fossilized material in the US. You can also have lunch at the famous Broadmoor Hotel, tour the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine and experience the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.
Standard: BW Pike’s Peak Inn
Deluxe: Pike’s Peak Luxury Inn
Day 4: Colorado Springs/Pueblo/Alamosa
165 miles
You can expect a very scenic drive today as you travel portions of five Colorado Scenic Byways on your way to Alamosa. The Gold Belt Tour takes you through old mining towns and Canon City, home to the Royal Gorge Railroad if you didn’t visit there yesterday. Explore the strong arts community and Historic Arkansas Riverwalk in Pueblo on the Frontier Pathways Byway which also illustrates early settlement in Colorado. The Highway of Legends crosses the Santa Fe Trail in southeastern Colorado. Los Caminos Antigous is closest to Alamosa. Great Sand Dunes National Park, just north of Alamosa, features the tallest sand dunes in America set in a mountain-ringed preserve.
Standard: BW Alamosa Inn
Deluxe: The Mansion Bed and Breakfast
Day 5: Alamosa to Durango
150 miles
The entire route between Alamosa and Durango is a scenic road through the San Juan Mountains. When you reach Durango, if you think you’ve seen it before, it’s the picture perfect Old West town that has starred as the background for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, City Slickers, Cliffhangers and many other movies. So authentic that you might expect a gunslinger to step right into the street any minute. The nightly show at the Strater Hotel is right out of the old West.
Standard: BW Mountain Shadows
Deluxe: Strater Hotel or General Palmer Hotel
Day 6: Durango/Mesa Verde National Park
40 miles
The expansive dugout area sheltered by massive rock cliffs covered with adobe brick “houses” at Mesa Verde National Park appears to be the individual home units of ancient cliff dwellers. Grab your sense of adventure as you go up and down ladders and through the tight spaces of Cliff Palace, the largest dwelling area. The 6-mile Mesa Top Loop Road driving tour takes you through 700 years of Mesa Verde history. If scenery rather than archeology is your interest, ride the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad up into the San Juan Mountains.
Day 7: Durango to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
170 miles
Today you have the pleasure of driving the San Juan Skyway on your way to Montrose and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The unique and spectacular canyon walls rising nearly 3,000 feet in some places were formed by the action of water and rock scouring down through hard crystalline rock. Narrowing to only 40 feet in some places, no other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and startling depths offered by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
Standard: Gunnison Inn
Deluxe: Grand Lodge Crested Butte
Day 8: Gunnison to Vail
160 miles
Vail, Colorado with some of the best skiing in the world, has also become a great summer destination. Take the gondola ride up the mountain to get a spectacular perspective of the rugged Rockies or hike the terrain. Together the pedestrian streets of Vail Village and Lionshead make up a tapestry of special boutiques, art galleries, sports stores, market and restaurants all masterfully landscaped in the most pristine of settings.
Standard: BW Dillon Lake
Deluxe: The Lodge at Vail
Day 9: Vail to Rocky Mountain NP to Estes Park
130 miles
Just north of Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park is a living showcase of grandeur with countless breathtaking vistas ranging from 8,000 to 14,259 feet. You’ll also see delicate alpine flowers, clear lakes, rushing mountain waters, bighorn sheep, ptarmigan, coyote, and elk. There is one major loop road through the park and every square inch is scenic. A great way to end your exceptionally scenic view of Colorado.
Standard: BW Silver Saddle
Deluxe: The Stanley Hotel
Day 10: Estes Park to depart Denver
70 miles
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