Colorado and beyond- July 2014 trip

Busskipper wrote:
While many are saying you are ambitious I believe you are missing the Majority of the sites in Colorado. You need to get back into the mountains and follow the rivers.

Look at getting back to Leadville and Buena Vista, then over to Gunnison, Crested Butte and Ouray and Silverton.

By only getting to the foothills you are missing the real beauty and color of Colorado.

I agree with Busskipper here. Maybe you've never driven in CO before, but most of the mountain roads aren't "scary" nor do they have "insane" grades. If you've done much camping and driving in the Appalachian Mountains, you've encountered similar types of roads and grades there. The Rockies are higher in elevation, but there are far, far larger rigs on our mountain roads than yours. The suggested routes below won't tax you or your rig.

I don't know if you're planning on heading into Rocky Mountain NP from Loveland, but plan on over an hour each way. Just driving through Estes to get to RMNP can be 15 minutes. Save the time, drive up US 34 and camp somewhere around Estes Park. In four days, you'll save eight to ten hours of driving that you can use for sightseeing instead. Plus, it's comfortably cool in Estes compared to Loveland in July.

From Estes Park, take CO 7/72/119 (very scenic) back to I-70 and east down toward Denver. Take C-470 southeast down to US 285 and take the easy drive SW to Buena Vista/Salida. Now this is Colorado. Pick a spot somewhere in this area and explore the whole upper Arkansas River Valley. There are ghost towns, river rafting, the mining museum in Leadville, fishing, and great dining options. Be sure to spend an afternoon/evening strolling around downtown Salida by the river. Great shops, restaurants, a park to play in, and the river where people tube right through town. From Salida, you can head back east on US 50 which follows the river for an easy drive down to Pueblo to rejoin I-70 to Abq.

Let me reiterate, none of the routes I've given you are scary or difficult nor do they have steep grades. You'll be in a line of other RV's on these highways, as they are the easy way to get to some of Colorado's finest scenery.

A couple of other notes for your trip:

Instead of North Platte, how about Minden NE where you can visit Pioneer Village? Really interesting museum. They have a CG there as well but we've never stayed there so can't comment on it.

North of Fort Smith is Bentonville. Head up there for a day and visit Crystal Bridges, one of the finest art museums in the country. And the price is right -- it's free! NE of Bentonville you can visit Pea Ridge National Military Park, which is a historically significant Civil War battlefield. Personally, I would cut a day out of my stop at Amarillo and spend it in this area.