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

Hovenweep is a certified dark-sky park for night skies

Hovenweep National Monument, spanning the Colorado-Utah line west of Cortez, is a certified International Dark Sky Park where very low light pollution makes for clear star viewing.

Outdoors and wildfire

Kiowa Creek Open Space is a future creek-corridor park

Kiowa Creek Open Space is not open yet: cattle still graze a prairie-to-creek landscape being shaped for future low-impact recreation.

Outdoors and wildfire

Legion Park frames the Flatirons fading into prairie

A small hilltop park where the Flatirons rise to the west and the mountains fade into prairie grasslands north and south, all in one view.

Outdoors and wildfire

Mud Lake is the gentle Nederland side of county open space

Mud Lake near Nederland offers short, easy loops through pond and forest, with day use, leashed dogs, and bikes on designated trails.

Outdoors and wildfire

Mule Gulch is part of Arapahoe County's West Bijou conservation story

Mule Gulch Open Space is a 929-acre conserved property near Byers tying dryland wheat, shortgrass prairie, and cottonwoods to the West Bijou drainage.

Outdoors and wildfire

Pella Crossing is a wetland repair story you can walk through

Pella Crossing looks like an easy pond walk, but its ponds carry beaver management, wetland work, and a native fish nursery.

Outdoors and wildfire

Sand Lily Park is a small walk-in open space on Mexico Drive

Sand Lily Park is a 4.5-acre walk-in open space off Mexico Drive and Parker Road, with a half-mile gravel loop, a picnic table, and no parking lot.

Outdoors and wildfire

St. Vrain State Park is a chain of ponds for fishing and birds

St. Vrain State Park in Firestone, in Weld County, is a cluster of ponds known for close-up birding and stocked pond fishing, with camping along the water.

Outdoors and wildfire

Steward J. Adams Education Site puts grassland learning at Crow Valley

In Crow Valley, the Steward J. Adams Education Site honors an educator who valued the grassland and gives the prairie a teaching purpose.

Outdoors and wildfire

The Plains Conservation Center protects real shortgrass prairie in east Aurora

On Aurora's eastern edge, the Plains Conservation Center preserves shortgrass prairie where you can see pronghorn, prairie dogs, and raptors, and it is tied to the West Bijou geology site to the east.

Outdoors and wildfire

The Poudre River Trail can be a slow storybook ride

Volunteer-piloted trishaw rides carry riders along a quiet stretch of the Poudre River Trail, opening it to people who can't go alone.

Outdoors and wildfire

The Rainbow Trail runs along the range just below the wilderness

The long Rainbow Trail traces the base of the Sangre de Cristo Range past Westcliffe, open to hikers, horses, bikes, and motorcycles but not full-size off-road vehicles.

Outdoors and wildfire

The Rio Grande State Wildlife Area near Monte Vista: a quiet, birdy river stretch with a season and a pass

The Rio Grande State Wildlife Area near Monte Vista is a peaceful riverside spot for birds and wildlife. It is open part of the year and needs a license or SWA pass, both easy to plan for once you know.

Outdoors and wildfire

Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge sits in the valley south of Walden

The Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge protects high-mountain wetlands and sagebrush south of Walden, with a self-guided auto tour route and a short nature trail for watching birds and other wildlife.

Outdoors and wildfire

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens: a free walk through alpine plants at 8,200 feet

Vail's Ford Park holds a high-elevation botanical garden of alpine plants that you can stroll for free, dawn to dusk, all year.

Outdoors and wildfire

Bijou Basin Open Space protects rolling prairie before it opens

Bijou Basin Open Space holds 2,800-plus acres of shortgrass prairie and 3.5 miles of West Bijou Creek, closed to the public for now.

Outdoors and wildfire

Bodo State Wildlife Area is winter range, not a city park

Bodo State Wildlife Area just outside Durango is managed for deer and elk, needs a hunting or fishing license or SWA pass to enter, and closes to the public in winter.

Outdoors and wildfire

Broncos Parkway Trailhead has a living-roof shelter

Broncos Parkway Trailhead opens onto the Cherry Creek Regional Trail under a shelter roofed in living succulents that double as green shingles.

Outdoors and wildfire

Brower SWA is a small Weld County wildlife parcel

Brower State Wildlife Area is a small CPW property in Weld County open for hunting, fishing, and camping under current state rules.

Outdoors and wildfire

Coyote Ridge is where Fort Collins meets the foothills

Coyote Ridge Natural Area is the visible seam where Fort Collins, prairie, and foothills meet, with connected trails and wide Front Range views.

Outdoors and wildfire

Crested Butte, the Wildflower Capital of Colorado

The Colorado legislature named Crested Butte the state's Wildflower Capital in 1990, and the valley's summer meadows back up the title.

Outdoors and wildfire

Daniels Park: Denver's bison preserve on a Douglas County rim

A high-plains rim near Sedalia where a live bison herd grazes below one of Colorado's widest views, all on the only Denver Mountain Park in Douglas County.

Outdoors and wildfire

Dispersed camping on the White River forest has real limits

Free dispersed camping is allowed on much of the White River National Forest around Glenwood Springs, but stay limits, distance-from-water rules, and area restrictions apply, so it is not camp-anywhere.

Outdoors and wildfire

Durango's trailheads start at the edge of downtown

Durango's natural-surface trail systems begin minutes from Main Avenue, free and open to bikes, hikers, and horses alike.

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