Vacation coming up, need input

Porqupine82

Porqupine82

New member
The farthest west I've ever been is Nashville, TN. Sad, I know... but I am planning on taking a vacation here in a month or so and want to head west for a week. Possibly Colorado, but I don't know, and I'm not set on anywhere. I'm wanting your input to help me decide. We are taking our girls with us, and would like to be close to some water so they can swim. The most important thing is a view. We would love to have a great view, possibly from our campsite. We will also be going alone, so no rough trails to take us where we are going. Because a 25 hour drive isn't exactly easy to drive with a broken truck.

Any pics would really be nice also.

Thanks for your input.
 
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Check out Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been twice and it's awesome. You're also close enough to Denver to scope it out and the Royal Gorge (amazing rafting) is 4 hours south of RMNP so you could glom that on too.

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is also incredible, and only about 10% of GCNP visitors go there so it's seldom crowded.

PM me any specific questions.
 
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Bluesky 07 said:
Check out Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been twice and it's awesome. You're also close enough to Denver to scope it out and the Royal Gorge (amazing rafting) is 4 hours south of RMNP so you could glom that on too.
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Anyone particular areas of the park to check out?
 
To save you a drive I might suggest Ouachita National Forest

The Texas hill country is pretty amazing as well!
 
Colorado loop: Rocky Mtn National Park - Grand Lake - Steamboat Springs - Grand Junction - Ouray - Durango - Pagosa Springs - Great Sand Dunes NP. 600 Total Miles and 13 hours total drive time start to finish. Stops in between as interested.

https://goo.gl/maps/3JThD8jaNps
 
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Porqupine82 said:
Anyone particular areas of the park to check out?
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The park is pretty much just one road unless you want to disembark and do some backpacking / hiking.

Estes Park (East Gate) is an awesome town and Grand Lake (West Gate) is a cool little place as well.
 
Further to my recommendation and what [MENTION=79561]CO-Cygnus[/MENTION] posted, we stayed in Estes Park. These are a few of the pics I took in RMNP.

It was November so the park was pretty empty, which was fine by us.

These rams were on a hill right by the road...pics are with a 300mm zoom.

Note frozen spit (temp was in the teens):
IMG_6825.jpg


Right after I took this, they backed off and cracked heads:
IMG_6841.jpg



Samples of the scenery:
IMG_6879.jpg


IMG_6901.jpg


More wildlife:
IMG_7113.jpg


IMG_7153.jpg


You really can't go wrong anywhere in the park. It's awesome.
 
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Putting GC Natl Park on my bucketlis...simply stunning




but if i may hijack a tad...i just ran a side by side ATV run in and thru the Jamaican Blue Mountains...no snow peaks, but it sure was beautiful. :cool:
 
I know Grand Canyon is on a lot of people's "must do" lists but honestly I was much more impressed with Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado than I have been with the Grand Canyon and I have been to the GC like 7-8 times since it's an hour and a half from me. The Black Canyon walls are simply gorgeous. Plus then you don't have to tack on how many ever more hours it is to drive to AZ and you can just spend your time in CO.

Also be sure to drive the Million Dollar Highway which is a paved US Highway but simply gorgeous
 
Those are all good suggestions for Colorado. Colorado is my go to place for vacation no matter what time of year. There is always something to see or do there. Utah and Arizona tie for second place in my opinion.
 
Curious, have you been to the North Rim? It couldn't be more different from the South Rim.

Speaking of gorgeous highways, US Highway 50 is also incredible. Though I must say, being from the south and inexperienced in winter driving, and being in my old 1987 Cavalier at the time, this wasn't exactly the sign I wanted to see when we got into some snow showers:

loneliest_road.jpg


jdtaylor42 said:
I know Grand Canyon is on a lot of people's "must do" lists but honestly I was much more impressed with Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado than I have been with the Grand Canyon and I have been to the GC like 7-8 times since it's an hour and a half from me. The Black Canyon walls are simply gorgeous. Plus then you don't have to tack on how many ever more hours it is to drive to AZ and you can just spend your time in CO.

Also be sure to drive the Million Dollar Highway which is a paved US Highway but simply gorgeous
Click to expand...
 
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You could go to Yellowstone and up near the Badlands. Probably not as far as Colorado, park is beautiful, and there are definitely some great lakes for swimming.
 
If your heart is set on vacationing west of the plains, then by all means go for it. I'd love to visit Ouray Colorado, Moab Utah, drive the Rubicon, etc. But the distances out there are just phenomenal, especially the long drive across the plains. If you only have a week vacation (assuming two weekends, so 9 days), you'll be spending at least 4 very hard very long days driving. That only leaves 5 days for the actual vacation part, and it puts you arriving home very late the night before you go back to work. Unless you do marathon driving sessions swapping with another adult, but I wouldn't want to be in that vehicle.

But if you're going anyway... The Ouichita mountains are nice, but honestly the Smokies in your back yard are taller and prettier. The Texas Hill Country area has completely different flora and fauna than east Tennessee, with nice views. But nothing compares to the western mountain ranges. I haven't personally been to the Rockies, but if they are anything like the Sierra Nevada range (eastern California) then it's honestly impossible to describe them adequately. Just amazing scenery. The RMNP would be the closest to you.
 
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I am planning a trip to West CO next year and am flying the wife and kids out to save some days on the road and then we will tour and they will fly back. Total time for me will be around 12 days but only 7 for them and there won't be any long days in the car unless we are doing a couple passes. Just something to consider.
 
jwkilgore said:
If your heart is set on vacationing west of the plains, then by all means go for it. I'd love to visit Ouray Colorado, Moab Utah, drive the Rubicon, etc. But the distances out there are just phenomenal, especially the long drive across the plains. If you only have a week vacation (assuming two weekends, so 9 days), you'll be spending at least 4 very hard very long days driving. That only leaves 5 days for the actual vacation part, and it puts you arriving home very late the night before you go back to work. Unless you do marathon driving sessions swapping with another adult, but I wouldn't want to be in that vehicle.

But if you're going anyway... The Ouichita mountains are nice, but honestly the Smokies in your back yard are taller and prettier. The Texas Hill Country area has completely different flora and fauna than east Tennessee, with nice views. But nothing compares to the western mountain ranges. I haven't personally been to the Rockies, but if they are anything like the Sierra Nevada range (eastern California) then it's honestly impossible to describe them adequately. Just amazing scenery. The RMNP would be the closest to you.
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We did plan on marathon driving it. Switching after 12 hours
 
Porqupine82 said:
We did plan on marathon driving it. Switching after 12 hours
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Just a random comment on the internet, but I'd encourage switching more often than that, and make sure the back-up driver gets sleep while not driving. Even experienced over-the-road truckers aren't allowed more than 11-hours continuous driving. It's very hard to stay awake at 2AM with a car full of sleeping passengers. You can't even blast music and sing to stay alert. Driving while drowsy has been shown to be just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.

That said, it's your car and your family. With full sincerity, good luck!
 
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