Help!! Planning Road trip...

[Rhigh22]

Ok so I'll explain myself a bit before asking my questions.

On October 25th I will be marrying my beautiful fiance. As neither of us are really beach people we have decided to spend our honeymoon road tripping in Colorado. Now sure, there are a few places we would really like to check out but I'm also looking for a good hippie/music scene somewhere in Colorado for us to post up for a few days.  As of right now we have no plan and no agenda, and we plan to keep any plans we make pretty loose because to be honest, if we stumble across a pretty good hippie scene there is a good chance we'll spend our whole week there.

Now I have heard great things about Telluride, and being that we are both huge bluegrass fans (I proposed to her at a Yonder Mountain show) I thought that may be a good place to check out, if so where at in Telluride would I want to be, and what are some good bars / music venues to check out?

We also are considering stopping off in Denver for a night, if we do, the same question pertains. Where do I wanna stay and what are some good bars? We have already checked into all of the major music venues around colorado and unfortunately there is nothing booked that we want to see. Though we may still stop by Red Rocks just to have a look around.

To sum this up we are really just looking for a good time in Colorado, and are completely open to suggestions. Any "hippie bar" or cool venue info would be greatly appreciated. Jazz, Bluegrass, Funk, Grateful Dead Cover bands, whatever!

Thanks in advance!
Ryan



 Listening to: Jorma Kaukonen - I Am The Light Of This World

[Ron N Deb]

Heya Ryan
First of all Congrats !
as far as music ....good luck
check out
www.Telluride.com
another site this place is in Ridgeway
www.OrvisHotSprings.com
Durango is a way cool Town
www.steamworks.com
enjoy the Road !
 

[landshark]

  OK so first what are your dates of travel and define Hippie scene.....
What is your age and length of time you will be in CO.

The BEST place to hear great Bluegrass is at the Wildflower Pavillion this fall at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch and the scene is really great,, Bluegrass,, Bonfire,, good beer and excellent company.

So buck up cowboy and get over to the ranch!

[Mandojosh79]

A honeymoon with Leftover @ the Fillmore on Halloween night sounds soooo romantic to me.
Check out Boulder its fun.
Rocky Mountain National Park is worth the Drive
Fort Collins is the most progressive city in the world... ( im biased)

http://marqueemag.com/ will have the whole month of October up soon and you can check out all the music happening on the Front range ( the eastern side of the rockies)

Congrats on finding that special lady too.

Good luck and have fun

 

[blue_dude]

Congrats man - Pretty cool to say you proposed at a Yonder show. Saw them at Snowmass on Monday, great time as always. Did you catch that?
There is a great pub in Aspen, the Double Dog, live Bluegrass every Tuesday and Thursday. I love this place - great shuffle board too!
If your looking for a nice place to take your lady - check out the Residence Hotel in Aspen. Also, check out the Belly Up's schedule while you're in town - by far one of the best places to see a live show.
Cheers//

[Rhigh22]

Right on! Big thanks to all of the suggestions so far. After some research last night its looking like there are a lot of great places near Denver (Boulder, Nederland) so I imagine we will stay around that area. After looking into Telluride it would appear to be a bit of a haul, and through the mountains none the less. Now the pub in Aspen sounds much more doable, and not as far as Telluride.

Leftover at the Fillmore for Halloween!?!?!?!? How did I miss that!? That was actually my next question for you guys, what to do for Halloween. We chase the Flaming Lips around a bit, so you know we're down for some costume action. If you see a 7 foot tall banana with Christmas lights all over it at the Salmon show, you'll know I made it. I will most likely be accompanied by a leprechaun, but she hasn't made her mind up yet.  Big thanks for bringing that to my attention.

And Landshark,
A. How do you like your new beer?
and B. We will be departing from St.Louis Missouri on October 26th, Denver is approx. 12 hours from us, and we haven't quite decided if we're going to do the whole trek at once or stop off for a night some where in Kansas. To my surprise I've actually heard there are some cool spots in Topeka. Neither of us have to be back at work until November 3rd, so we will be there for about a week.

Define Hippie scene... thats the hard part. Well, to be honest, I spent some time trolling these boards last night and it would appear that I found a piece of it. I'm looking for a laid back crowd, the type of crowd that if I feel the need to ask someone the first verse of the peanut butter and jelly song I can do it, and they'll sing it for me. Really we would just like to spend time in good company, we both love to meet new people, and we both love to party. I'm 25 years old and she is 23 and neither of us have ever been to Colorado, so we're looking for shakedown street CO, and basically hoping its still the heart of town. (Thank you Jerry and Mr.Hunter)

Bluegrass, Bonfire, Beer, and excellent company sounds awesome. Where do I find this Planet Bluegrass Ranch?

Hey and for the record, if any of you are headed to St.Louis in the near future let me know, there are some incredible spots around here. The Venice Cafe... best bar in town.

Whew! That was long winded.

Edit: Yeah, Lyons, Colorado, Planet Bluegrass... Its just North of Boulder!!! Thats huge!!! Its starting to look like we're just going to set up shop in Boulder and go from there. Big thanks for that Recommendation!

 Listening to: Herbie Hancock - Spank-A-Lee

[TellurideTom]

Another great stop near Denver would be the "Little Bear" (formerly the "Red Ram") in Evergreen, Colorado.
Great little venue where surprise guests pop in and play.
A lot of well known artists have been there.
Don't know if they have a website or schedule, but it's a nice place to check out.

[Ron N Deb]

Ryan
Hit the Planet Bluegrass link First linkon your upper right
they are in Lyons ...
Good luck and have a great time !
 

[landshark]

HOLD EVERYTHING,,, STOP THE WEDDING!!!!! Dates and location of wedding need to be changed...
The last concert at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch is 10/18 and yer gonna miss it by just a bit,,, bummer, I know you would love it!!
Did you know that you could get married there, book a great band and have the reception at the ranch???
You will love it in Boulder and the surrounding areas,,,, hotsprings, vapor caves,, Grand Canyon(long drive from Boulder, but doable), I checked the Fox and Boulder Theater for you and nothing too interesting within those travel dates ( The  Boulder Theater and Fox Theater , check it out on the web) but Little Bear is ROCKIN' FUN like TTom said.
                                    Tons of fun lil' brother!!!!!!

[BillyBeru]

Leftover Salmon is playing the Fillmore in Denver on Halloween. 
Martin Sexton is playing in Beaver Creek on 11/1.
Great American Taxi is playing Ft. Collins on 11/1.

It's a little early on the calendar but there should plenty of local bands playing in Boulder after your wedding.

Congratulations on the upcoming big day and lifetime adventure! 

[trot03]

if you are setting up camp in boulder make sure to drop by the Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery (www.mountainsunpub.com).  great bar, all beer is brewed on site and mighty tasty--- especially if you like hops-- and they have live music sunday nights as well as mondays at their sister pub the Southern Sun (the calendar on their website doesnt seem to be working at the moment).  check out a little town called gold hill (near nederland)-- the Inn there often has live music too (www.goldhillinn.com) but their calendar doesnt go that far into october yet.  For good small venue music in Denver look up schedules for these bars:  Cervantes, Quixotes, Owsley's Golden Road, & Dulcineas-- Dead bars with good music (some pretty big names roll through there) and they pour nice, stiff drinks.  Check out the little CD shop in the back of Quixote's, one of the best collections of music ive seen.  congrats.

does anyone know if the stage stop is going to get back running?

[Rhigh22]

I need to thanks everyone some more.

So many good suggestions. At this point I have a much better idea of what we're doing and its taken a big load off of my back. The honeymoon is like the only thing I'm in charge of so I wanted to make sure it would be a blast. Luckily, we're both easy to please and our idea of vacation is sleeping in a tent for 5 days with 15,000 people at 10k Lakes Fest. I can't wait to check out some of these places.

So this Hot Springs resort sounds romantic, but for a guy that lives in Missouri (whats a mountain?) really, am I going to be able to drive through the mountains from Denver to Ridgway without being a nervous wreck? I'm not really scared of heights, but I've heard I'll literally be driving on the side of a cliff at times. Sounds a bit intense.

Once again I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out here, gonna be in St.Louis soon? I'll owe you a Jack and Coke!

[TellurideTom]

The roads from Denver to Ridgway aren't that bad (highway 50 or highway 70 to 50 - then 550 to Ridgway). No big major drop offs like Red Mountain Pass going from there to Durango (not a trip you want to take at night). You'll be just fine.

[Mandojosh79]

if you are setting up camp in boulder make sure to drop by the Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery (www.mountainsunpub.com).  great bar, all beer is brewed on site and mighty tasty

Quoted for truth

[Mandojosh79]

Bart's CD cellar in Boulder is a righteous store.. tons of vinyl too.