Looking for Where to Go in Colorado in August

The Crested Butte, Vail and Steamboat Springs areas are gorgeous any time of year. Google them + summer activities. Most have many outdoor activities and lots of things kids can enjoy.

Each town has a website with "special events" or a "calendar." Sometimes the events are listed on the city's official website, sometimes the events are on the Chamber of Commerce site. You will find out lots of local events that you would not have known about until you got there. For example, Golden has free wagon rides down their main street on Sundays.

You can find a lot of good events for Denver area at www. denver.org/events. Denver area has a ton of music events for free.

Are you the type to pick a hotel then go discovering w/o specific plans? This is the way we travel. We stop at each Visitor's Center that we can find. Garden of the Gods is a must-see. Dinosaur Ridge has a free bike/walk tour. Also, you can pretty much just drive west on I-70 and stop off at little towns, trails and scenic overlooks. Also, the drive up toward Estes Park is exciting. We saw sheep and elk all over the Rocky Mountain National Park. There's a fee to get in... totally worth it if you are going to spend the whole day there. Otherwise, you will see beautiful scenery and wildlife on the meandering roads all over the mountains. We took a day drive to a random park (Eleven Mile State Park). We were the ONLY ONES in the parking lot or at the Visitor's Center. That was an awesome experience, and one that we didn't plan until that morning. The place was surprising... we saw a wild horse. The woman at the visitor's center said that there was a bear roaming around lately, so she gave us a bear whistle. It was one of those things that my son treasured from that trip more than any other souvenir! Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you really can't go wrong with Colorado's incredible nature and scenery!

I live in Texas but I grew up in Colorado. I miss it! August is a great time to visit. Ritz-Carlton has a hotel in Beaver Creek which has lots of activities on site - including marshmallow roasting! Beaver Creek has a golf course and lots of cute little shops, and an ice rink. It's also about 30 minutes away from Vail, which has lots of things to do. If you are looking for a general area, the Vail/Beaver Creek area is fun. Beautiful scenery, about 2 hours away from Denver. You can do things like hiking, white water rafting, horse back riding, shopping, mountain biking, swimming. Have a great time!

Oh I'm jealous! I love Colorado and haven't been there in years. I second Karen's idea about Ouray/Silverton/Durango. Ouray is so much fun and so beautiful that time of year. You can rent a jeep and get a map and go jeeping through the mountains to Telluride. There will even be a bit of snow on the highest pass. We stopped and played in it -- in August. Make sure you take jackets. It can get chilly in the mountains. (You can also ride horses there, feed chipmunks and hike in the mountains and swim in the hot springs public pool.) We also like Colorado Springs. You can take a tram ride up to Pikes Peak. And there is an amusement park your kids would like at the base of the mountain. Garden of the Gods is a fun place to go and hike. Great rock formations there. (We always flew into the Denver airport and then drove through Colorado Springs to Montrose to Ouray, Silverton and Durango. It's a beautiful drive with lots to do. But Ouray was our favorite. I could stay there for weeks!

We just got back from Crested Butte area and it was WONDERFUL!!! I am from Florida and I LOVED it. We went with our daughters 13/8/6 and had a BLAST. As for places to stay in Mt. Crested Butte - gotta say the Nordic Inn.

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Before I forget b/c of the altitude being so much higher I would so recommend drinking LOTS of water constantly upto and during your trip - EVERYONE. I would also recommend getting Acli-mate it is a suppliment that you drink before and during the trip to help you adjust to the altitude. I say this b/c being from Florida it was a BIG change, my little 2 drink tons of water to begin with so they were able to stay hydrated better which prevented them from getting "sickies" but my teen had a night or so of feeling off b/c she didn't adjust as quickly. I didn't do the Acli-mate before hand (we didn't have it as hubby forgot to order it - he had been to Colorado once before) but I did 1-2 glasses a day of the Orange flavored one (wasn't a bad taste at all) but they also have a Grape flavor that the girls liked. The website it www.acli-mate.com Good Luck. We also did Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Black Canyon and the wildest part was when we were in Crested Butte - we had a snow ball fight (in the middle of June!!!) - we drove into the mountains :)

Silverton and Ouray are our favorite places to go. Both are smaller towns, but are within driving distance of several places. Ouray has a large hot springs pool and playground, lots of shopping and cool temperatures. Silverton is even cooler (temperature), but is also smaller. Silverton is higher elevation. There is the narrow gauge railway that runs to Silverton, but I am not sure where it starts. Ouray is about an hour or less drive from Telluride. Telluride is great, but busier and more expensive. They have multiple enclosed trolley lifts that will take you all the way up the mountain to Mountain Home (I think it is called). This is an expensive area with some restaurants and shops. It is nice to just go walk around, and my kids loved riding the trolley lifts. Rocky Mountain National Park is beautiful if you want to go that far north. It is really neat to see the elk just wandering around.

Durango has a big park in the middle of the town with lots of grassy areas. There is the narrow gauge railway that runs to Silverton, but I am not sure where it starts. There are lots of places to go rafting. Our our last trip to CO, we stayed at the KOA outside of Ouray. They had a playground, a game room (limited), BBQ restaurant, etc, on site. We stayed in one of their "Kabins". There is no AC, but it was cool enough we did not need it (in July). We cooked weinies and marshmallows and the kids played outside.

Crested Butte is a pretty town, also.

You might want to pick a couple of activities - age appropriate rafting, jeeping, pools or whatever - then select your location based on proximity to that.

I LOVE the Aspen/Snowmas area. There is lots to do! I would hit the mountains, because it will be cooler, no matter where you stay.

We enjoy going to Breckenridge Colorado. It is beautiful there and they have lots of activities to enjoy. The town also has an activity center and many special events that go on during the summer. I think if you search under Breckenridge or gobreck.com you will find some interesting things to do. Also check to see if your hotel has air condiitoning--not everyplace in Colorado does because of the elevation! Another place we enjoy is the Colorado Springs area- the Olympic Training center is there, as well as the Air Force Academy and Garden of the Gods park--things to see and some stuff to climb on. Have a great vacation!

There is a YMCA camp outside of Winter Park, CO... it has all the requisite "cowboy" activities a horseback rides, hikes, activities, etc. http://www.ymcarockies.org/home/our-locations/snow-mounta...

Peaceful Valley Ranch also has a 'dude ranch'.It's near Estes Park and has lots of fun stuff to do in a very beautiful setting. It just depends on what you want from the vacation...stay with the familiar or go with something totally new?

I am originally from San Diego and moved to CO, so I totally understand about being near water. My kids are 4&6 and we love to check out the hot springs (Glenwood Springs, Cottonwood, Mt Princeton, Indian, etc) and we like to river raft, though in August the water gets a little low for most trips.

Glenwood might be a nice option as they have the hot springs (it does get crowded though) it has the adventure park with a skytram ride, cave exploring etc and a quaint CO town to walk through, rafting, etc. It's also right on i-70 and is really easy to find.

Denver is nice, but hot in August. We have Hyland Hills water park, the largest one in the US.

For natural sights: Black Canyon of the Gunnison (we just came back, amazing!!) Pikes Peak, Glenwood Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park, Sand Dunes National Monument near Alamosa, Mesa Verde near the four corners area....OK, you have months to visit right? :)