#53 best destination in the world

Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park

Best time to travel: June-Sept
Walk difficulty: Hard
Ease of travel: Hard
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$$

  • High and prominent mountain 14,259-foot fourteener located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness
  • Longs Peak is the highest point in Boulder County and Rocky Mountain National Park
  • The mountain was named in honor of explorer Stephen Harriman Long and is featured on the Colorado state quarter

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park

Best time to travel: early June-late Aug
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Hard
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Largest cliff dwelling in North America
  • The structure built by the Ancestral Puebloans is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region
  • Tree-ring dating indicates that construction and refurbishing of Cliff Palace was continuous approximately from 1190 CE through 1260 CE, although the major portion of the building was done within a 20 year time span
  • Cliff Palace was abandoned by 1300, and some believe that a series of megadroughts interrupting food production systems is the main cause

Steamboat Ski Resort, Steamboat Springs

Best time to travel: Jan-March, June-Aug, Dec
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Major ski area located in Steamboat Springs, opened in 1963
  • The ski area has 169 named trails spread over 2,965 acres
  • Of those, 14% are classified as beginner-level, 42% as intermediate, and 44% as advanced
  • Limited trails are available for night skiing

Aspen Mountain Ski Area

Best time to travel: Jan-Feb, Dec
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • Ski area located just outside and above the city of Aspen
  • Founded 76 years ago in 1946, the ski area retains a unique cultural flavor that harkens to the earlier days of recreational skiing in the state
  • The ski area has three restaurants on the mountain; two are on top (one of which is a club that only allows members) and one mid-mountain

Denver Art Museum

Best time to travel: April-May, Sept-Oct
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, with encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world
  • It is known for its collection of American Indian art, as well as The Petrie Institute of Western American Art, which oversees the Museum’s Western art collection
  • Its other collections have more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world
  • The Museum’s iconic Martin Building was designed in 1971

Piñon Flats Campground, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Best time to travel: May, Sept
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to 750 feet tall
  • The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America
  • Visitors must walk across the wide and shallow Medano Creek to reach the dunes in spring and summer
  • From July to April, it is usually no more than a few inches deep, if there is any water at all
  • Hiking is permitted throughout the dunes with the warning that the sand surface temperature may reach 150 °F (66 °C) in summer
  • Sandboarding and sandsledding are popular activities, both done on specially designed equipment that can be rented just outside the park entrance or in Alamosa

South Rim, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Best time to travel: April-early Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • National park located in western Colorado
  • The park contains 12 miles of the 48-mile long Black Canyon of the Gunnison River
  • The national park itself contains the deepest and most dramatic section of the canyon
  • The canyon’s name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day

History Colorado Center, Denver

Best time to travel: April-May, Sept-Oct
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum featuring collections consisting of maps, clothing, teapots, photography dating from the 1850s, and news paper collections containing marriage, birth, and death records
  • Highlights include exhibits that focus on the daily lives of the Ancestral Puebloans, to an exhibit that shows what the city looked like when it was a small town in the 1800s on the Colorado plains

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, Glenwood Springs

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Adventure park located above Glenwood Springs
  • The park is unique because it sits at an altitude of 7,100 ft on a mountain above Glenwood Springs
  • Prior to 2003, only cave tours were available until a major expansion took place
  • For 2019, the park introduced the Glenwood Gondola that transports visitors up and down the mountain