Region
The Western Slope
West of the Continental Divide, the water runs toward the Colorado River and the land opens into mesas, canyons, and orchard valleys. This is the quieter, sunnier side of the state. It includes Grand Junction and the wine-and-peach country around Palisade, the San Juan mining towns, Durango and the Four Corners, and the gateways to the Black Canyon and Mesa Verde. Questions here turn on irrigation shares and domestic wells, public-land boundaries, and a geography where the nearest big town can be a long drive away.
The places
Grand Junction
The Western Slope's largest city sits among peaches, wine, red-rock canyons, and river country.
Open the place page ->Durango
A railroad town on the Animas, basecamp for the San Juans and the narrow-gauge to Silverton.
Open the place page ->Montrose
The Uncompahgre Valley's hub connects irrigation country, the Ute museum, and the gateway to the Black Canyon.
Open the place page ->Telluride
A silver camp in a box canyon, now a festival-and-ski town under 13,000-foot walls.
Open the place page ->Ouray
Known as the 'Switzerland of America,' this box-canyon town is famous for hot springs and ice climbing.
Open the place page ->Silverton
The highest county seat in Colorado and the end of the narrow-gauge line from Durango.
Open the place page ->Cortez
The Montezuma Valley hub and gateway to Mesa Verde and the Ancestral Puebloan country.
Open the place page ->Glenwood Springs
The great hot springs on the Colorado River, where I-70 meets the Roaring Fork.
Open the place page ->Browse by county
Every address in this corner belongs to a county. Start with that county page when a town does not yet have a full guide; it gathers the local rules, rates, and notes tied to the county.
Notes from this corner
The small stories and useful rules tied to this part of Colorado.
Why peaches thrive at Palisade: a warm river-valley pocket
The orchards around Palisade sit in a warm, sheltered pocket of the Grand Valley along the Colorado River, a combination of climate and soil that supports Colorado's stone-fruit growing.
Read the note ->At Mesa Verde, the cliff dwellings need a ranger tour and a reservation
Entering Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings generally requires a ranger-led tour you reserve ahead of time, so the famous sites take a little planning.
Read the note ->The Gunnison Tunnel: why the Montrose valley is farmland
A 5.8-mile tunnel bored under Vernal Mesa from 1905 to 1909 still carries Gunnison River water that turns the dry Uncompahgre Valley into Montrose's farm country.
Read the note ->Ruby-Horsethief: a calm Colorado River float that needs a camping permit
The Ruby-Horsethief stretch of the Colorado River from Loma toward Westwater is mostly flatwater, but overnight camping there requires a reserved BLM permit year-round.
Read the note ->Durango exists because of a railroad and the mines it served
The narrow-gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton was built to move ore from the San Juan mines, and it helps explain why Durango sits where it does.
Read the note ->Why so many things near Grand Junction say 'Grand'
Grand Junction, the Grand Valley, and Grand Mesa carry a name from the river that was once called the Grand before it became part of the Colorado River.
Read the note ->The Western Slope porch kit
Where to next
See the other corners at Explore Colorado, browse all 64 counties and the places with full guides in the place directory, or wander the stories in the Almanac.
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