Colorado Springs – 3 days 4 Nights Itinerary

Colorado is packed with lots of stuff to do all around the year. Being this said, imagine how we felt when we had only 3 days time to spend here at this beautiful place, and then we decided to utilize every hour of our time to experience Colorado Springs to the best. Do you believe, when we are heading back home from this place, we met a family who stay in Denver said “we did half the stuff they did in 3 days” after listening our CO experiences.

You really have dozens of ways to experience the actual Colorado, This state is full of national parks, outdoor adventures, Mountain ranges, Wild life, museums, deep canyons, deserts, dunes, rivers, valleys, bridges, attractions, water and winter activities what not.

Best Time To Visit

Preferred time : May – September

Itinerary:

Day 1: Rocky Mountains National Park
Day 2: Sand Dunes National Park, Zapata Falls
Day 3: Pikes Peak

Stay:

We had a good comfortable stay in Littleton, Co which is 50 minutes drive from Denver Airport for all 5 nights of our trip. Main reason why we chose this place is, it is at almost the same distance from all the places we covered in our itinerary.

DAY 1:

Rocky Mountain national park (Estes Park)
Day Pass for one vehicle – 25$
Opening hours: 9:00 AM -5:00 PM

It is 2 hour drive from Littleton to Rocky mountains national park, scenic drive though, so no regrets. We did start early, and tried to reach the park by 10:00 am. This park is located between the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake. Its highly impossible to express the beauty of deep canyons which are curved by Colorado river. There are tons of landscapes to explore around this area. You can take a day pass and drive through the park.

Our quick stops with short hikes:

• Rainbow curve overlook
• Boulder
• Glacier Gorge
• Moraine park
• Beer Lake
• Trial ridge road

You can try Aerial tramway for fantastic views of park. More Information is here

Do check our YouTube channel for some videos of scenic drives, breathtaking views etc from our Colorado Springs trip.

DAY 2:

Great Sand dunes national park
Day Pass for one vehicle – 25$
Opening hours: 24 hours, 7 days, year round (we did this in July)

It is 3.30 hours drive from Littleton to Dunes, though it is bit long if you had time to visit get there,It is totally worth. This is the first time i have been to such a big dunes and the experience is really amazing, they are absolutely majestic. These are the tallest dunes in North America and amazingly beautiful natural phenomenon.

Pictures couldn’t do it the justice it deserves. Check our vlog here for more video clippings.

What all we did there:

We took a day pass and drove through the park first and then pushed ourselves to climb the dunes to the top, and remember hiking dunes is definitely not EASY, i took short breaks for every couple of minutes. I have seen few people who are done after climbing half mile of dunes. Climbing to the top is tough and challenging but rewarding too (3-4 mile hike), there are breathtaking views of mountains (hard rocks with snowy tops) and dunes.

We climbed, took pictures, played around, jumped, slid down the sand hills and what not, we did everything in these sands.

Be prepared if you decide to climb the dunes:

Check Colorado springs-Sand Dunes weather online before you get in to your car.

Park had adequate parking space but i suggest to Get there early to find parking space.

Remember you got to cross Medano Creek (stream, but not very wide) to hike the dunes. River bed is very cold if you visit place after snowy days. It is really enjoyable to spend time in the creek too, By the way, i lost my flip-flops here.
More Information here.

Wear socks and close-toed shoes because its tough to be with bare foot when sand gets warm. The sand gets pretty hot as the day goes on.

If you wish to board a slide and have fun, i suggest to rent one in the town rather than trying to get one in the park.

I had a bitter experience, at 4 pm i have ended up getting so much wind whipping the sand into my eyes, It gets cold starting early evenings but nice breezy wind often.

I dint find bugs in the sand but better take a bug spray (Insect repellent) with you.

Finally an Advice from Dunes:

• Stay Loose
• Embrace winds of the change
• Make positive ripples
• Don’t get carried away
• show your true grit

Make sure to leave enough time in the evenings may be to stop by Zapata Falls. These are very close to Dunes, but a bit tough to drive to the falls, i prefer try driving only if you have off road vehicle (Short video of drive way is added to this post, Have a look). It is a easy hike though if you wish to hike to river. Don’t take the plunge at these falls, In spring and summer these waters are really cold.

DAY 3:

Pikes peak
Day Pass per person – 10$
Opening hours: Hours change seasonally

Oh my god, This is stunning experience, We drove to the top mountain (scenic Pikes Peak Highway) which is a 16 mile drive. Definitely must visit <3. Enjoyed amazing views of Colorado Springs

What to wear:

I prefer layered clothes, as it is really tough to predict the climate here.

Thrilling scary Drive – Be sure to check climate

Park Rangers here really superb, they take good care all along the way to top. They check brakes, tire pressure, fuel etc for every vehicle safety, they just asks us to stop for a while if tires are heated up. Roads are very curvy and steep, There are no railings so we are scared especially when driving on the edge of the cliff.

If the climate is not good park doesn’t allow tourists to drive up to summit. Same thing happened for us too, We are not allowed to drive up to summit, asked to stop at the end of 12th mile. Still we are fine and so we continued, after we reaching 7-8 miles there was a hail storm and that moment i’m really scared to continue.
Literally we just want to drive back which is even more difficult and so we decide to take a break and parked on the side for few minutes till climate gets better, Very scary drive especially during storm but still managed to shoot a video, here it is.

Luck favored and we continued our drive and reached our stop (12th mile), There is a gift shop here and so got down, and tried to communicate with security over there to check the climate. slowly we started seeing sun behind the mountains which gave us a hope to wait there for a while to drive up to summit.

I know we are fortunate enough, they allowed us to drive up after few hours, And believe me the view from 14,115 feet elevation left me speechless! Redevelopment is going on but the views from the top (Summit) are really gorgeous. There a several pull offs to shoot pictures but we decided to make our stops during our back journey. this This scenic drive is really refreshing, Check this video on our vlog

There is an another cafe and gift shop at Summit, Don’t forget to taste donuts here, they are really delish.

We did cover these in the evenings and 4th day morning but you can do whenever time permits:

• Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater
• Garden of Gods
• Downtown Denver
• Art museum and Zoo

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Few Videos from our vacation to Colorado Springs: