The Ultimate Colorado Summer Road Trip Itinerary

If you’ve been looking for the best Colorado summer road trip itinerary, you’ve just stumbled upon it. This has all of the best parts of Colorado in just one itinerary!

Colorado is one of those states where the scenery is beautiful yet shocking. On the East side, the plains of Kansas continue on for miles and miles until you reach Denver. Then, you hit the Rockies.

From there, the scenery and landscape are constantly changing.

The one thing Colorado has that doesn’t change: Plenty of things to do.

If you are planning a Colorado summer road trip, this guide is for you!

Denver

We’ll start the road trip in Denver, CO. It’s the capital, the largest city in the Rocky Mountain Province, and the perfect jut-off point to so many other areas of this state.

Depending on what you plan to do, there are endless options for restaurants and cafes, outdoor nature areas, and surrounding parks.

While you’re here, don’t miss Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. It’s just a quick 25-minute drive outside of the city. You can hike here along Trading Post Trail or see a concert – or both! Dogs are welcome on the trail and in the amphitheater during non-event times.

Boulder

Boulder’s hip vibes meet its nature counterpart perfectly in the middle. Whether you want to check out a brewery, go hiking at the Flatirons (the backdrop of Boulder), or spend the day at the park, you have it all at your fingertips.

With multiple breweries, bars, and hip eateries in town, you won’t be repeating the same place while you are here. Or maybe you will because you liked the spot you found so much. Either way, there’s nothing better than sipping on a cold one after hiking in the surrounding mountain areas.

You’re just a quick 45-minute drive to Nederland, CO, which is nestled right into the mountains. You can easily access multiple trailheads a few miles in multiple directions from here. The best part? You don’t even need to leave Boulder to have access to some of the best trailheads nearby.

You can find some hiking ideas in the area here.

Frisco

While you may not have heard of Frisco, you probably have heard of Breckenridge, Colorado – a popular skiing destination. Breck is only a 15-minute drive south from Frisco, and is the perfect day trip during the summer months to walk through Main Street and grab a few gifts for friends and family!

Frisco, Silverthorne, and Dillon are all part of Summit Country and bunched up relatively close tougher (a 6-minute drive back and forth).

This is a great area of the state to enjoy some downtime. It’s the perfect place to get some laundry done if you are on a long road trip, catch up on some work at Red Buffalo Coffee & Tea, or, if you’re an IPA lover, grab a beer at Outer Range Brewery.

There are also multiple running trails along the scenic Dillon Reservoir that you can test out while you are here as well. But, keep in mind – you’re at 9,078 feet of elevation and it’s quite hilly! You can even try out paddleboarding!

If you plan to sleep here, check out my free camping map!

Leadville

Leadville is the highest incorporated city in America, sitting at 10,151 feet. While there’s not a ton to do in the town itself, there is plenty to do in the surrounding area, especially if you like hiking.

Located about 15 minutes outside of Leadville, you’ll find Mount Elbert – Colorado’s highest mountain sitting at 14,439 feet (just about 40 feet smaller than the tallest mountain in the continental U.S.!).

If you are looking for a place to camp before you wake up dark and early for your hike to the summit, you can look at my free campsite page. Before you go there, definitely check out High Mountain Pies for some great pizza to carb up!

The Maroon Bells

If you haven’t heard of the Maroon Bells, their claim to fame is that they are the most photographed place in North America – and for good reason.

During summer, you are only able to access the wilderness area before 8 am or after 5 pm. You will need to look online to make reservations as well for your Colorado summer road trip. If you just want to do a few day hikes, you can do more than one in a day, especially if you arrive before 8 am.

I arrived at 7:30 am and did two hikes before 11 am. I even stopped back at the van for a snack between the two! Two beautiful ones are Crater Lake and Maroon Bells Scenic Loop Trail.

If you have time, you can hang out in Aspen for a day or two as well to explore the town itself.

Gunnison

While I wouldn’t recommend spending more than a day in Gunnison, it is definitely one of the easier places to stay when visiting the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

This National Park is one of those that you can do in just a few hours. While there are some hikes you can do, I chose to surpass those as Tripp isn’t allowed since dogs and National Parks don’t mix too well.

There are a total of 12 overlooks in the park. After doing some research, I settled on just 7 that I felt were worth visiting. The others are either the same view or a longer hike to get to the rim. On a 95-degree day, I wasn’t about to do that.

Here are the overlooks I recommend stopping at (each one is under 1/4 mile to the overlook, and some are right off of the road):

Tomichi Point
Gunnison Point
Pulpit Rock Overlook
Cross Fissures View
Chasm View
Painted Wall
Dragon Point

Dogs are allowed on all of those points as well!

I would plan to be in the park for about 3 hours. The drive to get there is not factored into that.

Telluride

Telluride is stunning – it’s a small town with tons of ski resorts, an entire Mountain Village area just a Gondola ride away, and plenty of things to do in all seasons, but especially summer.

You can hike to Bridal Veil Falls (Colorado’s highest free-standing waterfall!), which everyone raves about. When I got to Telluride, I was pretty burnt out from all my previous hikes that week. That just means I will have to go back!

If you aren’t feeling the hiking vibe, take the Gondola to Mountain Village to wander around a different area – it’s only 13 minutes to get there (and dogs can go, too!). The gorgeous scenery will make the time in the gondola fly by.

Main Street is full of quaint cafes, hopping restaurants, and cute boutiques and shops that you don’t want to miss.

Durango

On the way to Durango, if you are coming from the North, I highly recommend taking the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Silverton on your way. It’s beautiful, but a bit frightening since you are so close to the edge of cliffs for a lot of the highway!

I didn’t spend much time in Durango because when I got there, I couldn’t even exit the van without dust being everyone – my skin, my eyes, my nose – you name it. I also wanted to go to Mesa Verde National Park (about a 45-minute drive West of Durango), but the main road to tour the park that allows dogs was closed. So truly, there was nothing I’d be able to see with the pup with me!

However, I will go back and visit the National Park as well as explore the city itself!

Alamosa

While there isn’t much to do in Alamosa, there is a cute main street with a few shops, coffee stops, and restaurants along it. The main reason to go here is that it is the closest (big-ish) city to Great Sand Dunes National Park as part of your Colorado summer road trip.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park is tucked away from all the main roads in the area and is about a 40-minute drive from Alamosa.

I recommend hiking the High Dune Trail at the park! It is the highest point you can reach in the main point of the park and definitely one of the most popular ones. While it is not fully a trail, you can most likely follow the crowd to get to the point that looks like it is the top (and when you get there, you’ll know!).

There are many other trails to do if you plan to stay longer and camp in the dunes (which would be SO cool!).

For your reference, I spent about 3 hours in the park.

Colorado Springs

If you have been following my journey, then you may know that Colorado Springs was not quite the place for me. My van broke down 200 miles away, I was towed here, spent one night in the dealership parking lot, and then 5 nights in a hotel (which I did not want to do!).

Needless to say, I did not explore as I planned to (and instead wrote furiously to make as much money as possible to pay off my new transmission for the van).

But, I would love to go back on a much better note and try again. Here’s what I would do:

Garden of the Gods
Pikes Peak
A few breweries in the area

If you do go, please put a better taste in my mouth from the experience I had by commenting your experience below (or tagging me on IG!).