The year 2011 was a big year for the Colorado National Monument, and a big year for us. My husband and I celebrated 5 years while we visited Colorado National Monument, and Colorado National Monument celebrated 100 years thanks to John Otto, who was the first custodian of Colorado National Monument.
In 1907, Otto wrote, “I [...]
Far southwestern Colorado is synonymous with archeology, cliff houses and Native American history. But visitors don’t need to follow packed tours and camera-toting masses to experience the area’s wealth of Ancestral Puebloan culture.
Just west of Dolores, the Anasazi Heritage Center makes a great preface for a trip through the region. The center features special and [...]
The distant thunderhead was towering high enough to scrape the moon, which hung in the sky like a silver kite. The onset of dusk painted the westerly side of the storm vermilion; the lightning flashes and thunder-quakes tickled our senses like little chemical jolts, visceral but evanescent.
“Shouldn’t we, um, take cover?” asked my companion, a [...]
Long before tourists arrived, a lone Englishwoman explored the vastness of what is now Rocky Mountain National Park.
Isabella Bird’s sojourn here came in the fall and early winter of 1873, not long after the mountain man and before the first pioneers built ranches here. She recorded her impressions in a book, A Lady’s Life in [...]
At 14,264 feet, Mount Evans is one of Colorado’s most well-known peaks and is part of the vast Mount Evans Wilderness, whose boundaries start about 35 miles west of Denver. With 74,400 acres stretching from Echo Lake to Grant, the wilderness is a great place to forget about the city and enjoy some high-altitude trails.
Above [...]
For some people, the word jig conjures images of pubs on St. Patrick’s Day — guys drunk on green beer and dancing to Irish folk songs. To bike aficionados, it’s an integral frame building tool. But to Don Ferris, self-proclaimed geek and owner of Littleton’s Anvil Bikeworks, “a jig sounds like something made out of [...]
Beyond the sleepy hamlet of Lake City, pavement ends and the forest road I follow turns to dirt. Mountains define our state and provide its identity. Within Colorado’s rectangular borders, the Rockies thrust their highest summits. Peaks form backdrops for our cities, provide venues for our recreation, control our weather, capture our water and furnish [...]
Hikers in Telluride can journey to Bridal Veil Falls for spectacular views and also learn a little about the history of the small town tucked deep into Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.
The onetime mining town sits at an 8,750-foot elevation and is surrounded on three sides by steep peaks. The trail to the top of Bridal [...]
High in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Colorado River is a mere ribbon of water as it starts flowing westward, gathering momentum, breadth and depth on the descent.
The Colorado River Headwaters Scenic and Historic Byway accompanies this treasured water source for about 80 miles of its 1,450-mile journey to the Gulf of California. As the [...]
One of Colorado’s most celebrated products is also one of its most unexpected: Colorado Hybrid Striped Bass. These sustainably farmed fish are favorites of chefs and fish mongers for their mild, versatile flavor, thick fillets and firm, flaky texture.
Tyler and Rochelle Faucette, proprietors of Colorado Catch, supply fresh whole hybrid striped bass to distributors in [...]
