You been to Estes Park? Taking my family next summer on a tour de Colorado, and i want to stay around RMNP for a few days. Can you recommend cool things that are not tourist traps...i.e cable car ride, horse back riding?
We have gone to Estes many times, we love it. I am not a good one on activities though, we hang out in RMNP. One thing I really like is in the summer the park will do a stargazing night. Up in the thin atmosphere, away from lights, it is beautiful.
In town there is often good food and a ton of touristy shopping. We usually devote an afternoon, particularly in bad weather, to that. But otherwise we are on our own in the park or doing a ranger led event. Driving Trail Ridge Road is a must. The family motto is "just look at the yellow line". Rangers say they frequently have to take over driving for people who get terrified.
Our last trip out we toured the state. Garden of the Gods was great, a very high recommendation. Telluride was a disappointment but it was in the 2 weeks between winter ending and summer beginning. It was empty. It looks in the summer there would be a ton of things to do we just were at the wrong time.
It was very windy when we went to Pike's Peak, we could only go 75% of the way up. It is beautiful up there.
My favorite activity you would be too late for. At Continental Pass we went dog sledding. A wonderful experience. But they close down about April 1.
And I love Denver. I have a hard time choosing between Denver and San Diego for favorite city.
My oldest went to college in Greely (do not go there) and went to Estes often. I will ask her if there are fun things aside from hanging out in RMNP.