Colorado National Parks

Colorado national parks offered rest and commerce for those moving west while narrow and deep canyons, plateaus and monolithic formations provided a stunning backdrop. If one looks closer you can find the remnants from the age of dinosaurs and ancient architecture and cultures.

 Visit These Colorado National Parks:

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site: Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site features a reconstructed 1840’s adobe fur trading post on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail where traders, trappers, travelers, and Plains Indian tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. Today, living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and smells of the past with guided tours, demonstrations, and special events. 

Bent's Old Fort Weather     Bent's Old Fort Ratings

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: The Black Canyon of the Gunnison's unique and spectacular landscape was formed slowly by the action of water and rock scouring down through hard Proterozoic crystalline rock. No other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and startling depths offered by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison Weather     Black Canyon of the Gunnison Ratings

California National Historic Trail: The road to California carried over 250,000 gold-seekers & farmers to the gold fields & rich farmlands of California during the 1840's and 1850's - the greatest mass migration in American history. More than 1,000 miles of trail ruts and traces can still be seen in the vast undeveloped west – reminders of the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs of early American travelers and settlers.

California Trail Ratings

Colorado National Monument: Colorado National Monument preserves one of the grand landscapes of the American West. Sheer-walled canyons, towering monoliths, colorful formations, desert bighorn sheep, soaring eagles, and a spectacular road reflect the environment and history of the plateau-and-canyon country.  

Colorado Monument Weather     Colorado Monument Ratings

Curecanti National Recreation Area: Three reservoirs, named for corresponding dams on the Gunnison River, form the heart of Curecanti. Blue Mesa Reservoir is Colorado's largest body of water, and is the largest Kokanee Salmon fishery in the U.S. Morrow Point Reservoir is the beginning of the Black Canyon, and below, East Portal is the site of the Gunnison Diversion Tunnel, a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Curecanti Weather     Curecanti Ratings

Dinosaur National Monument: As you explore the craggy hills, discover fragments of a long ago world where the largest land creatures of all time once roamed and died. While the main exhibit wall of dinosaur fossils is closed, some fossils can be seen by hiking 1/2 mile from the Temporary Visitor Center. You can also view rock art and captivating scenery, explore homestead sites, and go whitewater rafting.

Dinosaur Weather     Dinosaur Ratings

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument: Beneath a grassy mountain valley in central Colorado lies one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world. Petrified redwood stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of detailed fossils of insects and plants reveal the story of a very different, prehistoric Colorado.

Florissant Fossil Beds Weather     Florissant Fossil Beds Ratings

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve: Alpine tundra, forests, massive dunes, grasslands, and wetlands are all protected as elements of the Great Sand Dunes natural system.

Great Sand Dunes Weather     Great Sand Dunes Ratings

Hovenweep National Monument: Hovenweep National Monument protects six prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border. Multi-storied towers perched on canyon rims and balanced on boulders lead visitors to marvel at the skill and motivation of their builders. Hovenweep is noted for its solitude and undeveloped, natural character.

Hovenweep Weather     Hovenweep Ratings

Mesa Verde National Park: Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

Mesa Verde Weather     Mesa Verde Ratings

Old Spanish National Historic Trail: Take a journey across the Southwest on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles for history, culture, and scenic beauty.

Old Spanish Trail Ratings

Pony Express National Historic Trail: The legend of the "the Pony," as it was affectionately known, may overshadow its brief history, but the bold founders and brave riders of the Pony Express helped spread important news, shrink a continent, and bind a nation that was being torn apart by civil war.

Life of the Pony Express Riders: Hires ranged from teenagers to about age 40. Weight restrictions were strict.

History of Mail Delivery Before and After the Pony Express:  Officially the Pony Express ceased operations with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph on October 26, 1861. The Pony made its last run on November 20, 1861. It completed some 300 runs each way over 600,000 miles and carried more than 33,000 pieces of mail.

Pony Express Ratings

Rocky Mountain National Park: This living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, with elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak, provides visitors with opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures.

Rocky Mountain Weather     Rocky Mountain Ratings

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site: Its victims numbered in the hundreds.  Cheyenne and Arapaho survivors were displaced, relocated to Indian Territory. Its aftermath included congressional investigations, bitter critics and staunch defenders - reprisal, revenge, the mustering out of a Colonel, and the resignation of a Governor.

Sand Creek Massacre Weather

Santa Fe National Historic Trail: The Santa Fe Trail of the US National Parks stirs imaginations as few other historic trails can. For 60 years the Trail - weaving through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri - was one thread through the tallgrass prairie in a web of international trade routes. It influenced economies as far away as New York and London. Spanning 900 miles of the Great Plains prairie between the United States (Missouri) and Mexico (Santa Fe), it brought together a cultural mosaic of individuals who cooperated – and at times clashed.

Yucca House National Monument: Yucca House National Monument is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan surface site. Yucca House is located in Southwest Colorado between the towns of Towaoc and Cortez. Currently, there are no facilities or fees at Yucca House.

Yucca House Weather