I'm looking for any recommendations for a Colorado road trip in early August. Schedule is flexible, but I'm thinking something like 10-14 days. We'll be driving up from Dallas (me, wife, kids 6 & 10) and rough plan is to take a loop through the south part of the state to hit the national parks. Rough idea is something like this:
2 nights: Great Sand Dunes
(maybe Durango or Pagosa Springs)?
2 nights: Mesa Verde
2-3 nights: Telluride or Silverton/Ouray - not sure which route to take
2 nights: Black Canyon
Then either east to Poncha Springs/Buena Vista or back south through Telluride or Ouray
We'll do a mix of car camping and hotels/rentals. Probably camping at Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon and staying at the lodge in Mesa Verde. Everything else is up in the air and there are plenty of gaps to fill in. Kids will be happy if they get to spend most of that time in water, whether that's alpine lakes, mountain streams or hot springs. We'll also plan on a lot of hiking. Maybe rafting, maybe fishing. Jeeping/ATVs aren't really our thing.
What you got?