Hi Colt

Welcome to these boards and our community! I can't give you much advice on Colorado--that's far from home for me-- but I can give you some advice on your first solo trip.

If you've never done a backpacking trip on your own, your first trip should really be focused on getting comfortable with your gear. You'll need a small stove (I use a pocket rocket from MSR) and you want to make sure that everything else works well. This is that same as a new sailboat going on a "shakedown" cruise to get everything shipshape.

Even those of us with thousands of miles behind us still try out our gear before taking it on the trail, and a good goal for you would be a trip that allows you to bail out if thingd don't work the way you expect.

I'd suggest starting with a base camp style hike that gets you camping within an easy day's hike of the trailhead, but still let's you day hike to interesting places for a couple of days as well.

After you've done a hike like that and made sure all your gear is functional, you can tackle a more challenging hike in terms of miles and routes.