Rocky Mountains

North Park Trail

A Taste of the North

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. This is one of the best areas in Colorado to see moose, lekking Greater Sage-Grouse, breeding colonies of waterbirds such as Eared Grebe and Franklin’s Gull, and the elusive Boreal Owl. In summer, the willow-lined creek bottoms provide homes for nesting Veeries and Slate-colored Fox Sparrows. In winter, the landscape takes on the stark beauty of areas far closer to the Arctic Circle, attracting cold-weather wanderers such as all three species of rosy-finches and, rarely, Gyrfalcons. Among Coloradans, North Park has a reputation as a wildlife watcher’s paradise, and the reputation is well deserved.