Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs needs 1 day: walking or cycling through Garden of the Gods, a free public park with 300-million-year-old red sandstone formations rising up to 90 meters, and riding the cog railway up Pikes Peak, the mountain that inspired the song 'America the Beautiful,' the same afternoon. May-September brings the most stable weather for the altitude (over 4,300 meters at the Pikes Peak summit). It's mid-priced for Colorado. It's home to the US Air Force Academy and Northern Command, and its proximity to Denver -under 1 hour away- makes it a common day trip to see the Rocky Mountains without leaving the metro area.