MTB holiday Colorado August 2 adults 1 teenager tips please

Take a lot of money.

Research properly in advance. Eating out isn't too pricy in my experience but motels/hotels can be, and 3 weeks worth will add up. Hire an RV?

It’s a big place! Where are you flying in to? What transport will you have? If camping is an option then there are plenty of Forest Service places/land.

I only had a couple of days there with my kids at Mesa Verde and Durango this summer. I could live in Durango! Floating down the river rapids there in a tube was cool. Free tram up and down town is handy. But it’s miles from anywhere else, so you’d need to be prepared to drive a lot if you were heading that way. Amazing scenery on the drive though.

If you’re in Colorado Springs you need to visit the Garden of the Gods. The WW2 aviation museum at the airport is good as well. There was a great bike shop (can’t recall the name) but they stocked Yeti and Moots and had loads of high end stuff on display.

If you're interested in camping then doing a mix of forest service camping (recreation.gov) - which are (normally) primitive sites (but with a picnic table and fire ring for every spot) and KOA Kampgrounds (sic) - which are more holiday camp style with yurts etc (koa.com) can be a mix.

We did a mix of camping and motels on our 3 week road trip in 2011 - it worked well.

Motels, like eating out, range from cheap to not cheap.

Probably the biggest shock you will find is normal food in a supermarket, which is markedly more expensive.

Oh, and you should come to Washington State instead. Lots of trails - https://www.evergreenmtb.org/trails and it probably won't be as hot. Plus there is the sea, Seattle, Portland, and you could whizz up to Whistler for a few days (although we do have two small serviced bike parks locally).

Web did 3 months in Colorado along time ago. We stayed with a mate in Boulder

I thought it was fab for cycling, climbing and walking. Forest camp sites are cheap but cool IMHO

Back in the day you could get a bus from Boulder upto Nederland as cheap uplift to start a ride. We also liked Crested Butte

Be aware that you’ll need to acclimatise to the altitude

London prices to London prices everywhere, can’t really be avoided but food is better than in most other US states. Easy to get healthy food too which is a plus. Watch out for waiters trying to sneak specials in without questioning price to ramp bill prices up.

Crested Butte great for both bike park and natural trails. Trail 401 if you do the whole thing will get you some pretty amazing views. Salida is very chill with nice trails and other activities like off road buggies.

Good kayaking and rafting to be had around Buena Vista / Browns canyon.

Plenty of peaks to take in.

Enjoy, it’s awesome.

Oh yeah, prepare for a fight on picking up your car. The rental CO’s at Denver are near criminal for trying to scam / add extras. If you are prepped for it then it’s all good, otherwise they get you unaware after a long flight.

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/our-holiday-in-colorado/

Can't belive it was 8 years ago.... Hope that this gives you some idea of the riding around crested butte, gunnison, salida area.

I am going to add to the go to Crested Butte chorus. I have been twice and loved the place, really amazing riding in stunning scenery. 401 is a must do (as is 104401 and 403/401). Shackleton’s photos on his linked thread certainly bring things back (so thanks for that!). Also, August I expect will be hot (and busy). @nd time I hit CB 401 still had snow (late June) and half the trails were still officially closed!).

The comment about acclimatising is important, Denver is ~6,000’ iirc, CB is at least 1k higher, I topped out Gunsight Pass at 12,000’! The day I did 403/401 I caught up with a bunch of guys headed up Washington Gulch (you know the rabbits to chase) I caught them up easy enough but I just could not drop one guy as despite not really ‘trying’ I could n’t suck in enough oxygen into my lungs (turns out the guy lived in Park City… rest had just come up from sea level). Also my mate when we hit Winter Park (first stop) ended up being sick on arrival. Next day I cycled up the mountain, did a lap of the routes (about an hour and half up top) and promptly hot the wall, total wipe out. Fortunately the Americans build cafes everywhere so another hour and a half sucking soda and sugar I was okay again…

I also enjoyed (Winter Park I really liked, reminded me of the best bits of Scotland but in amazing and dusty weather🤪 but very much a ‘trail centre’) Leadville (you can’t really live/get much higher in the US and i did get blood smuts when blowing my nose/hacking from my 2-3 days there) I really liked it as a place but it was early on so struggled with altitude and didn’t make the best of of it (Turquoise Lake I think was a nice chilled route) and Fruita (again pretty much trail centre and very hot as its desert/close to Utah border). In fact it was a photo of someone on Joe’s Ridge in a STW Calendar that made me go back to CO, turns out its a five minute trail, the Kessel run was waaaay more worth it though. Wouldn’t recommend at noon in July though…🤦🏼‍♂️ hot!

I like Durango but it does have a tendency to thunder and lighting early afternoon (and the abiding memory I have have is trying to scrape the glue like mud off my bike!).

Would love to do the Colorado Trail and wish I’d gone riding in Salida (Monarch Trail has a reputation).

Maybe in another lifetime.

Joining in with this thread, current BA direct flights are pretty cheap in July.

I'm just back from Florida and the price of food was off the scale, at least in the hotels we stayed in.

Hoping to go July 12-27th.

Thank you to all who replied. As I had thought this is going to be a pricey trip!