5 Beautiful Weekend Drives You Must Do in Colorado

One of my favorite weekend activities, when I'm not tormenting people in the food court at the Mesa Mall, is to find spectacular highways to drive. Colorado has this in spades. Big duh. I've seen other lists but unfortunately they were wrong. I want to set the record straight once and for all where the best Colorado drives are.

5. Colorado National Monument - I could completely kiss up and put this number one since this is our local national park, but I really think this is the right place on my list. I will say that the road through Colorado National Monument is one of the most underrated in the entire country. People in North Dakota would kill for a drive like this.

4. Wolf Creek Pass - Highway 160 from Pagosa Springs to Durango is one I've traveled on many times. I had heard truck driver stories about how perilous Wolf Creek Pass could be. No matter what the C.W. McCall song said, I didn't find the drive too scary. But, it is really a looker when it comes to mountain scenery.

3. Highway 24 from Vail to Buena Vista - My family stumbled across this one on our vacation last year. We had just come out of the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park and had some time on our hands. After turning west on 70, we decided to head south on 24 right after passing through Vail. We discovered a real treat with a highway that weaves in and out of some amazing high elevation vistas including a killer bridge that we passed under.

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Deciding between number one and number two was almost a coin flip. I love all these drives and the top two are lifetime favorites for a different reason. Rocky Mountain National Park was the first location I visited when I arrived in Colorado back in 1985. I loved it from the very first moment to the last and consider Trail Ridge Road a national treasure.

1. The Million Dollar Highway - From my very first trip heading south on 550 out of Montrose, I knew I was in for something special. The snow-capped peaks to the south are just a taste of the four to five-hour drive ahead. So many highlights along the Million Dollar Highway including beautiful Ouray to Red Mountain Pass, Silverton and everything else from there to Durango. I have a theory that God created the scenery in that area so Heaven wouldn't be too much of a shock when we get there. I do have one question for those road builders though. Where are the freaking guard rails on Red Mountain Pass? Hello?