Colorado: Durango → OurayAspen → Denver

Across the Rockies: the steam train to Silverton, the cliff cities of Mesa Verde, the Million Dollar Highway with no guardrails, the Black Canyon, and Independence Pass at 12,095 feet.

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USA · 10 days

The lively town on the Animas River where you land: the narrow-gauge railroad, Mesa Verde, canyons, and the Pagosa hot springs.

Day by day

Day 1 · 6 placesLanding in Durango
arrive at DRO · 25 min into town
  • Durango–La Plata County Airport (DRO)
    This is where you land. Grab the car and you’re in Durango in 25 minutes. Try to arrive in daylight so check-in is unhurried.
  • Lake Nighthorse
    If you still have energy: sunset on a quiet lake 15 minutes from town. Paddleboards, swimming.
  • Animas River Trail + Main Avenue
    First evening: the riverfront path runs the length of town, straight into historic downtown Durango.
  • Main Avenue
    Twelve blocks of 1880s red brick: painted signs, turquoise shops, breweries and sidewalk patios. This is where the town spends its evening — the Durango between the river and the train.
  • Powerhouse Science Center
    A 1893 power plant on the river, now a hands-on science museum: Tesla coil, water machines, a build-it room. Right on the riverfront path, so it folds into the walk.
  • Santa Rita Whitewater Park
    Whitewater right in town — this is where the rafts and kayaks put in. Run it with a guide, or just sit on the bank and watch. Free either way.
Day 2 · 1 placeThe Durango & Silverton train
departs 8:15–9:45 a.m. from the depot in downtown Durango
  • Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
    An 1880s steam locomotive on narrow gauge, 45 miles along the Animas canyon on a ledge blasted 400 feet up the rock face. Format: train up, bus back frees half a day. Class: take the open-air Rio Grande car (about $144) for photos, and sit on the left going out.
Day 3 · 7 placesMesa Verde — the cliff cities
Durango → Mesa Verde, 1 hr each way, about 53 miles
  • Mesa Verde National Park
    600 Ancestral Puebloan dwellings tucked into sheer cliff alcoves, 700–800 years old. $30 per car, cards only. It’s 40 minutes uphill from the entrance — give it a full day.
  • Cliff Palace
    The largest cliff dwelling in North America, 150 rooms. Inside only with a ranger: 45 minutes, four ladders, a 100-foot descent. $8 a person on recreation.gov, 50 spots.
  • Balcony House
    The park’s most adventurous tour: an hour, a 32-foot ladder, an 18-inch crawl through the rock, and a climb back up the wall. Skip it if heights or tight spaces get to you. 35 spots, $8.
  • Mesa Top Loop Road
    No tickets? The loop road has overlooks where you see the dwellings from across the canyon.
  • Chimney Rock National Monument
    An Ancestral Puebloan temple on a high mesa, aligned to the moon — quieter and more atmospheric than Mesa Verde.
  • The Springs Resort, Pagosa Springs
    40+ hot pools terraced down to the river, fed by the deepest geothermal spring in the world. An hour east.
Day 4 · 9 placesMillion Dollar Highway: Durango → Ouray
about 75 miles · 2 hr of driving; plan on 5–6 with stops
  • Molas Pass Overlook
    The San Juan postcard: meadows, lakes, and the teeth of the Grenadier Range. Little Molas Lake is right there too — a mirror pond, five minutes down a dirt road.
  • Million Dollar Highway (US-550)
    25 miles of switchbacks cut into a sheer wall above the gorge, with no guardrails. Driving north (Silverton → Ouray) puts you on the outside lane over the drop, where the views are best — worth knowing in advance if heights bother you. 25 mph, and not in a thunderstorm.
  • Ouray Hot Springs Pool
    Roll into Ouray and straight into an open-air hot pool ringed by cliffs. Open until 10 p.m.
  • Haviland Lake
    First stop out of Durango: a quiet forest lake right off the highway. Coffee before the climb.
  • Coal Bank Pass
    The first pass of the day, with the whole Twilight ridge laid out in front of you.
  • Silverton
    A town of 600 at 9,300 feet, main street still dirt, buildings straight out of a Western. This is where yesterday’s train pulled in.
Day 5 · 5 placesOuray and Telluride
Ouray ↔ Telluride, about 1 hr 15 each way
  • Box Canyon Falls Park
    Five minutes from downtown Ouray: an 85-foot waterfall in a narrow slot, with a catwalk bolted to the wall.
  • Telluride Gondola
    A town at the dead end of a box canyon. The free gondola crosses the ridge to Mountain Village in 13 minutes, with the whole canyon under you. Runs until midnight.
  • Yankee Boy Basin
    An alpine basin at 11,500 feet, carpeted in columbine and waterfalls under Mt. Sneffels. Rental sedans aren’t allowed — take a jeep tour from Ouray, half a day, about $100–150 a person.
  • Bridal Veil Falls
    Colorado’s tallest free-falling waterfall, at the head of the canyon. Pavement runs to the end of the valley, where you look up at it. Getting above it takes 4×4 or a 2-mile walk.
  • Dallas Divide
    The Ouray–Telluride road crosses this pass: the classic view of the Sneffels range above the ranches. Best at sunset.
Day 6 · 6 placesOuray → Aspen (the Black Canyon)
about 205 miles · 5 hr of driving; a full day with stops
  • Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP
    A gorge half a mile deep and in places a quarter mile wide — the floor sees under an hour of sun a day. South Rim: a road along the edge with 12 overlooks. Don’t miss Painted Wall. 2–3 hours, $30.
  • Ridgway State Park
    First stop out of Ouray: a reservoir with a beach under the San Juans — a good place to stretch.
  • Painted Wall View
    Pink pegmatite veins streaking the black wall — the canyon’s signature, and at 2,250 feet the tallest cliff in Colorado.
  • McClure Pass
    A gentle pass over the Elk range with Mount Sopris ahead. Before it, the orchard valleys of Paonia.
  • Marble + Marble Mill Site Park
    The marble for the Lincoln Memorial came from here. The old mill is a set of white ruins in the woods.
  • Redstone + Redstone Castle
    A village along the red Crystal River, with a coal baron’s 1902 castle. Coffee before the last push to Aspen.
Day 7 · 4 placesMaroon Bells
about 19 miles from Aspen, the whole day close to base
  • Maroon Bells + Maroon Lake
    Two maroon fourteeners doubled in the lake. From May 22 to Oct 18 private cars are barred 8 a.m.–5 p.m. — take the $16 shuttle, or drive up before 8 with a $10 reservation. At sunrise the lake is empty and mirror-flat.
  • Maroon Lake Scenic Trail
    A loop around the lake and through the aspens. Everyone can do it.
  • Crater Lake
    The trail keeps climbing to a lake under the walls of the Bells. About 700 feet of gain.
  • Aspen Pedestrian Mall
    Four car-free blocks: brick paving, irrigation ditches running along the sidewalks, tables out on the street, galleries and storefronts. The heart of Aspen — Hyman and Cooper between Galena and Mill.
Day 8 · 5 placesThe valleys around Aspen
two short valleys, 20–30 min from Aspen
  • Grottos Trail
    Nine miles east of Aspen the river has carved grottos and ice caves into granite — you walk it like a moonscape. Tiny parking lot, so come before 10.
  • Ashcroft Ghost Town
    Castle Creek valley, 11 miles up: an 1880s silver town — saloon, post office, cabins in a meadow under the peaks.
  • Silver Queen Gondola / Aspen Mountain
    The gondola from downtown Aspen to 11,210 feet, running through Sept 7, from $40. A 360° panorama with no effort.
  • Devil's Punchbowl
    An emerald pool set in rock above Grottos. The water is freezing.
  • Cathedral Lake
    2,000 feet of climbing to a turquoise lake in a cirque at 11,865 feet. One of the best hikes in the state. Be on the trail by 8 a.m.
Day 9 · 7 placesAspen → Denver (Independence Pass)
about 160 miles · 4 hr of driving; realistically 6–7 with stops
  • Independence Pass
    The fourth-highest paved pass in the state and one of the most spectacular in the country. Up top there’s a boardwalk overlook, tundra, and views down both sides of the divide. Go early.
  • Loveland Pass
    Turn off I-70 onto US-6. The last alpine pass: a saddle above treeline with snowfields into August. A farewell view before Denver.
  • Red Rocks Amphitheatre
    The stage sits between two 300-foot red rock slabs, and bands have played here since 1941. No concert that night? Walk right in for free — half of Denver runs the steps.
  • Independence Ghost Town
    First stop on the climb out of Aspen: what’s left of an 1880s gold camp, right by the road. Free, 20 minutes.
  • Twin Lakes
    Two lakes under Colorado’s highest peak (Mount Elbert, 14,440 feet) once you’re down. The reflections are postcard material.
  • Sapphire Point / Dillon Reservoir
    A turquoise reservoir ringed by summits, with an overlook five minutes’ walk away. Better to eat in Frisco.
Day 10 · 4 placesDenver → flight home
return the car · fly out of DEN
  • Denver International Airport (DEN)
    Return the car and fly home out of DEN. Head over early — leave time for the rental return and security.
  • Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
    Bison twenty minutes from the terminal. A loop road runs through the prairie and you never have to get out of the car. Open from dawn, free — easy before a midday flight.
  • Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
    An old Lowry Air Force Base hangar packed with bombers, fighters, and an Apollo capsule you look down into. Half an hour from the airport, doors open at ten — only worth it if you fly out late.
  • 16th Street Mall
    A pedestrian mile straight through downtown: street pianos, food carts, and a free shuttle running the length of it. The easiest place to start the city.
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