March 7, 2017
Greetings from Lake Las Vegas.
We climbed our way out of Death Valley and past Las Vegas to Henderson, but we're jumping off soon to wend our way back after getting over 2,000 miles away from home. We have no set plan other than a need to pass through Denver. We're big on National Parks and don't want to hit any ski resorts. Any suggestions?
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You want to go to Ouray, Colorado.
The drive into Estes park from the Colorado Springs direction is pretty awesome.
If it was me, I'd make it a point to drive through the Sand Hills region of north-west Nebraska. Highway 20 is probably the best, but Route 2 through Mullen would attract me because of a certain club nearby.
I'd also like to have my golf clubs and a letter of introduction with me, but that's just me.
Bryce Canyon, and Mesa Verde are really excellent! Both more or less on your way...
Stay south and hit Monument Valley, Four Corners, and best of all, Mesa Verde.
Close we to Denver is South Park and the Sand Dunes National Monument
Garden of the Gods at Colo Sprngs is small but excellent. There's also Royal Gorge on route 50, along the scenic Arkansas River Valley and on through Pueblo.
Monument Valley on your way to Mesa Verde. There is also that Grand Canyon thingy. If you head through New Mexico, then Petrified Forest, Petroglyph, Bandelier, and possibly Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.
If you stay south, the drive on 89A through Kaibab and down to the painted desert is just magnificent.
It is a little early in the year for high altitude snow parks to be fun. Are you going through Montana at all on the way back? A bit out of the way for you but those are the only parks I have been to in that "area."
don't want to hit any ski resorts. Any suggestions?
I think you can enjoy Vail without the skiing, but I would never attempt that myself.
Always wanted to go to Badlands National Park in S Dakota, but its kind of a trip. If you are willing to forego the Great State of Nebraska you could detour to the North after Denver and then follow 94 east.
http://surrealplaces.net/surreal-place/Badlands-National-Park-South-Dakota
The southern Utah parks--Arches,Canyonlands--are awesome. Also the badlands in SD.
Moab. (I-70 route)
If you take a lower route you could hit some cool places in AZ first. (Highway 40?)
Wind up the long way to CO and do Mesa Verde and Sand Dunes. (like chickelit said)
Good time of year to avoid crowds.
Sedona, Canyon De Chelly, Shiprock, Mesa Verde, Sand Dunes, Royal Gorge...
All on smaller roads, tho. Lots of driving.
You could get back on I-70 and visit Moab and Arches. Corona arch and Fisher Towers are excellent hikes outside of Arches and Moab. There's a cool place to stay on the CO river (big bend?) that is half price this time of year.
I've never been to the Grand Canyon. Dead Horse Point is the next best thing.
Try snow mobiles in a ski areas. Or head south and see Sonoran Cactus around Phoenix. The Phoenix Biltmore is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed resort, if you can imagine that.
@ Chickel* Close to Denver is South Park and the Sand Dunes National Monument
South Park is no big whoop. Fairplay is not much to write home about (tho I love it so!)
Best banana cake at the shop with the green tile roof.
Sand Dunes sit one valley below to the south - the San Luis Valley. The Sand Dunes are beautiful with the Sangre De Cristo Mountains jaggering into the sky as a backdrop. Lovely.
I'll second (third? fourth? ... okay, nth) Mesa Verde. A very interesting park.
Monument Valley --> Moab --> Rifle --> Steamboat (no need to ski) --> Rabbit Ears Pass --> Denver. Probably Skyline Drive and thus Estes Park will be closed to a western approach due to snow, but if open it would be very scenic. Then drive south to Boulder and Denver.
Leaving Lake Las Vegas which I think is too far out of town.... taking I-15 north to I-70 to head to Denver.... along the way is Bryce Canyon which is well worth the time to hit one of the day hikes. Also along the way and close off of I-70 is the Anasazi ruins which require a bit of hiking. Along the way are petrified forests to visit near Bryce and Escalante. Fun places along the way and off I-70 is Leadville in Colorado and a host of other small mining communities. I'm near Salt Lake, so that is too far north for you from the I-70 cutoff. Most of the high passes will be closed on the state and county road but I-70 should be fine up through the Eisenhauer tunnel. Green River is a truck stop and fueling station town so nothing there. Glenwood Hot Springs is a bit touristy but fun and right off I-70. Vail is fun to get off the freeway, but not much to see unless you know some celebrities you'd like to visit. Try to do the I-15 through the gorge with that little Arizona section during daylight and look for big horn sheep. I prefer the state and county road heading east from Cortez to Durango which is pretty far south from I-70 but plent of see. If you are not hurting for time, even traveling east from State Route 40 from Beaver Utah into Arizona is awesome and see the reservations toward 4-corners. I think we spent way too much time traveling to youth hockey tournaments on all these road. BTW - I enjoy reading your site.
You can enjoy an entire day here at the Kansas Barb Wire (that won the West) Museum http://www.rushcounty.org/BarbedWireMuseum/.
The big advantage of Mesa Verde is its African Amerikan Park Ranger, the only one in the West, I believe! I know you've been to Crested Butte, my home town. If you drive through there on the way to Colo Sprngs over the scenic Cottonwood Pass, you should look up town bus driver Tuck, the other Black Amerikan in the West.
Someone else posted about Moab and Arches - I forgot about them.... ignore my other suggestions and sample the beer and wines in Moab and see the Colorado which may be running pretty strong with the warm weather we are seeing.
Without the no ski area restriction I would have said dog sledding at Montage. Snow Mountain Ranch and Dog Sled Rides of Winter Park closer to Denver perhaps...
I'm in Henderson too right now. Your visit must be why they asked to borrow back the key to the city.
You can enjoy an entire day here at the Kansas Barb Wire (that won the West) Museum http://www.rushcounty.org/BarbedWireMuseum/.
The big advantage of Mesa Verde is its African Amerikan Park Ranger, the only one in the West, I believe! I know you've been to Crested Butte, my home town. If you drive through there on the way to Colo Sprngs over the scenic Cottonwood Pass, you should look up town bus driver Tuck, the other Black Amerikan in the West.
Depends on how much of a hurry you are in ... if you are on a relaxed trip, of course the Grand Canyon - and if you go that way, on down thru Flagstaff and then across into New Mexico. There is a lot of neat stuff North and West of both Albuquerque and Sante Fe - lots of Volcanic sites, and National Forests ... Sante Fe is pretty neat - lots of Art museums downtown and old Spanish culture and sights ... some of the oldest settled land in America ... and you can pick up I-25 there and take it all the way to Denver.
If you do go by the Canyon and follow it back and down to Flagstaff - there are some neat Volcanic areas alongside the road North of Flagstaff that are not far off the road.
While there is a LOT of scenic stuff in Southwest Colorado, you are playing real games with the weather to hit the mountains around Durango and beyond at this time of year - same deal for up around Estes Park.
I'd watch the weather no matter which way you guys go back towards Denver ... it gets rough this time of year - not so much really cold as really heavy precipitation storms / blizzards.
Sand Hills Journey Scenic Byway.
Mesa Verde. You don't need me or anyone else to tell you how to get there.
Check what is open at Mesa Verde before going - phased openings of sites into May. I was disappointed several years ago in early April when most stuff was closed.
Depending on your route and weather:
> jimbino said...
> Garden of the Gods at Colo Sprngs is small but excellent.
is a great idea.
Also if you don't have any dogs with you, Rocky Mountain National Park would be a good drive through. https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/road_status.htm
Thing is the mountains just west of Denver have had lots of snow, but not so much Denver itself.
This is too early in the year for many places (North Rim won't be open yet for a couple of months, for instance). If you do go to the Mesa Verde area, I'd recommend skipping (or going light) on the actual national park and go with a guided tour into Ute Mountain Tribal Park instead (http://www.utemountaintribalpark.info/). You show up in the morning at a converted gas station at a lonely highway intersection and a tribal member takes you up onto tribal land where you can walk into the actual ruins with lots of artifacts (pottery shards, corn cobs, whatever) still littering the ground. You're only a few miles (as the crow flies) from the big Mesa Verde sites, but just on the tribe-owned side of the mountain. Well worth it.
That same area has Hovenweep National Monument -- beautiful and haunting ruins around the rim of a canyon. And backing up a bit further into SE Utah, one of the highlights of Obama's new Bear's Ears Monument is the "Goosenecks of the San Juan" -- https://utah.com/goosenecks-state-park
And if you haven't yet left Nevada, catch Valley of Fire State Park on your way back east. Happy trails!
93 into Kingman, then I-40 to Flagstaff. Then 89A through Oak Creek Canyon down to Sedona. If you make it to Sedona and feel like it, swing east to Jerome.
For the less obvious, i.e., not the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, or Meteor Crater (a privately owned operation), go to Canyon de Chelly National Monument in NE Arizona and Monument Valley in SE Utah. Drop back to Farmington, NM, with possibly a drive by of Aztec Ruins National Monument and take U.S. 64 across the high country to Taos, NM. For there either take N.M. 522 north into Colorado and then go east to I 25 or continue on U.S. 64 to meet I 25. There is a cool restaurant in the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, NM, and the Philmont Scout Ranch museum is just south of Cimarron. (Philmont is the boy scouts national camp, drawing tens of thousands of scout each summer.)
Enjoy.
No Lake Mead?
Mesa Verde - Million Dollar Highway (in daylight) - Ouray hot springs (not as skeevy as it sounds)
Sedona, AZ, Monument Valley AZ, Mesa Verde, through Durango and Silverton to Ouray Co - a really fine little town.
Beautiful mountain views to Ouray.. East to Black Canyon National Park then over Monarch Pass to Colorado Springs.
"I think you can enjoy Vail without the skiing, but I would never attempt that myself."
We spent a week in Vail last summer. I think it's best to be there outside of the skiing season -- cheaper, better hiking, no worrying about driving in the mountains in the snow.
I believe Jerome AZ is west of Sedona, but certainly a cute little town
Red Mountain north of Silverton is a great view.
Colorado roads week to be well maintained. But if there is a song storm - there are better ways to get home
"Always wanted to go to Badlands National Park in S Dakota, but its kind of a trip."
We did Badlands when we went to Glacier National Park a couple years ago, and I've been there other times. It's the one thing that's on the way when we do a northern trip, so I wouldn't put that on the itinerary going back from here.
We're most likely to head back through Bryce and Arches, and picking the most scenic drive might be good.
There are hot springs around Park City, UT. Mesa Verde may be closed. A further afield, drive through Kansas to Ft. Riley. Very good Calvary museum their, on based. Was open to public, think it still is. It was Custers' base. Several have suggested Estes Park, but I think you have been there before. One road is closed for repairs, have to go through Longmont and Lyons.
ngtrains said...
I believe Jerome AZ is west of Sedona, but certainly a cute little town
D'oh, it is.
"Fun places along the way and off I-70 is Leadville in Colorado and a host of other small mining communities."
We visited Leadville a few years ago in the summer. Really enjoyed that.
We went to Ouray the year we got married. '09. Had a great time there. Took one of the 4x4 tours way up into the mountains to see the old mining works and great high altitude wildflowers.
On your way out of Moab, take route 128 along the COLO river. You will see castle valley and fisher towers in the distance. Really pretty.
It takes you back up to I-70 just as easily, and it's much more scenic.
I see others have covered the southern route--with the exception of the Great Basin National Park and don't forget Grand Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments in Utah--so I'll take the northern one: You can do both Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park in the Winter. Teton you can do from your car. Yellowstone will require snowmobiles (rentable) or snow cats (but a ticket). You don''t have to go near the ski areas in Jackson Hole to do either park. And don't forget Devil's Tower.
Exit Jackson via Dubois and then head east and northeast via Riverton, Casper, Sheridan to Devils Tower. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Dubois,+WY/Jackson,+WY/@43.659748,-110.7568664,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x534d5e824c80832b:0x3454e61a8b25ffee!2m2!1d-109.6304335!2d43.533565!1m5!1m1!1s0x53531a58fccf7f4b:0x3d1c01cbb13a835c!2m2!1d-110.7624282!2d43.4799291?hl=en
White River National Forest is beautiful. Very rugged - just north of the interstate. (NE of Rifle.)
I've heard that there's a good corner to stand on in Winslow Arizona
Chaco Canyon Jemez Springs Bandalier and Pecos Pueblo are all great ruins
If you are near Glenwood Springs around the lunch hour - two really great restaurant choices:
1) Slope and Hatch - casual + super tasty. (a bit small inside can be cramped if you show up right at noon)
2) The Pullman - formal - I hear it's good.
Kayenta has a grocery store with most of the signs in Navajo and good beef brisket.
AprilApple said...
On your way out of Moab, take route 128 along the COLO river.
That too! I listened to a great thunderstorm in that canyon, the banging and rumbling never stopped. Don't forget to donate $.25 for maintaining the old wooden bridge that's been bypassed.
Lots of great ideas. Thanks, all.
I sense a certain blogger getting a bit homesick and I have a small mission (family) to complete in Denver. So I think I'll aim the SUV for Moab tomorrow, we can motor out through I70 as the weekend skiers are speeding in, do a little medical LSD on the front range, and still get to our dentist appointments on time next week. (Just kidding about the LSD.)
Clearly we are just going to have to move out here for good. Maybe Crested Butte. (Although the Westin here at Lake Las Vegas doesn't seem too shabby. Maybe we can negotiate an affordable monthly rent.)
Zion and Moab
Meade
If you intend to settle in the mountains at some point you should detour to Basalt, Co. Since it is in the Roaring Fork Valley you can do whatever you want there. Less isolated than Crested Butte. Better.
Rifle Falls State park. Near Rifle.
Waterfalls. Not sure about their flow this time of the year.
Good choice on Moab. The temperature will be good. It is the right drive distance from Vegas. You will have a chance to look for Big Horn's in the gorge. The weather should be very temperate in Moab now and there are plenty of bed and breakfasts available. I think this is still a bit early in the season. Arches is a short distance away with several fantastic short day hikes low to moderate intensity. Lots of beer and wine available but pay attention to the alcohol content.
@Meade, I was hoping to talk you two into the Shenandoah Valley. Sigh.
Echo on Moab (Arches is right there, Canyonlands only a little further) and definitely Route 128 the back way out of Moab up the Colorado River back to I-70 -- spectacular drive.
I vote for the northern route, having done both. Devil's Tower is great.
on your way to Monument Valley, Four Corners, Mesa Verde and Durango, travel eastward from Kingmant to Seligman AZ on the last remaining stretch of the original Route 66. Check out the Gneral Store in Hackberry AZ. It's better than authentic, it's genuine.
If it was me, I would swing north and go to Custer Battlefield NP. It's been many years since I was there and I know it has changed. The first time I went the place was really eerie. The markers where the bodies were and the mass grave, I walked out to the flanks where he stationed small parties. They all died there. You could stand near the mass grave and monument and almost see the indians coming up the hill. No civilization in sight.
Since then it has gotten all PC with Indian stuff but it is still a great scene, almost like Gettysburg but it was far less commercial.
I could visualize the battle just standing there.
Try to hit Goblin valley if you are around Moab. It's out of this world. Dead Horse Point too.
The hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is easy and it's gorgeous.
--Vance
Mesa Verde is not to be missed.
https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm
Rocky Mountain National Park was fun to drive through.
Going north on I-15 just past St. George cut off through Hurricane on highway 59. Follow around to Kanab then keep on highway 89 to highway 12 will take you past Bryce Canyon. That entire drive is great scenery. Past Bryce go through Escalante and if you have time for one hike I would highly recommend Lower Calf Creek Falls. It's just a few miles east of Escalante. From there you can continue on and either go straight up to I-70 or cut across highway 24 and 95 and hit upper Lake Powell, CanyonLands, Arches and Moab. Enjoy your trip! But really, look up Lower Calf Creek Falls.
Since you're going to Denver, I suggest a stopover in Glenwood Springs. There are caverns (actually above the town--you take a tram up), the enormous hot springs pool and the Yampah vapor caves. Unique and thoroughly enjoyable. Monument Valley is one of my favorite places on earth (when I was a kid, there were two places I wanted to go: Disneyland and John Wayne's stomping ground--I made it to both). And in between the two are the marvelous cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. Have fun!
MichaelK said: Since then it has gotten all PC with Indian stuff but it is still a great scene, almost like Gettysburg but it was far less commercial.
We took the family about 10 years ago, but couldn't walk out on the hill. Too many rattlesnakes - they don't kill them anymore, I guess.
Go see the real mountains, take US 24 south from Beaver Creek CO on I70 and go down to Leadville CO, about 11K up and a good view of the 14ers. Leadville's Motto- "Were all here because were not all there." Bumper Sticker "Just because I slept with you last night don't think I will ski with you today. Stay at the Tabor Hotel, see the opera house, take a tour of the Ibex underground gold mine. Will be a bit cold, But in Norway "Ingen dorlig var, Bare dorlig Klare." There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.
http://www.silverheelsrestaurant.com/
DO NOT let them know I told you though...
Stop at Coors too, the tour is self-guided which would work best.
Also get yourself some ammo against hardin at the Molly Brown museum on Pennsylvania St. in downtown Denver.
Glenwood Springs. Stay @ the Spa and eat @ The Pullman Restaurant. Hike up to see Doc Holliday's grave. Steep, but not that tough.
Moab is interesting and Arches is beautiful. Worth an overnight.
Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde, plus Hoover Dam.
Mesa Verde!
Shooter's Restaurant in Rifle, Co. All the waitresses open carry. The prof might get the vapors. I had a good breakfast and felt particularly safe. Just a short drive off I-70.
https://competition.usmint.gov/visiting-the-united-states-mint-in-denver-colorado/
Yes, come up the southern route (stay off I-70) thru Four Corners. Bear Ears National Monument. Cortez, Mesa Verde, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek Pass, the San Luis Valley, Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Then up over Poncha Pass to Salida, and along the Arkansas River to Canyon City, and up through Colorado Springs. Come visit us!
I like Gary's notes but you really have to consider making your way up to SLC, pass through Grand Tetons to Yellowstone and then make sure you go through Devil's Tower and see SW SD including the B-2 Bomber base and Mt Rushmore if you can approach it from behind. Weather permitting, of course.
Michael K,
If you haven't seen it already, there is an excellent History Channel show on Custer's Last Stand, where they used modern forensic techniques to identify specific weapons by the shell casings, and then tracked those weapons across the battlefield.
A day at Arches, absolutely. I don't know how early Mormon settlers could have seen it without feeling some kind of Biblical destiny in that land. For a vintage family road trip/tourist trap experience, hit Hole in the Rock a few miles outside of Moab.
lincoln highway
Basil said: "I vote for the northern route, having done both. Devil's Tower is great."
I second Devil's Tower. Seeing these crazy fools climbing/hanging on the tower was worth the trip.
Valley of Fire State Park.
If you start from LV, it is about 40 miles north on the Interstate. Earlier I had recommended a visit I made where I went in, spent 4-5 hours in the park, came out the back and into the Lake Larry, I mean Mead, recreational area. Continue down alongside the lake and come out near Hoover Dam.
Or, if you start from the dam end, do it in reverse. The park is much more interesting than the recreational area though the combo made a great day trip out of LV and left me primed and ready for 3 days of a trade show.
At the junction of I-70 and the other Interstate that goes to SLC is Cove Fort. A cool little fort and museum built by the Mormons as a respite between St George and Salt Lake. Don't drive by. Take an hour, stretch your legs and take a look.
If you come back through Minnesota, be sure to take a side jog to see the world's biggest ball of twine. Or at least the world's biggest ball of twine collected by one man. There is a pretender to the title but it was collected by multiple persons so doesn't count.
John Henry
John Henry
If you go north on I-15 through St. George, the next largish town is Cedar City. Just to the northwest of Cedar City is Cedar Breaks National Monument. It has the same kind of geologic scenery as Bryce Canyon, just not as much of it. It is well worth the few extra hours of time it would take visit the monument. Then, you can either come down off the mountain to get back on I-15 to I-70 and on to Moab, or (if the road is open) continue west from Cedar Breaks to highway 89. From there, North to Richfield and I-70.
Of course, if you're on highway 89, Bryce Canyon is only a few extra miles out of the way. Bryce is beautiful any time of year, but I think it is at its best in winter. The crowds are smaller and the yellow, gold, orange, and red of the rock formations are even more visible against the white of the snow.
If you've never been to Bryce, let me try to describe it by contrasting it with Zion. Zion is like the beauty of a fine renaissance painting by da Vinci or another master. It's nature at its best. Bryce is like the beauty of a fine Monet or another impressionist master. It's not nature at its best; yet, it's somehow a little better than that.
Bryce then Utah 12 to Capitol Reef. Best drive in the US
Go to Bent's Fort. Find out who the Bent's were.
Also take the Chama (New Mexico, Antinino (Colorado) steam train ride.
A herd of independent minds.
Sanpete Valley, Manti, and Spring City are unlike anything else in America.
Another vote for Valley of Fire. Red Rock Canyon is worth a visit as well.
Last time I was in Southern Utah I went to Canyonlands instead of Arches on the advice of a friend, and I don't regret it. The entrance to Arches was crammed with daytrippers but Canyonlands was almost entirely empty of people. The ranger laughed at us when we asked if we'd be able get a spot at the 12-person campsite late in the day.
The view of the Canyon itself is otherworldly, and there are a few really good short hikes in the area. I recommend if you're going to be at one of the more popular Utah parks like Zion, Bryce, or Arches, Canyonlands is a really nice companion spot because its quiet and isolation.
Dead Horse Point State Park right near Canyonlands is cool. The climactic scene in Thelma and Louise was actually filmed there rather than the Grand Canyon.
A little north of Omaha in the Loess Hills of western Iowa is the Hitchcock Nature Center. Take the Fox Run Ridge Trail to the end (a little over a mile, easy ground). You will be staring out at the valley of the Missouri River, incredibly flat, spreading out a long way, every square inch ready to be planted.
See Canyonlands (Island in the Sky section, and make sure to see Mesa Arch) and Arches. Great time to visit as it gets to 100F in the summer. If you are taking I-70 to Denver, then see Colorado NM in Grand Junction. Leaving Denver, I also like Scottsbluff NM in Nebr. But you might plan to see that if you are in the area for the eclipse in August.
If you go more southerly route out of Death Valley, hit Monument Valley, Moki Dugway, and Natural Bridges NM. In Kayenta, there is a Burger King (yes!) with a great exhibit on the Navajo code talkers.
I concur with mosquito. You really should go through Ouray and travel the Million Dollar Highway. I was born and raised in Colorado (live in Madison now) and Ouray is my favorite spot in the whole state. You will be amazed.
I recommend the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island NE and the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn IA Both of them have key exhibits showing the condition of original homesteaders and the ads run in Europe which beckoned them. Establishing a home in the Nebraska prairie was no picnic, in circumstances which would be unimaginable to modern 20 year olds.
Both directly on the route to Madison.
hugh42, I don't know if Althouse and Meade are going there but I put them on my list.
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