Raifta Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 I haven't posted in forever, but DD is getting super anxious about our upcoming road trip to the Arizona/NM/Colorado (and possibly Utah) area in August and suggested I ask the Hive Mind about ideas for things to do, see etc since, to quote her "that's where you go to every time we need to buy a new appliance". (She's not wrong.) So, crowdsourcing for any must see or do things. I know it will be stupid hot and I know that it might be difficult to get into National Parks. She's happy to spend some time doing outdoorsy things, like hiking or rafting or ???, but also happy to spend time in cities hitting up museums and theatre and shopping and going to all the restaurants she can't go in Canada. We're also happy to do silly tourist things. We haven't gone on a vacation since 2015 when she was 9 (she's 17 now). We'll be driving down from the Canadian prairies, and since we have two drivers (huzzah teenager with license), we are hoping to make pretty good time getting all the way to Colorado and then focusing on the 4 corner states. My planning skills went kaput when I spent the last 3 months dealing with my ailing mother-in-law and then selling her house and dealing with her estate as well as finishing one job and starting a new one so I've really dropped the ball on this and would appreciate any and all input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 How long do you have for your trip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raifta Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 We'll have about 10-12 days to tourist (plus 4 days for driving there/back). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Fun! I have ideas, and will come back and post them soon. BTW, we are on that same trip right now. Really! It’s Day One for us. Great minds! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Carlsbad Caverns in NM. Durango and Pagosa Springs Co are small, quaint towns. Mesa Verde National Park in CO was fun. The actual '4 corners' was not worth the time or money to see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Garden of the Gods in CO. It's not hard to get into, like a national park would be, and it's absolutely stunning, very easily hikable. I'd pick it for a couple of hours in the morning, and then find a fun spot for lunch afterward. (I'm so sad we'll be there at Christmas when it won't be nearly as nice. 😞 ) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Meow Wolf seems to be my go-to recommendation this summer. https://meowwolf.com There is one in Denver and one in Santa Fe. We tend to do a lot of zoos and tourist trains, and I have been to many in this region. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) 1. Sunscreen, drink lots of water, sunscreen, drink lots of water... And carry several gallons of drinking water in your car, for emergency. 2. Distances between venues and cities are huge in the Western U.S., and highways/interstates are widely spaced which means distances from one place to another takes a lot of time, so you may want to focus on just one state. For example, depending where you are coming from in the Canadian prairies, that may be 20-25 hours of just straight driving just to get to Four Corners of CO/UT/NM/AZ. Also, I will mention that Four Corners itself is an hours-long drive from any city of note in any of 4 states, and the landscape is a bizarre post-apocalypse wasteland, with a long line of cars to get to "the spot" where 4 states touch. The actual spot is surrounded by booths where Native Americans sell tourist items. We just did an 11 day trip (which included 2 days of driving to go/return) in that very area -- so 9 days of actually being just in NM and CO. And other than a 4 day stay in one spot in CO, there was 3-6 hours of driving every.single.day to get from one place to the next -- which reduced our time to actually BE somewhere or DO something at the new location. Just trying to give you a feel for what might be realistic, or for how to plan. 😉 I'd suggest focusing on CO, and possibly dip down into NM (Santa Fe and Albuquerque). Maybe start by heading to Denver, as there are a lot of things to do in and around there, and then go south through CO, down into NM, and then back up into CO, and then west, hit 4 Corners, and then head west to Grand Canyon in Northern AZ or Bryce / Zion in Southern UT. Canada to Colorado USA -- 2 days Denver, CO -- stay 3-4 days - Museum of Nature & Science - Botanical Garden - Denver Meow-Wolf -- art installation / interactive experience - Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park -- need to pre-order your timed entry pass - Dinosaur Ridge -- walking trail, see the best fossilized dino footprints in the US Colorado Springs, CO (2.5 hours south of Denver) -- stay 2 days - Pike's Peak Cog Railway at nearby Manitou Springs -- go to the top of US lower 48's tallest peak - Penny Arcade in Manitou Springs (near Colorado Springs) - Garden of the Gods - Florissant Fossil Quarry -- $20 cash per person, split rocks till you find your fossil! Santa Fe, NM (5 hours south of Colorado Springs) -- stay 1-2 days - International Folk Art Museum - Museum of Indian Arts & Culture - Georgia O'Keefe Museum - Santa Fe Meow-Wolf -- art installation / interactive experience - walking tour of art galleries, historic town square, cathedral - food: Kakawa Sipping Chocolate & truffles, Tomasita's, The Shed, Hungry Harry's... Albuquerque, NM (1.5 hours south of Santa Fe) -- stay 1-2 days - BioPark -- botanical garden (very nice!), aquarium, zoo, etc. - Museum of Natural History - Petroglyph National Monument - Tour of the Historic KiMo Movie Theater Pagosa Springs, CO (3 hours NW of Albuquerque) - have lunch, hang out by the river (or stay at the inn and enjoy the hot springs), and then head to Durango, CO Durango, CO (1 hour W of Pagosa Springs) -- stay 1-2 days - Durango to Silverton steam train - river rafting, zip lines, horseback riding, etc. - possibly stay 30 minutes away at the Mancos Inn & Hostel, and visit the Mesa Verde National Park -- Indian ruins Drive up highway 550 ("the Million Dollar Highway") which runs up the west side of Colorado, for absolutely fabulous Rocky Mountain views. Be sure to stop in Ourrey, an old mining town, and go see the Box Canyon Falls there, and also park at the 8th Street lot and walk up to see another great waterfall there on the outskirts of the town. Maybe stay over night in Grand Junction, CO, and then continue north to head home. Colorado to Canada -- 2 days OR, do the "loop" in reverse. OR, drop out some of those states/stops and instead hit up cool sites on your way to/from the 4 Corner States area -- in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming (or whatever route you take). Another idea entirely might be to head for the Pacific Northwest, and enjoy Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and take the ferry to Washington state and see Seattle, and possibly dip down into northern Oregon... ETA -- note: - Carlsbad Cavern NM is cool, but it is 5 hours south of Albuquerque, and there's really not much else to see/do in that area - Grand Canyon AZ is cool, but overbooked in the summer, plus it is 5 hours west and south of Durango CO - UT Nat'l Parks of Zion, Bryce, and Arches are all nifty, but very HOT in summer -- plus hours apart from one another, and hours away from Durango... Edited May 5 by Lori D. 4 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popmom Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) I’m following. Dd22, dd17, and I will be in Denver tomorrow afternoon. We will be dropping off dd17 at her bff’s house in Broomfield. They haven’t seen each other in a couple of years. So dd22 and I will be on our own for most of the week. Edited July 19, 2023 by popmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Santa Fe, Albuquerque (they have some amazing museums!) and Los Alamos, NM are my top places to visit. Each place has museums and historical sites galore - I could spend a week in Santa Fe and another in Los Alamos alone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Corrado will be great. The mountains will be cool and you can do tons of hiking. Southern UT will be an oven. Of the National Parks, Capitol Reef is less well-known and has fewer people, great scenery. If you go to the Grand Canyon: the North Rim is at 1000 ft high elevation and thus cooler than the South Rim; it's also less crowded. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 We lived in Albuquerque for a decade. Our time to do bigger road trips was limited - we were working and then had little kids - but we had some nearby favorites. In town, the natural history museum, biopark (zoo and botanic garden), explora (hands-on kid science museum that can keep adults busy, too), atomic museum, and hot air balloon museum (this one is small and fairly quick) were all entertaining to my kids even when we went back to visit (they were in their early teens). The petroglyphs offers several short, quick hikes. There is a tram ride to the top of Sandia peak. Old town, which is near several of the museums, is touristy but interesting (we were able top pop in to an old Catholic church to look around). Favorite nearby hikes - Sandia Peak (you can drive to the back side and just hike up there, or do a long hike to the top and back, or only go one direction and ride the tram the other way), Bandelier, El Morro, and El Malpais. We did a pre-kid road trip to AZ and explored the painted desert and grand canyon, which were both fun. Other nearby things to see are the ruins at Jemez and there was someplace nearby where you could go down into a kiva, but I don't remember what it was called. Some of these things are longer treks and some are short - we usually stopped at Jemez on the way to Bandelier, for instance. When we would go back to visit, we had no problem filling a week with stuff to do near Albuquerque so you'll have to pick and choose, but this gives you some indoor and outdoor options. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raifta Posted July 19, 2023 Author Share Posted July 19, 2023 Thanks for all the great suggestions. It's also helpful for DD to read these to be aware of how long it takes to get anywhere (I've told her, but she hasn't really experienced this in the same way I did when I spent 10 years of my childhood driving across the US and Canada every summer from one coast to the other and then down south), which will help us narrow down what we want to do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 This was decades ago and don't know if this applies! DH and I went on a Coors tour. Colorado somewhere. I'm sure you need to be 21 yo or more. It was fun. We also got to see the Clydesdale Horses! HUGE! Pike's Peak summit Central City - See the famous "Face on the barroom floor" in Teller House Bar. Step back in time. Little western city unless it has changed. Tour the US Mint in Denver. Brown Palace Hotel and Spa So much more.............!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Raifta said: It's also helpful for DD to read these to be aware of how long it takes to get anywhere (I've told her, but she hasn't really experienced this You can put destinations into Google Maps and see how long it might take to drive. I can't imagine trying to do *4* states in 11 days, mercy. You could spend a lot of that in AZ and never run out of things to do. Maybe stop in one state on the way down, spend the night, do one thing, then go to the state where you want to focus and spend more time. If you focus on two states with 4 days each, you could hit the other two with 1 day each, something like that. Then detour on the way up and hit the Badlands, Yellowstone, etc. There's a pretty amazing tank/military museum near Yellowstone if you happen to be into that. When I plan a trip, I start by pulling up the location tripadvisor. If you look up "things to do in Arizona" and repeat for the other states, you'll see the top thing to do in each destination. Then I think about what WE like to do. We like eat and we like to move. We like things that require moderate movement (a pleasant 2 hour hike) and we like things that require no movement (riding on a train, a hummer or jeep ride, etc.). We like science things, especially caves, fossils, or geology, we (ok they) like history things. So then I look those locations and ask what we like. In AZ you have ALL that. I've been to CO, but it's not quite as exotic as AZ. Can't speak to NM or Utah. You might have more fun if you spend more time *doing* than *driving*. These are HUGE, wide open spaces. Have you considered flying down and renting an RV? Are you going to camp or do you need a central place to stay and then do day trips? When we did AZ, we stayed at some kind of mountain inn place in Flagstaff. It was central in the state, making it easy to go out and do day trips north/south/east/west. Do you have to go while it's still hot? If you wait till early fall, not too late, the temps drop and get very pleasant. I've been thinking of taking ds back to AZ because he wasn't born when we took dd years ago, sight. It's an amazing place. -Tuba--see dinosaur tracks in the ground. Unbelievable landscape. -Grand Canyon (of course) -eat breakfast at the Grand Canyon in their restaurant with prickly pear syrup on your pancakes and amazing views -Sedona--pink jeep tour, hummer tours -Verde Canyon train ride -eat at a farm near Phoenix (some kind of nuts, I forget, a surprising place) -Montezuma's Castle and similar sites -Observatory in Flagstaff--The astronomy in these wide open places is AMAZING because you can see so much. -Hoover Dam and ride down the Black River Gorge -eat amazing food everywhere. Avoid chain restaurants and stick with the small, local places. So, so good. Like 18 years later memorable good. What we didn't do and would do if going back? -mule ride into the Grand Canyon -rafting in the canyon -4 Corners -jeep tours around the mittens -go at a time when they're not doing prescribed burns. -do a tour to see the hieroglyphs -tour a mine -hike or explore the western part of the state where the temps are cooler -stay at a resort in the desert and get a desert view massage. Oh yeah. -tube on the river in Sedona -stay in a national park resort at the Grand Canyon We were there 3 ½-4 days iirc. You could easy spend 6 days jam packed and have it not be overkill. I've had friends fly in and rent a motor home. That way they didn't have to move from place to place. Utah is pretty epic for geology. Does your dd like to shop? I watched the tv series about Studio McGee and they have at points had warehouse sales. Another cool tip would be to try Airbnb Experiences and also Viator. Especially in NM I'll bet you could hit jackpot with some cool things to do like cooking classes. Sometimes with the airbnb experiences they'll be something like going into a home and cooking authentically with them. NM also has some agriculture and farms you can tour, doesn't it? I think I saw this on tv. It would give you a balance of things you do on your own and memorable splurges. Definitely don't underestimate the time for the driving. I think it was 2 ½ hours from Flagstaff to the Hoover Dam and that was leaving crazy early in the morning on wide open roads. I personally wouldn't drive that much back and forth in a day, just me, but we were young and crazy. Edited July 19, 2023 by PeterPan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) 19 hours ago, Raifta said: Canadian prairies Dumb question, where are the Canadian prairies? I was assuming sort of the middle, which is why I was suggesting you stop and hit a big national park or something going each direction (down then up). It will break up the drive and keep things more fun. There's lots of amazing stuff to see, but it's not all equally amazing. If it's a National Park, it has been labeled that usually because it's super epic, super amazing, worth driving out of the way to get to. So if it's within say 2-3 hours out of the way, I'd definitely stop in any np you're driving by. You can ask google maps to show you all the national parks in the US and see what you get. Anything that will be even within 2-4 hours of your route is worth the effort, definitely if it's 2-3. Like me, I'd *cry* to be that close one and not make the effort. Ok, google says it's Alberta-ish. Then yes, Yellowstone going down, the Badlands on your way back up. Oh wow, I've never heard of this Guadalupe Mountains np. Sounds amazing. Have fun. Sounds like an amazing trip!! Edited July 19, 2023 by PeterPan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 We stayed in Durango, Colorado one summer (housesitting for friends) and one of my kids' favorite days was the day we went to Farmington NM--which sounds funny to any of our friend from NM, but they have a summer outdoor theater that was a highlight of the trip https://farmingtonnm.org/summer-theater. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the dessert-outdoor setting was great for it. I see they are doing it again this August, in case your dates coincide. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 4 hours ago, PeterPan said: You can put destinations into Google Maps and see how long it might take to drive. I can't imagine trying to do *4* states in 11 days... ...In AZ you have ALL that. I've been to CO, but it's not quite as exotic as AZ. Can't speak to NM or Utah. You might have more fun if you spend more time *doing* than *driving*. These are HUGE, wide open spaces... ... Definitely don't underestimate the time for the driving... I've been to all 4 states and I think AZ, NM, and CO all have certain areas that are equally loaded with cool things to see and do. 😉 And, just an FYI -- the national parks and outdoor venues in UT and AZ are great places to tour, but NOT in the summer. It's currently running 100˚-115˚ in those states, which means doing any outdoor venues is right out. And all of those outdoor national parks are part of the huge draw for AZ and UT. Note that while August will be about 10˚ cooler, that is the middle of the monsoon season, which means huge wind and dust storms, massive thunderstorms, and dumping torrential rain storms for all of the Southwestern states. So that's another reason that planning a summer visit in those 4 states with lots of outdoor sites is not the best idea. 😉 But yes, input destinations to get ideas of what to do, and to get a realistic feel for travel time between sites -- which will help with deciding how much time do you want to spend on the road, and how much time do you want to have to actually see/do things. I linked the Trip Advisor top suggestions for each city in my post above. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 I thought of thread as I just planned a quick trip to Mt Evans outside of Denver. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans_Scenic_Byway I happen to watch a YouTube from Sidetrack Adventures about it last week. It would be super easy to plan a week or more of day trips near Denver. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 22 hours ago, Lori D. said: 2. Distances between venues and cities are huge in the Western U.S., and highways/interstates are widely spaced which means distances from one place to another takes a lot of time, so you may want to focus on just one state. For example, depending where you are coming from in the Canadian prairies, that may be 20-25 hours of just straight driving just to get to Four Corners of CO/UT/NM/AZ. This just made me laugh so much. Distance between cities in western Canada are already huge and people are very used to driving them. Like every single day. It's going to be a breeze doing this trip, regarding travel times. It's when you go west to east that things become a blur and you just want to get on a plane to get to the final destination. Done that trip three times both directions. I loved all your suggestions for places to see, though. Great stuff. Just gotta know your audience from the OP. 😉 I also wonder what you mean by "Colorado to Canada?" Straight north to the Canadian border? The OP could be anywhere within Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. It may be more than two days to get to the CO border, but google maps will help with distances. The great thing about driving the US part, is the speed limits are excellent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 Depending on where you are in Canada, and what mountains you are used to seeing, I'd go straight for the fun stuff in Arizona if you've never been. It's so different than the Canadian prairies. The red rocks, cactus, Joshua trees, etc. are all super cool if you've never been. The mountains in CO aren't that different than the Rockies, though more red rocks in areas like Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods. If you have time to see the Grand Canyon, that is very nice. Sedona, Arizona is also gorgeous. As people mentioned, the national parks can get really crowded, but if you are travelling in mid to late August, you may miss the biggest crowds as people get back to school earlier in the US. There are some cool national parks in Utah that we never had time to visit. Salt Lake City was kind of disappointing. The lake isn't really pretty and it was pretty far out of the way to get there with the route we took. I guess it will depend on your north-south route. We were coming south from Yellowstone N.P., which is really cool to see. We never made it as far south as New Mexico, but it's on my list of places I'd love to see. Enjoy your trip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 @Raifta -- Would love an update to know what you ended up doing last summer! That might help others plan a trip this summer! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raifta Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 (edited) @Lori D. @sheryl My daughter and I did end up taking an epic road trip to Colorado and New Mexico last summer and it mostly amazing, thanks to your help. Slightly less amazing when car broke down on day 1 and we had to spend several thousand dollars to get it fixed (but it got fixed!) and when I ended up with kidney stones at the tail end of the trip and my poor daughter had to call 911 (twice) to have an ambulance take me to hospital while she followed behind in the car (and then she ended up driving pretty much all the way home - 1400 miles). We were there the first two weeks of August. It was hot but not unbearable, although keep in mind that we both like hot. We stayed at what I would consider to be a mid-level hotel in Denver and at the RAD hostel in Colorado Springs, which was fine - we had our own room, it had a bunkbed, mini fridge, microwave, own shower and access to laundry/kitchen. In Santa Fe my daughter objected to the 'sketchy' hotel that I had booked and we ended up at the much nicer, and also pricier Old Santa Fe Inn, which was lovely and within easy walking distance to the historic downtown Plaza in Santa Fe. Things we enjoyed: Denver - Botanical Gardens, Museum of Science and Nature, Meow Wolf, Molly Brown House Museum, Water World water park Colorado Springs - Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Garden of the Gods (we went for two hikes, one very early in the morning to avoid the crowds that we experienced on our first hike around 10 am), cog railway up to Pikes Peak (we booked tickets a couple of weeks ahead of time) Santa Fe - attended an amazing choral concert by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi - this was an accident - we stumbled upon the concert as we were wandering around the Plaza area on our first night and they still had some tickets available, we went to lots of the art museums (Georgia O'Keeffe, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts among them), lots of art galleries, New Mexico History Museum, enjoyed free evening concerts at the Plaza, took a day trip to Bandelier National Monument for more hiking (get there early in the summer) and through Los Alamos, went to Meow Wolf here, which is different from the one in Denver, we also took a walking tour of the city on our first full day which gave us a lot of great background history and we got to see lots of important historic buildings indoors and out Durango - went ziplining, went for a swim in Night Horse Lake, which is a beautiful green colour and very refreshing, some more hiking Pagosa Springs - we stayed at The Springs Resort, which was pricey and enjoyed our hot springs experience until the morning we were about to leave when the first kidney stone hit Overall it was a great trip. My daughter is still willing to go places with me despite the rather traumatic ending (we took a mini road trip to Duluth Minnesota last fall). We enjoyed all the places we went, but really loved the vibe in Santa Fe. Edited May 7 by Raifta 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 @Raifta -- Yikes! what a harsh start and finish to your trip! Hope the kidney stones are done for good now. You really did a lot! Love those serendipitous things that can happen on longer vacations, like your concert in the cathedral. Lots of things on your list that I'd still love to go back for another trip to do. 😄 Thank you so much for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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