Best Small Towns
Ouray. The town has a well-regarded hometown museum, an ice climbing festival, and Jeep drives in the nearby mountains. For more information, click here.
Salida. A sporty small town with a large historic district, galleries, and local food and wine, which hosts fibARK, a major whitewater celebration. For more information, click here.
Creede. A remote former mining town, with an award-winning theater company and a majestic setting deep in the San Juan Mountains. For more information, click here.
Glenwood Springs. The popular hot springs and spa and the historic Denver and Colorado hotels are an easy drive or train ride from Denver. For more information, click here.
Boulder. Home to the University of Colorado, alternative healers and scientists, and the top farmers’ market in Colorado, within view of Denver. For more information, click here.
Crested Butte. Birthplace of fat tire biking and some of the state’s quirkiest festivals, this mining town turned ski resort exudes Central Rockies charm. For more information, click here.
Paonia. Urban refugees, creatives, outdoorsmen, and farmers cluster in this little town in the scenic North Fork Valley near Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. For more information, click here.
Washboard music.
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Best Nature Viewing
Rocky Mountain National Park. Visit during the fall rutting season to view elk bugling and bighorn sheep butting heads in a competition for mates. For more information, click here.
San Luis Valley. Two national wildlife refuges on the Rio Grande attract migratory elk, bison herds, and thousands of sandhill cranes in winter. For more information, click here.
Comanche National Grasslands. A nationally significant birding area, southeastern Colorado’s prairies host unique prairie chicken mating dances at the birds’ leks in May. For more information, click here.
San Juan Mountains. The remote San Juans may still support grizzly bears and have been the site of a successful reintroduction of lynx. For more information, click here.
Yampa Valley Birding. The Yampa River near Steamboat Springs is an important birding area, home to catbirds, orioles among others, and river otters and mink. For more information, click here.
Best Cultural Attractions
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. Relive the days of the Santa Fe Trail at this former rendezvous for mountain men, traders, and travelers in southeastern Colorado. For more information, click here.
The Matchless Mine, Leadville. The ghost of Baby Doe Tabor, penniless widow of Matchless Mine millionaire Horace Tabor, haunts this old cabin in Leadville. For more information, click here.
Denver Art Museum, Hamilton Expansion. One of Denver’s most photographed new buildings, this shiny geometric DAM expansion was designed by Polish-born architect Daniel Libeskind. For more information, click here.
Anasazi Heritage Center, Dolores. This state-of-the-art research center and museum holds millions of Ancestral Pueblo artifacts excavated from the Dolores River area prior to damming. For more information, click here.
Hovenweep National Monument, Cajone Mesa. An outlier of Mesa Verde, Hovenweep protects unusual towers and structures on Cajone Mesa, the most archeologically rich area in the country. For more information, click here.
Best Scenic Drives
Tabegauche-Unaweep Scenic Byway. This little-traveled highway along Colorado’s western edge, where mountains meet red rocks, has mining ghosts, nature preserves, and rocky canyons. For more information, click here.
Silver Thread Scenic Byway, Wolf Pass to Lake City. A lonesome highway connects the artsy mining town of Creede, the headwaters of the Rio Grande, and a Victorian belle, Lake City. For more information, click here.
San Juan Skyway, between Silverton and Ouray. Linking two popular small towns, this segment of the highway crosses Red Mountain Pass and has views that will make you feel like a million dollars. For more information, click here.
Lookout Mountain Park, Lariat Loop Scenic Byway. Visit Buffalo Bill’s Gravesite and Museum at this popular scenic drive near Golden. For more information, click here.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Scenic Drive. Enjoy light on schist from overlooks above this 2,000ft (610-meter) deep, dark, narrow canyon carved by the Gunnison River. For more information, click here.
Alpine Loop Jeep Trail. This classic four-wheel drive leaves Ouray and heads over Engineer Pass to the ghost town Capitol City and Lake City. For more information, click here.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Best Outdoor Activities
Mountain biking in Colorado National Monument. A mountain biking mecca set amid spectacularly carved red rock canyons along the Colorado River, west of Grand Junction. For more information, click here.
Rafting the Yampa River through Dinosaur National Monument. The confluencing Yampa and Green rivers attract river runners through Echo Canyon, scene of an anti-damming environmental victory in the 1960s. For more information, click here.
Climbing the Flatirons. The distinctive reddish upended blades of this formation are a major Boulder landmark and a popular destination for climbers. For more information, click here.
Skiing at Steamboat Springs. This cowboy-oriented ski resort’s light, frothy Champagne powder and a renovated ski village attract winter sports enthusiasts to its runs each year. For more information, click here.
Hiking Maroon Bells−Snowmass Wilderness. Twin peaks reflected in a mirror lake attract photographers and hikers escaping the hip scene in nearby Aspen. For more information, click here.
Mountain climbing safely.
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