It'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.
The 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.
Almost 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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
Trails
Browns Park
It'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.
Canyon of the Ancients
The 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.
Dinosaur
Almost 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.
Fruitgrowers
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.
Grand Valley
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.
La Plata
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.
Uncompahgre
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."