Colorado What To Do›Fun Things To Do
Not the polite list. Sandboarding 750-foot dunes, a castle one man has been building since 1969, the highest paved road on the continent, and the darkest skies in the lower 48.
What is fun to do in Colorado?
Sandboarding the 750-foot dunes at Great Sand Dunes, soaking in natural hot springs at Glenwood or Strawberry Park, rafting the Arkansas River through Browns Canyon, driving Mount Blue Sky — the highest paved road in North America — and stargazing in one of Colorado's 13 International Dark Sky Parks. Bishop Castle near Rye is free and genuinely strange.
"Fun" is a different question from "impressive." Plenty of Colorado is impressive. Less of it is the thing you will still be talking about on the flight home.
So this page filters for the second thing. Everything here either gets your heart rate up, gets you somewhere you cannot get anywhere else, or is simply so odd that it becomes the story.
The fun finder
Filter by region, cost or the kind of day you want. Everything stays on the page.
Showing all 28
Estes Park & Grand Lake
Alpine tundra, 355 miles of trail and the headwaters of the Colorado River. Trail Ridge Road crosses above 12,000 feet.
Timed entry reservation required May 22 through mid-October 2026.
Colorado Springs
Vertical red sandstone fins pushed upright by the same uplift that raised Pikes Peak. Paved trails, and free forever by deed.
Donated to Colorado Springs in 1909 on the condition it stay free to the public.
Mosca
The tallest dunes in North America, roughly 750 feet, piled against the Sangre de Cristo range. Rent a sandboard in Alamosa.
Sand surface can exceed 150°F on summer afternoons. Go early or late.
Cortez
Roughly 5,000 archaeological sites including some 600 Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, protected since 1906.
Cliff Palace requires a ranger-led ticket booked in advance.
Montrose
A gorge so narrow and deep that parts of the inner canyon get roughly half an hour of direct sunlight a day.
Morrison
A concert venue wedged between two 300-foot sandstone monoliths. Free to walk any day nothing is scheduled, and people run the stairs at sunrise.
Great Sand Dunes
Rent a board or a sled in Alamosa and ride 750-foot dunes. It is the single best kid activity in Colorado and it wears everyone out completely.
Denver
Four floors of immersive art built by hundreds of artists, wrapped around a science fiction story you can follow or ignore. Plan three hours.
Colorado Springs
14,115 feet by cog railway, highway or a very long hike. Katharine Lee Bates wrote 'America the Beautiful' after reaching this summit in 1893.
Rocky Mountain NP
The highest continuous paved highway in North America, topping out at 12,183 feet with eleven miles above treeline.
Typically closed by snow from late October until late May.
Idaho Springs
The highest paved road in North America, climbing more than 7,000 feet in 28 miles past mountain goats and bighorn sheep.
Reopened Memorial Day weekend 2026 after two years of construction. Timed entry now run by Denver Mountain Parks.
Durango, Silverton, Ouray
A 236-mile loop across four mountain passes, including the Million Dollar Highway. One of only two All-American Roads in Colorado.
Aspen
The most photographed mountains in North America — two 14,000-foot peaks reflected in Maroon Lake and ringed with aspen.
Vehicle or shuttle reservation required May 15 to October 31, 2026.
Glenwood Canyon
A turquoise travertine lake suspended on a cliff face, fed by Bridal Veil Falls. 1.2 miles up with about 1,200 feet of gain.
Permit required year-round. Trailhead at I-70 Exit 125 is eastbound access only.
Glenwood Springs
One of the largest geothermal pools anywhere, right off I-70. The reliable answer when weather ruins the rest of the plan.
Steamboat Springs
Stone-terraced natural pools in a creek canyon outside town. The winter road frequently needs four-wheel drive or a shuttle.
Salida & Buena Vista
The most-rafted river in the country, running everything from gentle floats to Class IV whitewater in Browns Canyon.
Low snow years shorten the big-water window — ask the outfitter what the gauge reads.
Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge, Steamboat
The reason a lot of people know Colorado exists. Buy a multi-resort pass in spring for the following season — the price roughly doubles by December.
National forests statewide
The cheap version of Colorado winter. Rent snowshoes for the price of a lift-ticket lunch and have an entire drainage to yourself.
Estes Park
September and October, at dawn and dusk. Hundreds of elk bugling in the meadows. Watch from the car and keep your distance.
Cañon City
A suspension bridge hanging 956 feet above the Arkansas River, for decades the highest in the world.
Rye
A full stone castle with towers, iron catwalks and a fire-breathing dragon, built almost single-handedly by Jim Bishop starting in 1969. No admission charge.
Durango
A coal-fired steam train running an 1882 narrow-gauge route through the Animas River canyon. A full day, and worth it.
San Luis Valley and statewide
Colorado has 13 International Dark Sky Parks and eight Dark Sky Communities — more places in the certification process than anywhere on Earth.
Go near a new moon and give your eyes 30 minutes to adjust.
La Junta
The largest dinosaur tracksite in North America — hundreds of prints across a remote canyon floor.
No shade and no water on a long approach. Not a summer trip.
Calhan
Banded clay hoodoos and spires that look like southern Utah dropped onto the Colorado prairie. Free, and almost nobody is there.
Statewide
Colorado has 58 peaks above 14,000 feet. Mount Elbert at 14,440 is the highest and one of the most walkable.
Summit by noon and be below treeline by two — afternoon lightning is near-daily in summer.
Denver
Holds roughly 95% of one major Abstract Expressionist's entire life output. Nothing comparable exists for any painter of his stature.
Nothing matches those filters. Try clearing one.
The three that always win
The tallest dunes in North America, roughly 750 feet, piled improbably against the 13,000-foot Sangre de Cristo range. You rent a board or a sled in Alamosa, climb, and ride down.
It is harder than it looks. Climbing loose sand at 8,000 feet is genuinely tiring, and there is no shade anywhere. But it is the single most unusual thing you can do in this state, and it works equally well for adults and children.
One warning worth taking seriously: the sand surface can exceed 150°F on summer afternoons. Go in the morning or the evening, and wear shoes.
Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway climbs more than 7,000 feet in 28 miles, ending just below a 14,000-foot summit. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep are routine sightings rather than lucky ones.
It reopened over Memorial Day weekend 2026 after nearly two years of construction on the upper section. Timed entry reservations are required, and they are now administered by Denver Mountain Parks rather than the Forest Service — a change most guides have not caught up with.
The road is narrow, has minimal guardrail, and vehicles over 30 feet are not permitted. It is not technically difficult. It is psychologically memorable.
Two versions. The loud one is rafting the Arkansas River, the most-rafted river in the country, which runs everything from gentle family floats to Class IV whitewater in Browns Canyon.
The quiet one is hot springs. Glenwood is enormous and right off I-70. Strawberry Park outside Steamboat is stone-terraced pools in a creek canyon, and sitting in 104-degree mineral water while it snows on your head is arguably the best thing about Colorado winter.
In a low-snow year like 2026, the big-water rafting window compresses. Ask the outfitter what the gauge is reading rather than what the brochure says.
The genuinely weird
Every state has scenery. Colorado has a surprising amount of eccentricity, and almost all of it is free.
A full stone castle with towers, iron catwalks and a fire-breathing metal dragon, built almost single-handedly by Jim Bishop starting in 1969. He largely never stopped. There is no admission fee and there are no safety railings in the modern sense. It is a monument to sheer stubbornness and it has to be seen in person.
The largest dinosaur tracksite in North America — hundreds of prints across a remote canyon floor on the eastern plains. The approach is long, hot and waterless, which is exactly why almost nobody is ever there. Not a summer trip.
Banded clay hoodoos and spires that look like southern Utah was dropped onto the Colorado prairie. Free, close to Colorado Springs, and consistently empty.
Not somewhere to go, but the best fact to bring. Colorado's boundary has 697 sides rather than four, because nineteenth-century surveyors with compasses and chains made hundreds of small errors and the Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that the mistakes were the legal border. The Four Corners Monument sits roughly 1,800 feet from the mathematically correct point, and courts have consistently ruled the marker wins.
Timing
High passes are still gated and mountain trails are mud. However, the Western Slope is at its best — Colorado National Monument, Mesa Verde and the desert canyons are perfect before summer heat. Rafting season begins as runoff picks up, and mountain-town lodging bottoms out between ski season and summer.
Everything is open and everyone is here. Trail Ridge Road, the high passes, the alpine lakes, the fourteeners. Afternoon thunderstorms build almost daily from mid-July, so summit early and be below treeline by two.
The best month in Colorado is September and it is not close. Stable weather, thinner crowds after Labor Day, the elk rut in Estes Park, and aspens turning from mid-month. Colour runs by elevation rather than by date — high passes first, Front Range foothills last.
Skiing, obviously. But the underrated version is hot springs, snowshoeing and empty desert. Shelf Road near Cañon City has rock climbing in January. Colorado National Monument under snow is close to deserted.
The constraint is driving. Westbound I-70 on a Friday and eastbound on a Sunday are genuinely brutal during ski season, and CDOT activates traction and chain restrictions during storms. Check road conditions or dial 511 before you leave.
Common questions
Sandboarding the 750-foot dunes at Great Sand Dunes, soaking in natural hot springs at Glenwood or Strawberry Park, rafting the Arkansas River through Browns Canyon, driving Mount Blue Sky — the highest paved road in North America — and stargazing in one of Colorado's 13 International Dark Sky Parks. Bishop Castle near Rye, a full stone castle built almost single-handedly since 1969, is free and genuinely strange.
For most people it is sandboarding at Great Sand Dunes National Park. You rent a board or sled in Alamosa, climb the tallest dunes in North America, and ride down. It is physically demanding, completely unlike anything else in the state, and it works for adults and children equally. Go early or late — the sand surface can exceed 150°F on summer afternoons.
Yes, and it is the season when almost everything is open — Trail Ridge Road, the high passes, the rivers and the fourteeners. The catch is afternoon thunderstorms, which become near-daily from mid-July into early September. The rule is to be off any summit by noon and below treeline by two. Mornings are reliably clear.
A great deal. Rafting, hot springs, sandboarding, scenic driving on 26 designated byways, stargazing, mountain biking, hot air ballooning, and four national parks. Denver alone has immersive art at Meow Wolf, dinosaur footprints at Dinosaur Ridge twenty minutes away, and a museum holding roughly 95% of one major painter's entire life output.
Many. Glenwood Hot Springs off I-70 is one of the largest geothermal pools anywhere. Strawberry Park outside Steamboat Springs is stone-terraced natural pools in a creek canyon — though the winter road frequently needs four-wheel drive or a shuttle. Ouray and Pagosa Springs both have significant developed springs as well.
Bishop Castle near Rye. Jim Bishop began building a stone castle by hand in 1969 and largely never stopped. It has towers, iron catwalks and a fire-breathing metal dragon. There is no admission fee and there are no safety railings in the modern sense. Picketwire Canyonlands, which holds the largest dinosaur tracksite in North America, is a close second.
Yes. Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America, climbing more than 7,000 feet in 28 miles. It reopened over Memorial Day weekend 2026 after nearly two years of construction, and now requires a timed entry reservation administered by Denver Mountain Parks. Pikes Peak also has a highway and a cog railway to the summit.
Colorado has 13 International Dark Sky Parks and eight Dark Sky Communities, with more than 30 places statewide in the certification process — more than anywhere else on Earth. The San Luis Valley, around Great Sand Dunes, has some of the darkest skies in the lower 48. Go near a new moon and give your eyes 30 minutes to adjust.
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