I am a beach girl at heart so I spend a lot of time looking for places to submerge myself in water around Colorado. So I was looking for a spot to rent duckies or boats for an afternoon river float. I came across Sage Adventures so I gave them a call to discuss options, they were super helpful and gave me a few camping spot ideas. As I was looking at the area on Google Maps I saw a pin for Turtle Tubes. I cannot believe I had never heard of this group before! Easy floating with friends, dogs and a cooler of drinks – this was exactly what I was looking for!
Turtle Tubes, Dotsero
After checking out their sites realized I hard heard of Turtle Tubes aka Turtle Bus – the Vail Valley party bus. Turtle Tubes are basically giant circular floats for a lazy float down the Colorado River. Since we had four adults and three dogs we opted for two Turtle Tubes and then connected them with paddles.
The float is around two miles and takes about two to three hours. There is one section where you do have to paddle because of the wacky way the river flows but other than that it is lazy floating. Check out my “Co Summer” highlight on Instagram for videos of our float. When we were done the Turtle Bus picked us up and whizzed us back to the Dotsero put in.
If you are looking for boats or duckies check out Sage Adventures in Dotsero. They also have a restaurant and bar where we grabbed lunch and ice cream after our float.
Where to Camp – Coffee Pot Springs Road
Dotsero is west of Vail past Eagle and Gypsum. With a population of less than 800 its not much but Coffee Pot Road seems to be the hidden gem of the area. Just past the Dotesto turnoff is Coffee Pot Springs Road (route 600) this road goes for at 30 miles and there are dispersed camping spots all along the way. We found a spot in the switchbacks maybe 20 mins from the turn-off. This Vail Daily article describes the drive in detail and its definitely one we want to return to soon!
