The TrailsHutch2021-04-22T11:12:42-06:00
The Trails
Explore Wild Colorado!
The Colorado Birding Trail links outdoor recreation sites, both public and private, into a network through a designated driving route. There are 54 trails containing almost 800 sites where you can view watchable wildlife. Some trails include hiking or walking paths where you can observe different wildlife and scenery. Start your adventure today and explore wild Colorado! UPDATE: A valid hunting or fishing license is required for everyone 18 or older accessing any state wildlife area. Beginning May 1, 2021, a valid hunting or fishing license OR SWA pass is required for everyone 16 or older accessing any state wildlife area.
Please note: As of April 2021, We have a group of dedicated volunteers currently updating the sites listed on the Colorado Birding Trail. Some private lands or bird tours may no longer exist or be open to the public, so be sure to check on the site/event before heading out.
Yampa TrailThe Yampa is one of the few rivers in Colorado that remains almost entirely undammed and undiverted. Much as in past centuries, it supports a rich riparian ecosystem along most of its length.
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Wolf Creek TrailThe summit of Wolf Creek Pass is one of the snowiest places in Colorado during the winter. During the summer, it's one of the most scenic.
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Whitewater TrailFamous for its whitewater rafting, the Arkansas Canyon offers an amazing variety of wildlife viewing opportunities in a spectacular setting.
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Waterfowl TrailThis trail encompasses the parks and waterways of northeast urban Denver, plus a large swath of the adjacent plains, stringing together the finest spots to enjoy nature right in the shadow of the city.
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Uncompahgre TrailEveryone agrees that "Uncompahgre" is a Ute word, but few can agree on what it means. Some say it means "hot springs"; others say it means "red lake" or "the place where water makes the rocks red."
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Summit TrailFor travelers driving west from Denver, Summit County offers the first taste of the West Slope. Famous for ski resorts like Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, and Copper Mountain, it's also home to well-preserved natural areas that offer good wildlife watching at any time of year.
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St. Vrain TrailThe towns of Longmont and Lyons, along the St. Vrain River north of Boulder, support an amazingly high density of places to watch birds and other wildlife.
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Spanish Peaks TrailFollowing the Highway of Legends Scenic Byway for much of its length, and circumnavigating the stunning Spanish Peaks, this trail nearly runs the gamut of Colorado habitats.
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South Park TrailOnly 1-2 hours from Denver, South Park is a flat area nearly the size of Rhode Island at an elevation of 10,000 feet, which harbors remnants of a rich prairie and wetland ecosystem.
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Silver Thread TrailTracing a high and remote path through Colorado\'s least populated region, the Silver Thread Scenic Byway winds its beautiful way through montane forests and meadows from the low to the high, past mountain lakes that teem with waterfowl in migration.
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Sandsage TrailThe northeast corner of Colorado sits atop a special ecosystem, a mix of desert and prairie known as sandsage, home to tallgrass species with a little southwestern spice.
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Sandhill Crane TrailThe northern San Luis Valley is a land of natural spectacles. Some are aerial, like the talon-locking tumble of a pair of Golden Eagles in midair courtship, or the high-flying spirals of a flock of Black Swifts above a canyon cascade at dusk.
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Roaring Fork TrailThe Roaring Fork River crashes down out of the West Elk Mountains towards the Colorado River, carving out a beautiful mountain valley as it goes.
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Red Rocks TrailThe west side of urban Denver runs smack into an area of hogback ridges, huge red sandstone rock formations, and semiarid shrublands. Thanks to a spectacular system of parks, huge tracts of beautiful habitat have been preserved for posterity, only minutes from the city.
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Rabbit Ears TrailThe area south and east of Steamboat Springs is one of the lushest regions of Colorado, boasting relatively few people but high natural diversity, including huge numbers of deer, elk, and pronghorn along the backroads.
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Pronghorn TrailThe Arkansas River Valley is so thickly packed with top-notch places to view wildlife that it sometimes boggles the traveler's mind.
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Prairie Oases TrailThanks to a chain of large lakes that attract birds by the tens of thousands in migration and winter, this has long been one of the most popular wildlife watching routes in Colorado.
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Plover TrailThe "Trail that Has It All", visitors can see a plethora of plovers, visit the Old Santa Fe Trail, or visit some of the areas large reservoirs.
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Playa TrailNamed for the shallow prairie lakes that appear and disappear with the unpredictable rains, the Playa Trail showcases ephemeral beauties.
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Pikes Peak TrailThis trail is is quintessential Colorado, offering visitors a variety of wildlife watching opportunities all within a stones throw to Colorado Springs.
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Piedra TrailThe Piedra River collects most of the water from Colorado's largest wilderness area, the Weminuche, running from permanent snowfields in the high mountains through subalpine meadows down into forests of gigantic ponderosa pine.
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Peak to Peak TrailThe Front Range is a phalanx of snow-capped mountains that guards the center of Colorado against any approach from the east. This is Denver’s mountainous backyard, a must-visit area for anyone interested in Colorado nature.
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Pawnee TrailThis lush prairie is home to seasonal wetlands, dramatic buttes, and some of the most famous migrant traps in Colorado. It is rightly one of the most popular wildlife watching destinations in the state.
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North Park TrailNorth Park, virtually synonymous with Jackson County, is a high, flat, peak-ringed valley that teems with far more wildlife than people. Some of Colorado's finest and most extensive remaining sagebrush country can be found here, right beside some of Colorado's finest and most extensive wetlands.
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Mile High TrailDenver, the Mile High City, is famous as the gateway to the Rocky Mountains and as the capital city of Colorado. It also has an excellent system of parks and natural areas that make it possible to find nature right in town.
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Lizard Head TrailAbove the road between Rico and Telluride, in the remote southwest San Juans, there rises a spectacular spire of rock that reminded its namers of a reptile's head.
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La Plata TrailThis is a land whose great diversity is sorted into layers from the bottom of the mountain to the top. Down low, in the deserts around the floor of Mesa Verde, the land grows mostly shrubby and spiky plants, like prickly pear and saltbush, which are home to equally spiny creatures, like the short-horned lizard.
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Kingbird TrailThose visiting Denver with a hankering to experience the high plains need look no farther. This trail is full of fresh air from start to finish.
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Headwaters TrailThis trail follows the upper portions of the Arkansas from its origins above treeline down to pinyon-juniper covered hills and shallow canyons.
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Gunnison Sage-Grouse TrailThe Gunnison Sage-Grouse is a special bird. Formally described by science only in 2000, it evaded detection for decades because people looked at it without seeing it-they assumed all sage grouse were the same.
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Greenhorn TrailIn the shadow of Greenhorn Mountain, the beacon peak that anchors the southern end of the Wet Mountain range, this trail highlights a part of Southeast Colorado that is off the beaten path, but not remote.
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Greater Prairie-Chicken TrailWhooping and cackling like fiends, leaping into the air and puffing out their inflatable necks like frogs, the male Greater Prairie-Chickens put on a show each spring unrivaled in the animal kingdom.
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Grand Valley TrailGrand Junction, the largest town on Colorado's West Slope, sits at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers at the foot of soaring redrock mesas sculpted by wind and water into dramatic shapes.
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Grand Mesa TrailEast of Grand Junction, the Grand Mesa is an astonishing place. Here, nearly 500 square miles of pristine forest have been lifted some 5,000 feet above the surrounding terrain, creating what some call the largest flat-topped mountain in the world.
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Fruitgrowers TrailThis trail takes its name from Fruitgrowers Reservoir, the best place on the West Slope of Colorado to see waterbirds, from huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes to squadrons of shorebirds and flotillas of ducks.
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Flatirons TrailThanks to decades of open space preservation and land conservation, the Boulder area is packed with places to view wildlife. Boulderites love the outdoors, and if you come to visit, you’ll immediately see why.
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Flat Tops TrailEven among native Coloradans, the Flat Tops are a well-kept secret. Flat though their tops may be, these impressive mountains are the centerpiece of the second-largest wilderness area in the state.
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Elkhead TrailCarved out of the extreme northwestern corner of Colorado, Moffat County is a sprawling quadrangle nearly the size of Connecticut with fewer than 15,000 human residents, most of them in the town of Craig.
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Eagle TrailWest of Vail Pass, the Colorado River and Interstate 70 come together to wind through the heart of the Rocky Mountains, where Bald Eagles spend the winter fishing in the fast-moving water.
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Dinosaur TrailAlmost everywhere in this dry landscape is evidence of the ancient past. The colorful sandstone in this region encases some of America\'s richest and most famous fossil beds, the namesake of Dinosaur National Monument and its nearest town.
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Comanche TrailSome places on the plains are an acquired taste, but this is not one of them. This is what Southeast Colorado is all about.
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Castlewood TrailJust south and west of Denver are some “roads less traveled” that traverse scenic canyons, oak scrublands, conifer forests, and old burn scars in the foothills. This trail is for those who want to get off the beaten path without traveling far.
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Canyon of the Ancients TrailThe Four Corners country may be the best place in the state to experience a true natural quiet. Here, inside national monuments called Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients, below red-rock cliffs and desert mesas, you will have the rare opportunity to get away from human sounds.
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Cache la Poudre TrailThis trail, based in Fort Collins, allows easy access to almost every habitat in northern Colorado, from high-elevation forest to high-quality shortgrass prairie. Some of the sites here are right in the middle of town; some are breathtakingly remote.
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Browns Park TrailIt's five hours to Browns Park from Denver by car, but it might as well be fifty. The few people who venture as far as the state's northwesternmost corner are richly rewarded.
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Blanca TrailBlanca Peak was known to the Navajo as the sacred peak of the East, one of the four holy mountains that bounded and guarded their nation.
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Black Swift TrailThe Black Swift is legendarily difficult to observe, but in summer, here in the heart of Colorado\'s San Juan Mountains, a sighting is virtually guaranteed.
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Black Canyon TrailWhere the Gunnison River comes tumbling out of the mountains, it gurgles through deciduous bottomland forests that seem to have been transplanted straight from New England, complete with Least Flycatchers and the occasional Veery.
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