Summer Road Trip! NC to CO

X10 on getting in shape for the altitude. Any cardio workout for 2 months before you leave will be very helpful. I lived in the vail area for 10 years at around 8000 ft elevation and was in great shape then, went back last summer for a visit and felt like I had one lung. Drink lots of water!
Check out the Browns canyon section of the Arkansas river for a fun rafting trip, lots of outfitters run that class 3 section, go on the numbers section for more exciting class 4 water.
You can also drive over independence pass to aspen(where the beautiful people live),then to glenwood springs to hangout at the hot springs, head east to minturn, take 24 south to camp hale(lots of day 4x4 trails) then Leadville and back to Buena vista, about 100 mile day trip covering lots of scenery.
As for the trip out, if you can make it past Columbia, Missouri, the first day,then you can make it to Buena vista by the end of the second day. When driving across west Kansas, never let your gas tank get below 1/4 tank( I learned this the hard way)
Sounds like a great trip, you'll have a great time!

 

I would recommend that you come into the mountains on US Highway 50 (Pueblo, Canon City, Salida) then north to BV. Prettier drive through Bighorn Sheep Canyon of the Arkansas River. Avoiding Co Springs would be my choice. If you come into Colorado on I-70 though, it's best to go to the Springs. Turn onto US Highway 24 off of I-70 at Limon and angle southwest. When you get to the Springs, take CO 115 to Penrose and get on 50.

If you come across on I-40, get off at Amarillo. US287 to 87 to US64. Get on I-25 and go north to Walsenberg and take Colorado 69 (quit that snickering) up to highway 50.

 

One other thing, but certain you are absolutely legal leaving Colorado crossing a state line - not saying they profile, but out of state tag a long way from home attracts attention according to some folks.

 

We were actually planning on setting up camp around boonville,MO which is just west of columbia. Our only concern with that is getting up early enough to beat KC traffic. My brother is taking care of all the rafting stuff, we'll be on the Arkansas, just don't know what part.

Good tip on that day trip route!

I'm really appreciating all of the advice yall, keep it coming!

 

And the only thing that has the potential to cause trouble will be my concealed carry, but I've already checked and CO honors my NC permit. Thankfully all states we'll be in(except Illinois) honor my permit.

Good tip though, thankyou!

 

Have a small lock box with you in Illinois if u are doing anything beyond the gas station. They are quirky with the cc laws in that state.

 

Would putting it in the dry storage of my cooler and locking that satisfy the law? I'd assume so, that's what I'd planned on.

 

Check out www.usacarry.com and click on the map for info per state

 

Missing Illinois is a big incentive for taking the southern route. You're only in the state for a couple of hours,but I've never been comfortable and there is always a gun in the vehicle. Gas up in Kentucky and there is no reason to stop there. Gas is usually a lot cheaper there or Missouri anyway. You might want to go one way and come back the other. On the northern route Kansas and eastern Colorado are awful boring, but you can make good time especially late at night if you want to cheat on the speed limit.

The problem with camping enroute is that most campgrounds are miles off the main road. Getting to one and back to the main road can waste a couple of hours of driving time. There are lots of $50-$70 motels right off an interstate exit ramp. Split that 2-3 ways and it's not bad.

 

Holy Crap! My brother, a few friends and I are planning a trip out to Colorado Springs and then into Utah for some off roading and exploration/Overlanding in July! Good luck and Enjoy! It'll be my first time out there and I can not wait! I plan on finding a couple of camping spots on the way for sleeping if need be, it sounds fun that way, but every campsite I found are several miles off the route and would be wasting gas so we'll see but I'll probably do it anyway.

 

Nice! The camping spots I've found don't seem too bad out of the way, so we'll probably do that at least on the way out. May get a hotel room so we can take a shower at some point. But we're only using a campground in between our traveling days, because they are a lot closer to big roads than actually finding a good spot to camp in the woods.

 

Many towns near camping spots offer laundry and showers in the same spot. You can shower for a few dollars while doing laundry.

 

That is good info, those were the only reasons we had mentioned hotels. But if a shower and laundry can be had for a few bucks that's even better. Any places in particular? I've never seen anything like that, so I don't have a clue what I'd even be looking for.

 

They just kind pop up from place to place. I'd luck near Campgrounds.(KOA, JELLYSTONE, any large camping area has to have a couple.

 

Alright, some more research has been done. We're thinking about trying to do the drive out straight through, just swapping driving and napping. This would give us almost another full day, which makes it very tempting. I know @Marshall R said you've done this more than once, any tips on this? There'll be just two of us driving, and I get done with a 12hr shift at 7am the morning we're talking about leaving(so I'll be snoozing the first few hours, but on the plus side I'll still be on night shift schedule which will hopefully make the night driving easier), still going to suck though.

We're also just about decided that we will be going the southern route, even though it's longer, so we can come up through southern CO and spend our first afternoon on the sand dunes trying to snowboard down them. The next day or two is up in the air, we'd like to hit some 14ers as previously mentioned, hopefully find time to get up Mt Elbert and maybe another one or two. Then heading on up and doing a two day loop on the Maroon Loop, the road to the trailhead is supposedly pretty shady with most people parking a few miles below the trailhead, anybody drive that road? We'll be in my stock TRDOR, so I don't have any extra clearance, but do have the 4wd and associated traction control to help us up, any ideas how doable this road is with my truck?

After our overnight we're hoping to hit pikes peak and the garden of the gods before we head out on the river for 5 days. Then we may do a little bit of driving around sight seeing before the drive home. Planning on plotting out both the northern and southern route and then deciding which one to take right before we leave. Haven't decided if we'll do the drive straight through on the way home, or stop halfway, guess we'll have to see how the drive out goes.

Thoughts, suggestions? Thanks guys

Also, since neither of us have a camera besides our phones I'm planning on picking one up sometime soon so I can start learning how to use it. Currently looking at the GoPro Hero 4 Silver, and I've pretty much decided on it. Looking forward to being able to use it for photos/videos/timelapses etc.

 

When you say Maroon Loop, are you talking about the 4-pass loop in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness? If so, are you talking about the road from CB through Gothic over Schofield Pass? If so, you could make that in a 2wd as long as it isn't too torn up.

 

The last time I drove straight through was in Oct 2010. My BIL and I met some other guys in the NW corner of the state for a hunt. The 4 other guys left several days earlier and set up camp. My BIL couldn't get off work until noon on Friday and had the next week off. Hunting season started Saturday. We left NW GA at noon Friday and did fine until just before daylight on Saturday morning. Reached a point where neither felt awake enough to drive. We pulled into a rest area near the Kansas Colorado border and slept about 1 hour. We were in camp by 3 PM Colorado time Saturday, 5PM GA time.
Remember going west you go through 2 time zones, going back east is harder. Got a good nights rest and hunted Sunday-Thursday with no serious problems. The altitude made me feel like I was carrying around an extra 50 lbs all day Sunday, but by Monday I was fine.

We actually left a day earlier than planned coming back. We left late in the afternoon on Thursday planning to get across the Rockies and into Denver before getting a room. Bad plan that time of year. We drove about 70 miles across the mountains after dark in a snowstorm. Made it OK, but had white knuckles by the time we got a room. Only stayed about 6 hours. Left 6 AM Friday and got home at 6 AM Saturday. We didn't have any trouble at all driving back. We both stayed awake all night talking and never felt fatigued. I can drink a Monster and be wired for hours. I did sleep most of the day on Saturday

The 1st time wasn't planned. We took our 2 kids, 15 and 10 at the time on summer road trip. We planned on getting a room about dark the 1st night, but I felt pretty good so I just kept driving. My wife slept all night and took over at sunup. I slept across most of Kansas and woke up in time for lunch. We did the same on one other trip. I've gotten a cheap motel room on the other occasions and made it a 2 day trip each way.

 

That's the one, I'd gotten mixed up though, the road he was telling me about was heading up to Blanca peak. Which I don't know that we'll get too at this point in the planning.

 

Totally forgot about time zones, I'm used to traveling on the east coast and never worrying about it. And we figured if need be we could hit a rest area and take a nap, then keep at it. Any special trade secrets for spending that much time in a car at one time? Or is it pretty much just get in and do it, stretch, bathroom, and snack at gas breaks.

 

I haven't been up that road to Blanca, but I will say that climbing Blanca would be more of an adventure than climbing Elbert. Even though Elbert is the highest, it's also one of the easiest and therefore most popular. Blanca is very high, and it's really a grand mountain.

Sand Dunes NP is definitely worth seeing.