Suggestions for trip to Colorado/ Wyoming

We've been to Laramie a couple of times. My first suggestion would be the head up into the Medicine Bow National Forest. Even if you don't hike be sure to head up Hwy 130 and stop at all of the pull outs. If you do hike the Lakes trail and the Gap Lakes trail are both awesome. We didn't do Medicine Bow Peak because there was too much snow but, it is in the same area. There is a forest service office just outside of Centennial as you head up Hwy 130. To the east of Laramie is Vedauwoo which had tons of cool rock formations. We also liked Curt Gowdy State Park.

I think Devils Tower would be a little far to drive. You can easily get down to Fort Collins from Laramie and the drive is pretty.

Oh, go to the 17th Street Cafe for breakfast one morning (at least).

In that case -- absolutely see Yellowstone -- it is my favorite National Park ... it is so dynamic!! And I'd echo 950Nancy -- get down to Colorado Springs (just S of Denver). The Garden of the Gods is very pretty - you could spend the night in that area before you left out of Denver

I live outside of Denver. If you are coming down this way then you will want to stop in Rocky Mountain NP. I'd also suggest the Denver Museum of Art and the Denver Botanical Gardens. If you go as far south as Colorado Springs you can also ride the train up Pikes Peak (get reservations).

We went to Wyoming in june. I don't know when in the fall you are going, but we live in Texas and it is cold in the mountains up there. Take warm clothes! We drove in snow flurries at least 2 x and of course, there were lots of snow in the mountains.
Their motto is :there is no bad weather, just bad clothes!

I would spend as much time as possible in the national parks: rocky Mountain, grand Tetons and yellowstone. The Wind River area of Wyoming is also beautiful and we spent time there going to yellowstone and also coming home. I spent a lot of time researching on the Internet and found a lot of things we were interested in... Mostly trip advisor.

One place we especially enjoyed was Pinedale, WY. We stayed here: www.thelogcabinmotel.com

It is very rustic but we love historic hotels. ( maybe because we are historic) We did Skyline drive there.
Wish I had my pictures on my blog for you....finding it hard to get motivated to do that.

It's a beautiful area, and so many good ideas.

That said, please be careful if you are driving at night. Wyoming is a free range state. That means that cows, horses etc. have the right to be on the roads, including highways. Last summer dh and ds were on their annual father/son mountain biking trip. They were several hours north of Laramie, on a highway, about midnight. They were going the speed limit. Wyoming only has about 550,000 people. It is easy to be driving at night and not see any lights any where. Dh said that outside of what his head lights illuminated, it was pitch black out. Suddenly out of seemingly nowhere a stampede of horses crossed in front of them. Unfortunately they broadsided a horse. They were in a Honda Element. It was destroyed. The brand inspector (the guy who checks to see who the animal belongs to) and the police both said that they had never seen all occupants of a car involved in this type of accident walk away. Both of my guys did. Because horses have long legs compared to say a cow, when you hit them, their legs buckle, they fall on the hood, then continue sliding across the hood (as a body in motion is want to do), then right thru the windsheild, often decapitating the front seat passengers. The Element is tall up front, the horse accordioned the hood up against the windshield. That is what saved them.

Bottom line, please be cautious when driving at night in rural Wyoming.

J

Black Hills and Mt Rushmore. Vore Buffalo jump. Devils Tower. Dinosaur museum in Thermopolis. Yellowstone. Grand Tetons. Rocky Mountain Naional Park. There are also some petroglyphs near Thermopolis but I cannot remember the name.

We have a mini Mesa Verde just outside of Colorado Springs along with a fun cave tour.

How far are you willing to travel? In 10 days you can easily "do the loop." I used to run two different trips out of Laramie for UW. For the Oregon Trail trip, you head east first and hit Chimney Rock, Scottsbluff Monument, Fort Laramie (not near Laramie!), Oregon Trail Ruts, Register Cliff, to Casper for Ft. Caspar, Independence Rock, The Mormon Trail museum (actually quite fascinating!), South Pass City, Cody, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson, Fossil Butte, Green River, Laramie. You can easily change that to go to Gillette instead of Casper - this allows for an easy trip to Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, Buffalo/Sheridan and the beautiful Wind Rivers, then Cody. Laramie also has the Territorial Prison.

For the other trip, the focus was the Mountain Men so we added Pinedale and a few educational things that would probably be pretty boring for the average tourist. However, IF!! the road is still open, go to Saratoga and take the mountain road back to Laramie. Beautiful! Love fall in the Medicine Bow. The aspen trees change to a beautiful yellow.

If you hit Colorado too, Estes Park-- be still my heart.. Garden of the Gods, tour the Budweiser plant outside of Ft. Collins. If you do take 287 back to Laramie, please, please, please don't go at night and be careful. Sadly, I have lost a few friends on that road.

If you spend some time in Laramie, hit the Art Museum. It' is shaped like a teepee. You can't miss it. Now... they say it is shaped like one of the Tetons, but you will think teepee too. Also, there is a dinosaur museum on campus. It is the lore of my childhood! Just don't go on game day. You can check the football schedule on-line! Maybe you could hit a football game at the highest Division I football stadium! If you aren't used to elevation, take it easy for the first few days.

DH is jealous of your son. He has hunted elk in Arlington for years but hasn't in the last few. He wishes him a good season!

I agree with the PP who suggested train ride up Pikes Peak, it's beautiful. There's an Olympic training center in Co. Springs that I visited when I spent a few days there with a girlfriend, and that was really cool. I don't really care about the Olympics, at all, so I wasn't looking forward to that one, but ended up really enjoying it. Manitou Springs is a really pretty little town too.

Lookout Mountain in Golden is a really pretty drive. Buffalo Bill's grave site and a little museum/gift shop are up there too.

Vail is only a couple hours from Denver, I love it there in the summer.