weekender.
Weekend trips from UCCS
Hidden spots near Colorado Springs, day trips and weekend road trips from UCCS in November, scored 1–10 on price, timing and what's happening, with gas, park fees, a campsite or room and food included.
Plan your own trip from UCCS →Local finds near campus
Garden of the Gods
Red rock fins framing Pikes Peak, free and open from dawn to night.
Paint Mines
Candy-striped clay hoodoos on the plains east of Colorado Springs. Free.
Pikes Peak
Drive (or take the cog railway) to 14,115 feet, where 'America the Beautiful' was written. Summit donuts.
Day trips
Royal Gorge
Walk a suspension bridge 956 feet above the Arkansas River.
Great Sand Dunes
The tallest dunes in North America under snowy peaks, with a beach creek in spring.
Denver
RiNo's murals and food halls, a free mile-high step at the Capitol and a show at Red Rocks.
Buena Vista & the Arkansas River
Riverside hot springs under the Collegiate Peaks, and Colorado's busiest whitewater.
Breckenridge
A Victorian mining town at the foot of a ski mountain, with a giant wooden troll in the woods.
Rocky Mountain National Park
Alpine lakes, elk in the meadows and the highest paved road in the country.
Weekend trips
Great Sand Dunes
The tallest dunes in North America under snowy peaks, with a beach creek in spring.
Buena Vista & the Arkansas River
Riverside hot springs under the Collegiate Peaks, and Colorado's busiest whitewater.
Denver
RiNo's murals and food halls, a free mile-high step at the Capitol and a show at Red Rocks.
Breckenridge
A Victorian mining town at the foot of a ski mountain, with a giant wooden troll in the woods.
Rocky Mountain National Park
Alpine lakes, elk in the meadows and the highest paved road in the country.
Maroon Bells & Aspen
Colorado's most photographed peaks over a lake (shuttle reservation), and Aspen's free gondola rides in summer.
Long weekends
Mesa Verde
Whole villages built into cliff alcoves 800 years ago; climb ladders into them on ranger tours.
Arches & Moab
Over 2,000 stone arches (Delicate Arch at sunset), with Moab's mountain biking and jeep trails.
Dinosaur National Monument
A rock wall with 1,500 dinosaur bones still in it, plus petroglyphs and river canyons.
Canyonlands
Mesa Arch framing the sunrise over a maze of canyons the Colorado River carved.
Goblin Valley
A valley of thousands of mushroom-shaped goblins you can wander among freely (Galaxy Quest's alien planet).
Monument Valley
The red buttes from a hundred westerns, on the Navajo Nation (entry per person).
Personalize it
Set your budget, how many friends are coming, your car (or no car: train and bus), and what you're into (hiking, beaches, camping, stargazing, food and more), and Weekender re-ranks every trip for you, with a day-by-day plan, directions and campsites.
Find my trips from UCCS →