The 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.

The 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.

Famous for its whitewater rafting, the Arkansas Canyon offers an amazing variety of wildlife viewing opportunities in a spectacular setting.

This 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.

Along this trail lie a rich collection of parks and pathways that allow astonishing nature study right inside the metro area.

Everyone 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."

Among Colorado birders, this area of Prowers and northern Baca Counties is nearly synonymous with migration.

For 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.

The 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.

Following 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.

Only 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.

The playa lakes and manmade reservoirs of this section of Southeast Colorado are magnets for waterbirds of every stripe.

Tracing 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.

The 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.

The 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.

The Roaring Fork River crashes down out of the West Elk Mountains towards the Colorado River, carving out a beautiful mountain valley as it goes.

The 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.

The 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.

The Arkansas River Valley is so thickly packed with top-notch places to view wildlife that it sometimes boggles the traveler's mind.

Thanks 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.

Of all the wonderful places hidden in Southeast Colorado, this trail might just run right past the most surprises.

The "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.

Named for the shallow prairie lakes that appear and disappear with the unpredictable rains, the Playa Trail showcases ephemeral beauties.

This trail is is quintessential Colorado, offering visitors a variety of wildlife watching opportunities all within a stones throw to Colorado Springs.

The 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.

The 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.

This 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.

North 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.

Denver, 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.

To follow this trail is to see the mountains’ highlight reel, with birds to match. This is the Colorado on your postcards.

Above 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.

This 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.

Those 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.

This trail follows the upper portions of the Arkansas from its origins above treeline down to pinyon-juniper covered hills and shallow canyons.

The 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.

In 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.

Whooping 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.

Grand 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.

East 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.

Here at the start of the river that carved the Grand Canyon lies an easy-to-reach taste of Colorado's West Slope.

This 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.

Thanks 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.

Even 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.

Carved 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.

West 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.