Out of State to Colorado - Trip Advice

Hey whats up everyone! The title pretty much says It all, I am a native Arizonian and been here my whole life. Although I have a nice 4runner SAS swapped w/ goodies and ready to do some long haul exploring. Would anyone mind giving some insight on places or things to do in Colorado that are a MUST. I plan on taking a week off to adventure around the beautiful state and would also love to shred some snow for 2 days or so. Also I will be scoping the area to see how much my nature loving ass enjoys Colorado for a possible home relocation after I finish my Bachelors here soon.

Im looking for advice from locals or someone who has made a similar trip. So if you were traveling from another state and had a week to offroad, explore, sight-see, and just fall in love with what Colorado has to offer - What would you recommend to do or where to go while being on your 7 day trip?? Which mountains are best for snowboarding? Best trails with the most mind blowing scenery? Trail maps? Best time to visit Colorado? Best places to eat? Best cities for fun and for actually decent house pricing with a good job market?

My goal is to hopefully put together a thorough list of options for the" Ultimate Colorado Trip ", I l look forward to meeting great people with great mindsets that share the same passion for outdoor adventure as I do.

Thank you so much!
Look forward to visiting your beautiful state

 

Affordable housing and good job market are not often found together in Colorado. Offroading and snowboarding are also sort of opposite seasons. Lots of good food, booze and beer, lots of old mining roads, lots of riding opportunities, they just aren't very connected. Oh, yeah, housing in the mountains is not inexpensive.

 

there are a thousand MUSTS in CO. you can't go wrong. I'm heading to Cortez outside Durango in 2 weeks with the family. that side of the Rockies is still a bit new for us... i used to live on the Boulder side so there's tons of exploring to do. just get in and drive and you will find great stuff. any particular anything you're looking to do or find there?

 

stay away from the crowds on i70. explore off the beaten track and you will enjoy it much more

 

If you are coming up through AZ I would hit up Mesa Verde National Park and stay there for a night and check out the park. I would then work my way up to Silverton and Ouray, probably the most gorgeous areas of colorado, you can get through Cortez and Durango. Silverton has some of the best skiing and boarding around but not for the feint of heart. From there you can either hit 50 to Salida and head North or you can head south a bit to see Great Sand Dune National Park. If you head North, take 24 up into Leadville all the way into Keystone, Breckenridge. From there you can roll East on I-70 towards Hwy 119 and take that into Estes Park and check out Rocky Mountian National Park.

tons of passes you can take for some siteseeing but most are closed in winter. Imogene, Black Bear, Berthoud, Monarch, Guanella Pass, Rollins Pass, etc etc Of course you have skiing in Breck, Keystone and that whole area

My wife and I just did the grand circle and came up through AZ on our way back to the springs. We went into Mesa Verde then onto Ouray and then up to Montrose where we took 50 all the way home.