Lonely Planet Colorado

Benedict Walker

Description

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Colorado is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Hit the slopes in Aspen, discover the Old West in Durango or marvel at the splendor of the Rockies, all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Colorado and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Colorado: Color maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - sports, the arts, literature, festivals, wine, hiking, the old west, snow sports, distilleries, wildlife, politics, ranching, mining, marijuana, Native American history and culture Covers Denver, Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Park, North Colorado, Vail, Aspen, Central Colorado, San Luis Valley, Southeast Colorado and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Colorado, our most comprehensive guide to Colorado, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less traveled About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

Sujets

• Colorado

Informations

• Publié par: Lonely Planet
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781787019386
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 52 Mo

Extrait

Colorado

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Colorado
Colorado's Top 25
Need to Know
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
Outdoors
Rocky Mountains Road Trips & Scenic Drives
Eat & Drink Like a Local
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

Denver & Around
Denver
Sights
Activities
Courses
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Golden
Sights
Activities
Sleeping
Eating & Drinking
Morrison
Morrison
Sights
Sleeping & Eating
Boulder & Around
Boulder
Nederland
Rocky Mountain National Park & Northern Colorado
Rocky Mountain National Park
Estes Park
Fort Collins
Sterling
Cache la Poudre River
Red Feather Lakes
Walden
Grand Lake
Granby
Hot Sulphur Springs
Kremmling
Steamboat Springs
Oak Creek
Craig
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur
Meeker
Vail, Aspen & Central Colorado
Idaho Springs
Georgetown
Winter Park
Loveland Pass
Dillon
Frisco
Keystone Resort
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Breckenridge
Fairplay
Copper Mountain
Vail
Minturn
Beaver Creek
Glenwood Springs
Carbondale
Basalt
Aspen
Redstone
Salida
Buena Vista
Twin Lakes
Leadville
Mesa Verde & Southwest Colorado
Mesa Verde National Park
Mancos
Cortez & the Four Corners
Dolores
Rico
Telluride
Ridgway
Ouray & the Million Dollar Hwy
Silverton
Durango
Pagosa Springs
South Fork
Creede
Lake City
Crested Butte
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Curecanti National Recreation Area
Gunnison
Montrose
Delta
Paonia
Colorado National Monument
Grand Junction
Fruita
Palisade
Southeast Colorado & the San Luis Valley
Colorado Springs
Canon City
Florence
Cripple Creek
Manitou Springs
Pueblo
La Veta
Trinidad
Fort Garland
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Alamosa
San Luis
Antonito
Conejos River & the South San Juans
Penitente Canyon
Del Norte
Westcliffe
Crestone

Understand

Understand Colorado
Colorado Today
History
The Arts
Wildlife & the Land

Survive

Directory AZ
Accommodations
Dangers & Annoyances
Discount Cards
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
LGBT+ Travellers
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travelers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Work
Transportation
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Colorado

Spectacular vistas, endless powder runs and mountain towns with echoes of the Old West – Colorado is a place that has long beckoned people to adventure.


Rocky Mountain High
The best-known Rocky Mountain state, with the highest concentration of peaks above 14,000ft, Colorado owes its public adoration to the alpine behemoths that rise abruptly, crinkled and snowcapped, out of the Great Plains. Countless hiking and biking trails climb above the treeline to wildflower-strewn meadows, while a plethora of scenic drives wend their ways up hairpin turns to cross the Continental Divide. Even during the peak summer season, when millions of tourists flood the state, visitors can still find solitude by camping at a remote glacial lake, or peering down at the world from atop a craggy summit.

Ski Country, USA
The combination of light, soft powder and frequent blue skies has made Colorado winters the stuff of legend. Hares and mountain lions leave white tracks, boarders and skiers weave through pine forests and open bowls, and hearthfires roar in mountain lodges. With World Cup groomers, steep-and-deep terrain off-piste and legendary parking-lot BBQs, Colorado certainly has some of the best downhill skiing experiences on earth. Remarkable cross-country and backcountry terrain bring a whole other dimension to winter, one where lift lines don't exist. If you're among the hardcore, you can make turns from Halloween through July.

Deserts & Canyons
Colorado isn't all mountains, though. Mesas, canyons and high desert hills also make up much of the state, particularly in the south and west. Boaters paddle through the Arkansas and Colorado River gorges, mountain bikers cruise desert singletrack outside towns like Fruita and Salida, and rock climbers can get outside even in winter at Shelf Road and Boulder. Mesa Verde, Hovenweep and Chimney Rock provide a glimpse of what Ancestral Puebloan life was like hundreds of years ago on the Colorado Plateau, a monumental desert landscape that extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

Culture Dose
If your Colorado playlist doesn't go beyond John Denver or U2 Live at Red Rocks, it's time for a reboot. A vibrant cultural scene has emerged in tandem with the thriving urban centers along the Front Range. Groups like the Lumineers, Tennis, and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats have brought national attention to Denver musicians, and Red Rocks and Boulder's Fox Theatre remain uniquely epic concert venues. Art museums and galleries in both Denver and Aspen continue to expand as well, providing a shot of urban street cred to pair with your outdoor adventure.

Maroon Bells, Aspen | KLAUS/LONELY PLANET ©


Why I Love Colorado
By Christopher Pitts, Writer
Colorado is one of those special places where I always want to get up with the sun. Maybe it's because 18in of snow fell overnight and I'm itching to launch myself downhill, or I'm out camping in the backcountry, waking up to birdsong at the start of a perfect summer day. Or perhaps it's simply getting up early to watch a high-altitude sunrise spill over the curve of the eastern plains. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing, you can be sure that Colorado will amplify that times ten. Carpe diem.
Colorado's Top 25

Rocky Mountain National Park
With elk grazing under granite walls, alpine meadows rife with wildflowers and a winding road inching over the Continental Divide, the natural splendor of Rocky Mountain National Park packs a wallop. Don't get stuck behind a row of RVs on Trail Ridge Rd – lace up your hiking boots instead. Trails cater to every ability and ambition, from epic outings up Longs Peak to family-friendly romps in the Bear Lake area. And with a little effort, you can have the place all to yourself.

Rocky Mountain National Park | CRYSTAL BRINDLE/500PX ©


Top Experiences
Denver
Home of the bearded and the buff, Denver's Mile High allure has never been greater. The secret is out: ample sunshine, a brewery on every corner and an endless supply of adrenaline-igniting fun are fueling the Rocky Mountain rush. Throw a vibrant economy into the mix, and you get artsy districts like RiNo (River North) and LoHi (Lower Highlands), where you can replenish your calories in slow-food market halls and gourmet restaurants, bookended by a day of gallery hopping and a night out with some rootsy, denim-clad rockers.

Colorado State Capitol | TERI VIRBICKIS/SHUTTERSTOCK ©


Top Experiences
Boulder
Driving up Hwy 36 from Denver, you eventually reach the spot: an overlook that peers down upon Colorado's own Shangri-La. Tucked up against the signature Flatirons and the sudden swell of the Front Range, if this first glimpse of Boulder takes your breath away, well, you wouldn't be the first. The lively epicenter is the pedestrian-only Pearl St Mall – ideal for street theater, shopping and dining out – but it's the surrounding outdoors that really captivates Boulder's vibrant population of students, athletes, brainiacs and entrepreneurs.

Pearl St Mall | TANG YAN SONG/SHUTTERSTOCK ©


Top Experiences
Mesa Verde National Park
You don't just walk into the past at Mesa Verde , the site of 600 ancient cliff dwellings. You scramble up 10ft ladders, scale rock faces and crawl through tunnels. Yes, it's interactive exploring at its most low-tech, but it also makes for one of the most exhilarating adventures in the West. It's also a place to puzzle out the archaeological and cultural clues left by its former inhabitants – Ancestral Puebloans who vacated the site in AD 1300 (for reasons still not fully understood).

Mesa Verde National Park | WWW.INFINITAHIGHWAY.COM.BR/GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
Aspen
Here’s a town unlike any other place in the American West. A cocktail of cowboy grit, Euro panache, Hollywood glam, Ivy League brains, fresh powder, live music and old money, where you can drop into an extreme double-black run or stomp to the crest of a Continental Divide pass. And did we mention the frothing hot tubs, fit baristas, multimillion-dollar estates and well-read barflies? But don’t worry about Aspen being bigger than its boots: it remains an eccentric and surprisingly friendly place, where a stranger’s smile is still common currency.

Aspen | THE WORLD IN HDR/SHUTTERSTOCK ©


Top Experiences
Colorado National Monument
Witness the sinking sun set fire to otherworldly red-rock formations, hike stark and beautiful high desert trails and camp beneath frequent lightning storms as they roll across the distant plains. These canyon walls rise from the Uncompahgre Uplift of the Colorado Plateau, 2000ft above the Grand Valley of the Colorado River, to reveal the twinkling lights of Grand Junction, the shining green river and tree-lined fields of the Grand Valley – all of it a landscape that was once patrolled by dinosaurs.

Colorado National Monument | YINGNA CAI/GETTY IMAGES ©


Top Experiences
Microbreweries
Colorado consistently ranks among the top three states for microbreweries per capita, and craft brewing has been elevated to a high art throughout. Each September Denver hosts the Great American Beer Festival , luring in 780-odd brewers and over 60,000 enthusiastic drinkers. Best-of-show awards are judged across categories like Best Coffee Beer or Best Barrel-aged Strong Beer. Hop-heavy brews, pH-changing sours and light lagers are all produce