I'm going to Colorado August 1st through the 7th. I'm definitely hitting up Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass. Can you Colorado Jeepers tell me what else is a must see/do there? It's going to be me and my girl friend. So far we plan on heading to Canon City, CO. Doing a white water day trip; floating Royal Gorge. Then doing a couple days of trail riding/site seeing in Ouray and Telluride area and then heading to MOAB. I've read about the hot springs park. Is it a must see? We are from Arkansas so we have those here as well. We are both in our late 20's. I'm really trying to figure out some cool stuff for her to do. Any cool restaurants? Any suggestions on a neat hotel or place to stay. We are pretty open to going to several different towns/cities. Neither one of us have ever been to Colorado or Utah. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

There's limited really good places to stay in Ouray and Silverton but most of them aren't too bad. They are all pretty basic.

Check out Handlebar Restaurant in Silverton.. Great place to eat and always busy.

Tons of 4-wheeling prospects there. Depends on whether you want challenging wheeling or scenery.. Black Bear is pretty scenic, but not that hard.. But it is a very unforgiving trail... You'll see what I mean when you run it..

Engineer to Poughkeepsie and out Corkscrew is probably the most challenging road there. Poughkeepsie is by far the hardest.. Lockers are a must if you run it from engineer as there is an obstacle called the wall...

All of the roads are very scenic.. Well worth the trip.. We do a week there every year.. We'll be there the 3rd week in July and sometimes Black Bear and others aren't open yet due to snow..

 

Thanks for the info. Do you think Black Bear and Imogene will most likely be open the first week in August? Yeah I've looked at a ton of pictures and it definitely is unforgiving. I like the challenging trails but the g/f definitely would not so I've got to take it a little easy for her.
Yeah we were mainly hitting up the more moderate scenic trails with the views, waterfalls, etc. I've got a 2dr with D44's/4.10's, 33" grapplers, 2.5 Lift, rock sliders, etc. No locker as of yet just the LSD.

Also what do you guys think about that aquarium in Denver? We were thinking about checking it out.

 

The Denver aquarium is somewhat disappointing and overpriced IMO. Then I'm comparing it to aquariums in Boston and on Maui. What do you really expect from an aquarium in the mountains?

Try and reserve a tour of the mint. The book up fast, but it would be worth it if you can get in.

usmint dot gov/mint_tours/index.cfm?action=StartReservation

 

Are there any good fishing spots in the area? (Telluride, Ouray) I assume you have to have a fishing license and trout stamp?

 

Black Bear and Imogene most likely will be open.. We normally don"t get any snow that time of the year.. But you never know in Colorado. If you go up Imogene be sure to take in Yankee Boy Basin... You continue on west from the turn-off to Imogene. It dead ends up in the basin and has a couple of really nice waterfalls.. That time of the year the waterfalls won't be as spectacular, but they'll still be nice..

You're jeep will do just fine on every trail but Poughkeepsie..

There are a couple of high mountain lakes that we've been to in the area.. I can't remember the names of them right now, but I'll look them up. You can get a daily, 3 day, 10 day (I think) fishing licenses in Ouray. No "stamps" other than an extra rod (you can fish with 2 rods) Ridgway Reservoir is a few miles to the North of Ouray. There's also a couple of lakes to the East of Ridgway..

Ridgway also has camping there.. It's a state park and very reasonably priced.. You need to make reservations on our State Park site if you're going to stay there though. There generally aren't any sites left that you can just grab..

PM me if you want more info...

 

Medano Pass out side of Westcliffe, sort of near Canon City, is a pretty easy but fun trail it takes you to the Sand Dunes the back way so you do not have to pay!

 

Thanks for the info and suggestions.

 

Clear Lake is a nice high mountain lake with a scenic drive. Easy trail. The road is country road 20 just north of Silverton. You turn right (north) on county road 12 up to the lake.. Nice waterfall on your way up.

The other lakes are called Alta Lakes.. you can get to them from the Ouray/Silverton side of the mountain by going over Ophir pass...

 

Thanks. sounds awesome. Any fishing advice for these? bait?