Topic
Outdoors and wildfire
Hunting and fishing rules, trails, rivers, camping, winter sports, dark skies, and wildfire risk and defensible space — the public-land side of Colorado life.
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Local notes
More outdoors and wildfire notes
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Outdoors and wildfire
Betasso Preserve is where Boulder County open space got its start
Betasso Preserve, west of Boulder, began as the county's first open-space purchase: ranch land bought from Ernie Betasso in 1976.
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Bighorn sheep on the rocks west of Colorado Springs
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep live in the steep, rocky country of the Pikes Peak region west of Colorado Springs, and they are best watched from a distance.
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Billy Creek is a wildlife area, not a park, with a seasonal closure
Billy Creek State Wildlife Area along the Uncompahgre corridor is managed for wildlife, so most of it closes part of the year and a license or SWA pass is required to enter.
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Birdwalk Trailhead turns Crow Valley into a listening walk
Birdwalk Trailhead is a short walk across a dry creek into Crow Valley cottonwoods, busiest with birds during spring and fall migration.
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Bonny is now a wildlife area, and the lake is much smaller than the maps show
The old Bonny Lake State Park on the Republican River became South Republican State Wildlife Area, so the rules and the reservoir itself are not what older maps suggest.
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Byers Peak Wilderness rises right above the Fraser Valley
Byers Peak Wilderness sits in the Arapaho National Forest above Fraser, and reaching its high trails takes a long forest-road approach.
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Caribou Ranch mixes high meadows, wetlands, and mining traces
Caribou Ranch is a high montane open space above Nederland, mixing forests, meadows, wetlands, streams, abundant wildlife, and old mining traces.
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Carolyn Holmberg Preserve keeps farm country in the suburbs
Carolyn Holmberg Preserve at Rock Creek Farm keeps a working farm-and-lake landscape and its wildlife between fast-growing southeast Boulder County suburbs.
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Dispersed camping on the White River forest is not camp-anywhere
Free dispersed camping on the White River National Forest around Eagle County follows real rules: use existing sites near open roads, stay setbacks from water, pack everything out, and watch the stay limit.
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Elk and bighorn sheep share the Jeffco foothills with people
Elk and bighorn sheep live in Jefferson County's foothills and canyons, and the rule for watching either one is to keep your distance and never feed them.
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Garfield Creek State Wildlife Area protects elk and closes in winter
Garfield Creek State Wildlife Area south of New Castle is elk winter range, so it closes to the public for much of the year and requires a license or wildlife-area pass to enter.
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Hall Ranch is Boulder County's sandstone-and-grassland classroom
Near Lyons, Hall Ranch trades dark high forest for rolling grassland, sandstone buttes, wildflowers, and wide foothill views.
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Heil Valley Ranch layers foothills, ranch history, and recovery
Heil Valley Ranch holds prehistoric sites, old ranch buildings, a meadow silo, and the scars of the 2020 Cal-Wood Fire in one place.
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James Peak Wilderness: a wild corner of Gilpin County with strict rules
The James Peak Wilderness reaches into western Gilpin County, and as designated wilderness it bans campfires, bikes, and motors, with leashed pets and small group sizes.
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Jumbo Reservoir near Julesburg is a State Wildlife Area, not a park
The plains reservoir west of Julesburg, near Crook, is managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife as a State Wildlife Area, which carries its own access and pass rules.
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Lagerman Reservoir keeps a rural edge near Longmont
Lagerman Agricultural Preserve near Longmont protects a quiet reservoir, wetlands, and farm-edge open space, a different side of Boulder County.
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Long's Pine Grove gives Four Square Mile a little shade and skyline
Long's Pine Grove is a 3.7-acre Four Square Mile park with mature pines, Front Range views, picnic areas, play space, and High Line Canal access.
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Mancos State Park is a small, wakeless lake in the ponderosa pines
Just north of Mancos, Mancos State Park surrounds Jackson Gulch Reservoir, a wakeless lake for paddling and quiet boating with year-round trout fishing and forest campsites.
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Niver Creek Trail is a small Welby-to-South-Platte connector
The Niver Creek Trail runs from Washington Street east along Coronado Parkway to the South Platte near Steele Street Park in Welby.
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North Routt is moose country, and moose deserve a wide berth
The willow bottoms and forests of north Routt County around the Elk River and Steamboat Lake are good places to see moose, which are large and can be dangerous up close.
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O'Fallon Park helps stitch together the Bear Creek corridor
O'Fallon Park's 860 acres link Corwina and Pence parks into one protected Bear Creek corridor of trails, habitat, and foothills shade.
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Quincy Reservoir is a quiet, flies-and-lures-only fishing lake
Quincy Reservoir in Arapahoe County is a small City of Aurora lake managed for quality fishing, where only artificial flies and lures are allowed and gas motors are not.
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Rabbit Mountain marks the foothills reaching out onto the plains
At Ron Stewart Preserve, Rabbit Mountain marks the easternmost point of Boulder County's foothills, where rock meets the open plains.
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Sandhill cranes pass through the San Luis Valley each spring and fall
Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes stop in the San Luis Valley during spring and fall migration, best viewed at dawn and dusk from nearby wildlife refuges and state wildlife areas.
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