Rocky Mountains

Elkhead Trail

The Northwest Passage

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. This trail cuts through the heart of it, weaving across a diverse and dramatic landscape of sagebrush steppe sliced through by canyons large and small. It rises as high as the spruce-covered crest of the Elkhead Mountains and drops as low as the lush cottonwood bottomlands along the Yampa River. Three species of lekking grouse in spring, nesting Sandhill Cranes in summer, and one of the state’s densest populations of deer and elk make this an excellent place for wildlife watchers in any season.