Colorado got into my blood on a backpacking trip I took the summer after finishing university, when I spent three weeks in the San Juan Mountains with a borrowed tent and very little money. I have been back four times since, each time finding something new in a state that somehow manages to be simultaneously the most physically dramatic and the most liveable in the American West.
Denver: The Underestimated City
Denver suffers from being the place people fly into on the way to the mountains, which means it is regularly passed through without being actually visited. This is a mistake. The city has a lively restaurant and bar scene centred on the RiNo (River North) arts district; the Denver Art Museum has an excellent collection of Native American art in a striking Daniel Libeskind building; and the food market at Larimer Square is one of the best urban food destinations I have found in the American West.
Denver also sits at exactly 5,280 feet above sea level — a mile high, as the locals will tell you — which means the first day can feel slightly breathless. Drink water, take it easy, and you will feel fine by morning.
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is an hour’s drive from Denver and contains some of the finest mountain scenery in the contiguous United States. Trail Ridge Road, which crosses the park at over twelve thousand feet, is one of the highest paved roads in the country and the views from the tundra above the tree line — of peaks, glacial valleys and, in early summer, spectacular wildflower meadows — are extraordinary.
Elk are abundant in the park and virtually guaranteed; in September and October, during the rut, the bulls bugle through the valleys in a sound that carries for miles. Bear Lake is the most accessible and most visited starting point for hiking; for something more demanding and less crowded, head for the Wild Basin area in the southeast.
Telluride and the San Juan Mountains
Telluride is a former silver-mining town in a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, and it is one of the most beautiful places in Colorado. The town has a Victorian main street with excellent restaurants and bars, a free gondola that runs up to the Mountain Village above, and views of waterfalls and peaks in every direction. In summer, the meadows above the ski area are full of wildflowers and the hiking is exceptional. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June is worth planning a trip around specifically.
Mesa Verde: The Cliff Dwellings
Mesa Verde National Park, in the southwest corner of Colorado, protects the remarkable cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people — elaborate multi-room villages built into the natural alcoves of the canyon walls, abandoned in around 1300 CE and preserved by the desert climate for seven centuries. Cliff Palace, the largest, has over 150 rooms and 23 kivas (ceremonial chambers). The ranger-led tours that take you inside the dwellings are genuinely excellent and put the extraordinary ingenuity of the people who built them in vivid context.
Practical Tips
- Altitude is real in Colorado — many of the best hikes start above 10,000 feet. Give yourself a day or two to acclimatise before attempting anything strenuous.
- Colorado’s mountain weather is notoriously changeable — afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer. Start hikes early and be off exposed terrain by noon.
- The ski resorts (Aspen, Breckenridge, Steamboat) are excellent in winter but the summer hiking season is arguably better value and less crowded.
- Denver International Airport has excellent connections and is the obvious arrival point for any Colorado trip.
Love exploring the American West? Read our guide to the 28 best hikes in Utah — a perfect complement to a Colorado road trip.
