Why Colorado's northeast corner looks like desert: the Wray sandhills and Arikaree River

If the far corner of Yuma County feels drier and stranger than the rest of the plains, there’s a reason. Much of it sits on old sand dunes. The Colorado Native Plant Society describes how these dunes gradually stabilized into vegetated sand hills, held in place by a low silver-green shrub called sand sage. The Wray Dune Field is one of the largest stretches of this shrubland in the state.

Sand sage is built for a hard place. The Native Plant Society notes it can survive on as little as eight inches of rain a year, sending a tap root down as far as nine feet to reach moisture. The Colorado Birding Trail simply calls this northeast corner a mix of desert and prairie, which is why it holds animals you’d expect farther south alongside grassland birds, including most of Colorado’s greater prairie-chickens.

You can actually walk into it. Near the Kansas line, the Beecher Island area follows the Arikaree River, where mature cottonwoods shade a quiet riverbottom. The Colorado Birding Trail describes a one-mile nature trail there that passes through native sandsage prairie, river bluffs, and trees, with a picnic area in the cottonwood grove. It’s private land that allows public access, open year-round at no charge.

Check the Colorado Birding Trail’s Beecher Island Area page for directions and current access before you go.