Colorado, New Mexico & Texas Summer 2015

Murphy_The_Cat

I'm at the very early stage of planning next summers holiday and curently Denver, Colorodo, to Dallas, Texas via Albuquerque, New Mexico (ot t'other way round) is looking a very realistic possibility.

I've got as far as a) it'll be hot and b) its about 1100 miles before going off route, but thats about it.

Has anyone done a similar trip, or experience of CO,NW & TX that could help with my planning ?

John259

That route has a huge potential.

I'll just give you some names of places and very brief descriptions otherwise I'll be typing all night. For more information you can look them up on Wikipedia, the National Park Service web site, YouTube, and the relevant states' state park web sites, etc.

Northwest of Denver there's Rocky Mountain National Park - wonderful, but check when the Trail Ridge Road (the park's main feature) is likely to re-open after the winter.

Near Colorado Springs you can take the cog railway up to the top of Pikes Peak. The variation in temperature from bottom to top is astonishing. It's high enough up there for you to feel the lack of oxygen, so it's not something to do if you have any concerns about health.

Southwestern Colorado is an excellent area: the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park near Montrose (steep walled, you can view from top and bottom); the San Juan Skyway (a triangle of mountain roads through the San Juans connecting Ridgway, Durango and Cortez; including the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Durango); the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (old western style steam train through the mountains, and the two very different towns at each end of the line are well worth seeing as well); Mesa Verde National Park (one of the most important Anasazi/ancestral pueblo people cliff dwelling archaeological sites, plus great views).

Also in the Colorado Rockies there's Aspen (the ski resort) and many other places.

East of the Rockies in Colorado out on the plains there's Bent's Old Fort (a reconstruction of a wild west trading post) but it's quite a long way from anywhere else of much significance.

In northern New Mexico there's the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, and the road from Chama to Raton which largely parallels the line is very scenic through the southernmost section of the Rockies.

The area around Taos is highly scenic.

Sorry, I've never been to Santa Fe but it always gets plenty of recommendations.

East of Raton (New Mexico) at Capulin Volcano National Monument you can drive up to the top of the extinct volcano and walk down inside the cone (it's not far and an easy walk, but it's quite an experience to think of what's below you).

Southeast of Amarillo (in the Texas panhandle) Palo Duro State Park is a very worthwhile visit if you're in the area (it's the second biggest canyon in the USA, and after viewing it from the rim you can drive down inside it).

To state what is probably obvious: east of the Rockies you're on the Great Plains and scenery is therefore largely non-existent, but of course there are other things to see and do there, for example between Albuquerque and Amarillo you'll be on Route 66.

For a wild idea well off the direct route, Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas is a wonderful place, but it's vast, it's extremely remote and it's summer it's very hot.

Hope this helps a bit.

PeacefulWaters

This might be the 2016 plan for us!

John259

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

This might be the 2016 plan for us!

You could do far worse!

Another possibility is the Grand Circle, the wonderful loop right around the Grand Canyon with so many magnificent national parks, for example Las Vegas > Zion NP > Grand Canyon NP (north rim) as a day trip from the Zion area > Cedar Breaks NM > Bryce Canyon NP > Capitol Reef NP > Arches NP, Dead Horse Point SP and Canyonlands NP > Monument Valley > southwestern Colorado (Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, Durango, Mesa Verde NP, etc) > Petrified Forest NP > the national monuments near Flagstaff and Sedona (Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, Sunset Crater, Montezuma Castle, Tuzigoot) > Grand Canyon NP (south rim) > AZ66 (Route 66), Oatman (more Route 66) > Hoover Dam > Las Vegas

(NP=National Park; NM=National Monument; SP=State Park)

There's an excellent personal video on YouTube which covers the Grand Circle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VAgC6VsHAo

And from a different creator, Mesa Verde National Park in detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzV9GA1a21g&list=UULM5XNynW9u1_usGYL98YKw

Finally, a realtime dashcam of the Million Dollar Highway, US550 from Silverton to Ouray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN-tQD2V_pA&list=UULzwXbKGiqs0v8I_s-D6x1A

Disclaimer: My only connection with YouTube and the creators of those videos is as a viewer.

cubegame

Have you checked out one way fees? They seem utterly eye-watering in this part of the USA.


Hence why we always do circular trips. We did a circle from Denver heading down to Mesa Verde before going north through Colorado and across into Utah canyon country. We then headed to Yellowstone before going across Montana to South Dakota before heading back to Denver.


This year is Texas and perhaps New Mexico, although Texas is probably too big to do both.

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

Have you checked out one way fees? They seem utterly eye-watering in this part of the USA.

Hence why we always do circular trips. We did a circle from Denver heading down to Mesa Verde before going north through Colorado and across into Utah canyon country. We then headed to Yellowstone before going across Montana to South Dakota before heading back to Denver.

This year is Texas and perhaps New Mexico, although Texas is probably too big to do both.

Hi Cubegame

We usually get an 'open jaw' ticket and the indications so far are that into Denver and out of Dallas isn't going to be so bad on the wallet -- I can only get indicative fares as most airlines don't have their fares out for mid July yet.

We went to Texas 4 years ago and had a wonderful time. We arrived in Dallas and then went Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Galveston and flew back from Houston - flying IN to DFW and OUT of IAH was the same price as flying in/out of DFW.

John259

It's the car rental drop-off fee which might be a concern. Booking car rental through a broker based in the UK or Europe _might_ be considerably less expensive than booking through the car rental company's US web site.

Murphy_The_Cat

John259 wrote: »

It's the car rental drop-off fee which might be a concern. Booking car rental through a broker based in the UK or Europe _might_ be considerably less expensive than booking through the car rental company's US web site.

cheers John

When I booked this years rental, I used Budget who cap their one way rental at $50 (plus multiple taxes), which came out at £53 - which was very acceptable for a a Mass pickup and NY drop off. I used a UK based broker and would probably do the same again, although Budgets US site also gave the same one way drop off rate.

I'll look through your other suggestions in detail and pick your brains later :beer:

cubegame

It was the one-way car fees I meant, but Budget sound like a good option in that case. I know they were way overpriced compared to Alamo for our Texas rental though.

I think we're going to follow your sort of Texas route but probably head over to Big Bend as well.

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

It was the one-way car fees I meant, but Budget sound like a good option in that case. I know they were way overpriced compared to Alamo for our Texas rental though.

I think we're going to follow your sort of Texas route but probably head over to Big Bend as well.

This is an old thread of mine that may help

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

Have you checked out one way fees? They seem utterly eye-watering in this part of the USA.

I've just done a dummy booking on budget.com, pick up at Denver, drop off at Dallas for a 5+2 SUV (ford explorer, dodge durango, chevy traverse) and its come out at £666 incl one way, CDW etc, etc.
A full size is £502.
I'm pleasantly surprised at that
Using Avis comes up with similarish prices.
This is before doing an explore for offer codes etc.