Were planning to travel from Missouri to the Denver area and then down to Yuma next year (after the kid gets out of school) to visit family. I'd like to take the truck and do some light, easy, scenic wheeling along the way. I would lik eto find some trails where we could go out for the day and camp for the night or return to a campgrounds for the night. As I have never been in Colorado at all I have no idea where to start looking and planning. Any help, suggestion, links would be great.

Thanks,

The Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride areas of southwestern Colorado are particularly good for scenic wheelic trips that aren't difficult. There's camping near each of those towns. The campgrounds fill up fast so you should get reservations. Do a web search for those towns.

You should get a good 4x4 trails book, such as those offered by Chuck Wells. He has both AZ and CO books now. For Colorado his Volume 1 book covers southwestern CO. Look into trails like Engineer, Ophir, Imogene, and Corkscrew Passes. There are many other good scenic trails in that area. You can buy his books from www.funtreks.com or www.4x4books.com among other places.

edit: Oh yeah - this should get you motivated. Check out Darren's pics across Colorado. He has a 4Runner and occasionally is on this forum. His web site is: www.mycolorado.org

Definitly hit Sedona on your way through. Schnebly (sp?) Hill trail is a nice scenic trail to do. There are lots of light trails all around that area.

Thanks, Jeff! You're too kind!

Jeff Birt, do you have an idea how long you'll be in CO (or AZ for that matter)? I would definitely second the area Jeff mentioned above, but if I read this right, you'd be coming down in early/mid-June? If that is the case, unfortunately, all of the scenic stuff is still snowed over that time of year, so you would be severely limited. Not that there wouldn't be many other cool things to see, but that is still off-season for the trails with the views.

Thanks for the info guys! I have bookmarked Darren's site. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Darren - Sounds like I need to plan to leave later, maybe sometime like late July?

If you can delay the trip, that would be ideal. Typically, all but a few roads are open by the 4th, and most in late June. This year was on a substantially later schedule, though, due to the snowpack. It's awesome to be on them when the roads first open so you get to see all the snow, but I would suggest waiting a bit longer to make sure they're all open by the time you come out.

Late July would be best, or specifically, around the 20th. Generally across the state, wildflowers are at their peak roughly between the 15th and the end of the month. Might as well see them if you can take off during that time. Plus, that means you also get away from the humidity of MO during the heat of summer! Sounds like a no-brainer to me!