The Prairie

Colorful sandstone hoodoos stand above a dry wash at the Calhan Paint Mines (hike 2).

The wide, expansive prairie, stretching east from Colorado Springs to the Kansas border, is a Great Plains landscape of undulating hills broken by rocky bluffs and cottonwood-lined water courses. Much of the short-grass prairie near the Springs, once populated by vast herds of bison and migrating Native Americans, is now privately owned and divided into 5-acre ranchettes. Some exquisite pockets of prairie, however, offer scenic and unusual trails in both county and city parklands.