I made the trip between Austin and Colorado (Springs/Denver) many times by car.
In the old days when the kids were ages 0-7, it used to take us about 14 hours with lower speed limits and stopping regularly. These days with higher speed limits and a 17 y/o, it would take you much less.
We used to break it into 2 days with one 6 hour day and one 8 hour day stopping in Lubbock or Amarillo depending on which way we were going.
We also took the eastern route via Salina, KS once when we towed a 6x12 U-Haul from Clear Lake to Highlands Ranch. That was a longer trip but really easy and really boring.
If you drive, you can stop at places like
You'll have to drive through:
- Texline - frankly, it's a trip knowing that you drove for a whole day already and you're just now leaving Texas. Knew a couple guys in the Aggie Band who were from Dalhart and Dumas. That's still in-state tuition, a million miles away from College Station.
- Raton Pass - much more interesting in the snow obviously but still scenic
If you did take the eastern route through Kansas, you'd approach Colorado Springs and see Pike's Peak from the east and in the right light conditions, you can see the "Purple Mountains Majesty above the fruited plain"
Another reason to take two days is to let your body adjust to the altitude.
I don't know your physical condition but as best as I can tell, everybody on TexAgs ranges somewhere between running 6 minute miles and weighing 300 lbs.
My family is mostly from Galveston County so total flatlanders and about as fit as everybody else in Houston. One of them took a ski trip with a church group and flew from Houston to Denver and then drove to Breckenridge. Going from 50 feet to 9600 feet in the span of 5-6 hours is a massive change and in that particular situation, the person had to be evacuated from Breck and taken to a lower elevation in Denver (turns out they had an undisclosed heart condition - well, we found out - in the medical clinic at Peak 8).
Likewise, I had another family member really struggle when we drove up to Mt Evans at 14,000 feet. Struggled with breathing and didn't feel well. On that same trip, my 5 y/o got sick and started throwing up at the top of Mt Evans. Very scenic trip but, a bit challenging with the health/altitude issues.
Last item on flying versus driving, if you didn't want to put miles on your own vehicle or something like that, you could rent a car in Houston and use that. As stated earlier, just don't rent from an airport location and you should be able to save a few $$$ in pricing and maybe fees they tack onto the bill.
I did a massive road trip back in 2018 from Houston up to South Dakota over to Las Vegas and back. I was driving my own vehicle and broke down on a Thursday night in Stillwater, OK. Limped up to Wichita, KS where I found an independent BMW mechanic who fixed my X5 by Monday afternoon. In that case, I probably should have rented a car but, I did enjoy driving that X5 cross country (even though I did get stopped for speeding, doing 100 in rural South Dakota).
Have fun on your trip, I'm sure your daughter will love it. Also, check the Rockies schedule because a summer game at Coors Field is fun. Just be sure to dress in layers.