Colorado

Scenic Byways

• Alpine Loop – Scenic and Historic Byway, Lake City – Crosses the remote, rugged heart of the San Juan Mountains.
• Cache La Poudre/North Park – Scenic And Historic Byway, Fort Collins – Follow the Cache la Poudre river as you drive this scenic byway that connects Fort Collins to North Park.
• Collegiate Peaks – Scenic and Historic Byway, Salida – This paved 57-mile route parallels the Continental Divide at the foot of the Sawatch Range.
• Colorado River Headwaters Scenic and Historic Byway, Granby – Follows the Colorado River from Grand Lake to State Bridge.
• Dinosaur Diamond – Scenic and Historic Byway, Rangely – 512 miles of amazing historic and pre historic towns, outdoor recreation and national treasures, through Colorado and Utah. Stunning scenery, fossil quarries, and museums are clustered along this National Scenic Byway.
• Flat Tops Trail – Scenic and Historic Byway, Yampa – Winding its way through lush river valleys, the Flat Tops Trail byway skirts the bountiful Flat Tops Wilderness, climbs over two of the state’s least-traveled passes and is bookended by the authentic ranching towns of Yampa and Meeker.
• Frontier Pathways – Scenic and Historic Byway, Pueblo – State and National Byway that runs through Pueblo and Custer Counties.
• Gold Belt Tour – Scenic and Historic Byway, Cañon City – Tours the communities of Cripple Creek, Victor, Canon City, Florence and Florissant. Enjoy the rustic roads, visit museums, see historic gold camps, fossils and much more.
• Grand Mesa – Scenic and Historic Byway, Cedaredge – The byway climbs through Plateau Creek to cool evergreen forests.
• Guanella Pass Scenic & Historic Byway, County Road 62, Grant – Follows an old wagon trail used by miners traveling between Georgetown and Grant. Gold lured miners and others to the area, but it was silver that brought prosperity to the valley. Today, visitors may explore this 22-mile route by car, and/or hike the many area trails.
• Highway of Legends – Scenic and Historic Byway, Trinidad –
• Independence Pass, Leadville – See the sun rise and set over 12,095-foot Independence Pass. A trip over the pass is a visual feast with vistas of wildflowers, thick forests and ample wildlife. This portion of highway is also incorporated into the Top of the Rockies Scenic and Historic Byway.
• The Lariat Loop, Golden – a 40-mile route where you can experience the thrill of the state’s beautiful foothills. Colorado’s first gateways to the mountains still have sharp curves, spectacular views, and waysides to refresh and delight the traveler.
• Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic and Historic Byway, Fort Garland – traverses the cradle of the San Luis Valley. This route takes you through historic Colorado and along the scenic route that goes by the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Some stops include San Luis which is Colorado’s oldest town and Ft. Garland Museum. This scenic drive offers many great stops to capture fall colors. To start the route head south on Hwy 285 from Alamosa and join the route from the town of Manassa which is home to the famous boxer Jack Dempsey. Maps of this route are available in the Colorado Welcome Center in Alamosa.
• Million Dollar Highway, Ouray – Offering breathtaking mountain, valley and gorge views, the Million Dollar Highway cost a reported million dollars a mile to build. The road winds and clings to the mountain providing dramatic view at every turn. Part of the San Juan Skyway Colorado Scenic Byway.
• Mount Blue Sky – Scenic and Historic Byway, Idaho Springs – One of the best places to catch a glimpse of bighorn sheep.
• Mount Evans Scenic Byway – a breathtaking route located in Clear Creek and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. This scenic byway is both a National Forest Scenic Byway and a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway. It spans approximately 49 miles and offers an unforgettable journey through the Rocky Mountains
• Pawnee Pioneer Trails – Scenic and Historic Byway, Greeley – This byway traverses the rugged Colorado Piedmont.
• Peak To Peak Scenic and Historic Byway, Boulder – Views of the Continental Divide and its timbered approaches.
• San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway and the Million Dollar Highway – The San Juan Skyway is a 236-mile loop through the majestic San Juan Mountains in Colorado. Includes Durango, Silverton, US Route 550 (Million Dollar Highway), Ouray, Ridgway, Telluride, Cortez, and Mesa Verde National Park.
• San Juan Skyway – Scenic and Historic Byway, Durango – one of the most scenic drives in America, spanning elevations from 6,200 feet near Cortez to 11,008 feet at Red Mountain Pass.
• Silver Thread Scenic and Historic Byway, Creede – Weaves past valleys and peaks in the San Juan Mountains connecting the towns of South Fork, Creede and Lake City and ending at Blue Mesa reservoir. Encounter astounding geological formations, abundant wildlife, and much of Colorado’s early history along the way.
• The South Platte River Trail, Julesburg – is the shortest of all the Colorado Scenic and Historic Byways, but the longest on history. Start and end your auto tour at the Colorado Welcome Center at Julesburg!
• Top of the Rockies – Scenic and Historic Byway, Red Cliff
• Tracks Across Borders Scenic & Historic Byway, Durango – Colorado’s newest scenic byway, offers access to dramatic mountain scenery and layers of history, from the storied pasts of our earliest American Indian inhabitants to the golden age of railroad travel and rise of Wild West towns bustling with gold-seekers.
• Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway, Cortez – travels between two remote national monuments and Mesa Verde National Park. This National Scenic Byway near Cortez and Dolores takes you through the heart of the landscape and unique history of the American Southwest. The route highlights the archaeological and cultural history of the Native American peoples.
• Trail Ridge Road, Estes Park – Slices through the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park.
• West Elk Loop – Scenic and Historic Byway, Carbondale – Mount Sopris and Black Canyon of the Gunnison anchor the ends.
• Unaweep/Tabeguache – Scenic and Historic Byway, Montrose – The vast scenery will keep you inspired along the route.

National Parks

• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park – The park protects a quarter of the Gunnison River, which slices sheer canyon walls from dark Precambrian-era rock. The canyon features some of the steepest cliffs and oldest rock in North America, and is a popular site for river rafting and rock climbing. The deep, narrow canyon is composed of gneiss and schist, which appears black when in shadow.
• Great Sand Dunes National Park – The tallest sand dunes in North America, up to 750 feet (230 m) tall, were formed by deposits of the ancient Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley. Abutting a variety of grasslands, shrublands, and wetlands, the park also features alpine lakes, six 13,000-foot mountains, and old-growth forests.
• Mesa Verde National Park – This area constitutes over 4,000 archaeological sites of the Ancestral Puebloan people, who lived here and elsewhere in the Four Corners region for at least 700 years. Cliff dwellings built in the 12th and 13th centuries include Cliff Palace, which has 150 rooms and 23 kivas, and the Balcony House, with its many passages and tunnels.
• Rocky Mountain National Park – Bisected north to south by the Continental Divide, this portion of the Rockies has ecosystems varying from over 150 riparian lakes to montane and subalpine forests to treeless alpine tundra. Wildlife including elk, moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bears, and cougars inhabit its igneous mountains and glacial valleys. Longs Peak, a classic Colorado fourteener, and the scenic Bear Lake are popular destinations, as well as the historic Trail Ridge Road, which reaches an elevation of more than 12,000 feet.
• Dinosaur National Monument – This sandstone and conglomerate bed at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers was formed in the Jurassic Period and contains fossils of dinosaurs including Allosaurus and various long-neck and long-tail sauropods.
• Browns Canyon National Monument – Steep granite cliffs and colorful rock outcroppings overlook the Arkansas River, where visitors can go whitewater rafting. Prehistoric campsites and shelters date back 11,000 years, while sites from gold mining remain from the late 1800s. About half is in San Isabel National Forest.
• Chimney Rock National Monument -The jewel of San Juan National Forest, the site was once home to the ancestors of the modern Pueblos. Roughly 1,000 years ago, the Ancestral Pueblo People built more than 200 homes and ceremonial buildings high above the valley floor.
• Yucca House National Monument – Designated as a research national monument, it is a large un-excavated Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site. The site is one of many Ancestral Puebloan village sites in the Montezuma Valley occupied between 900 and 1300 CE
• Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument – Huge petrified redwoods and incredibly detailed fossils of ancient insects and plants reveal a very different landscape in Colorado of almost 35 million years ago in the Eocene age.
• Colorado National Monument – Monument Canyon runs the width of the park and includes rock formations formed by erosion. The monument covers semi-desert land high on the Colorado Plateau and has a wide range of wildlife including pinyon pines, juniper trees, ravens, jays, desert bighorn sheep, and coyotes as well as a range of recreational activities
• Camp Hale National Monument — Continental Divide – Soldiers in the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division used Camp Hale to learn skiing, climbing, and snowshoeing to fight in the Italian Alps during World War II.
• Hovenweep National Monument – Hovenweep contains six clusters of Native American ruins. Holly Canyon, Hackberry Canyon, Cutthroat Castle and Goodman Point are in Colorado and Square Tower and Cajon are in Utah. Ancestral Puebloans lived in the Hovenweep area from 1150 to 1350.
  • Canyons of the Ancients National Monument – Surrounding Hovenweep National Monument, it preserves and protects more than 6,000 archeological sites, the largest concentration in the U.S. These include Lowry Pueblo, dating to 1103 CE, and Painted Hand Pueblo built by the Ancestral Puebloans.

Glass-Domed Train Through the Mountains From Colorado to Utah: https://www.rockymountaineer.com/train-routes/rockies-red-rocks

Attractions

Aspen

• Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness – A series of distinctively bell-shaped, wine-colored peaks towering 14,000 ft. above the pristine, glacial Maroon Creek Valley. Reservations are required to visit Maroon Bells by car or shuttle. Vehicle access begins May 15 through October 31, 2024 and the RFTA shuttle system from Aspen Highlands begins May 24 and will run through October 20, 2024. It’s best to take the bus, and the majority of the time, it’s your only option. Maroon Bells can only be accessed by public bus ($16/adult; $10/senior over 65 + children under 12).

Cano

• Cano’s Castle: Beer Can Folk Art

Breckenridge

• Isak Heartstone: 15-Foot-Tall Wooden Troll

Canon City

• Museum of Colorado Prisons
• America’s Highest Suspension Bridge

Colorado Springs

• Garden of the Gods
• Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum –
• Dragon Man’s Military Museum – spanning 260 remote acres, this private museum, owned by Mel “Dragon Man” Bernstein, houses a remarkable collection of authentic military artifacts and paraphernalia.
• Glen Eyrie Castle – The property runs 90-minute guided tours that trace the history of the castle itself, the Navigators and the surrounding landscape. The property also offers afternoon tea. There is also a gift shop filled with souvenirs and Christian books.
• Muffler Man: Saloon Cowboy – Copperhead Road Bar
• National Museum of World War II Aviation – detailed exhibits and about 20+ aircraft and vehicles.
• Western Museum of Mining & Industry –
• The Airplane Restaurant – An old, full-size airplane, with wing extending into the “normal” restaurant, can be boarded for in-cabin dining.
• May Natural History Museum – unique 7,000 specimens of insects and spiders housed in custom-made cases with handwritten labels.
  • Herkimer: World’s Largest Beetle statue – a 10-foot-high, 16-foot-long West Indian Hercules Beetle nicknamed “Herkimer”
• Nearby:
  • Air Force Academy – Chapel under renovation until 2027
  • The Broadmoor Seven Falls –  seven cascades, which collectively descend 180 feet, sit within a scenic 1,250-foot-wall box canyon.
  • Cascade – Santa’s been at this North Pole on the slopes of Pikes Peak since 1956. Lots of kiddie rides, holiday-themed characters, and a perpetually frozen Pole.
  • Cave of the Winds Mountain Park –
  • Glenwood Springs –
  • Manitou Springs
    • a National Historic District – remains a charming hippie-era haven filled with art galleries, funky boutiques, and outdoor cafes.
    • Manitou Cliff Dwellings
  • Mueller State Park – its roughly 5,000 acres host jagged mountain peaks, verdant aspen forests, and more than 50 miles of trails for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and more.
  • North Cheyenne Cañon Park – more than 1,600 acres at the bottom of a 1,000-foot-deep canyon.
  • Old Colorado City – the Old Colorado City Historic District maintains its 19th-century Wild West feel with a few modifications: the area’s buildings now house locally owned art galleries, quaint shops, and mom-and-pop restaurants.
  • Pikes Peak in Pike National Forest – COG railroad, a guided Jeep or bus tour,
  • Red Rock Canyon Open Space – stunning rock formations and appreciate that the trails are much less crowded than the popular Garden of the Gods.
  • Royal Gorge – pedestrian-only suspension bridge, Aerial Gondola, railroad
  • U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum & Training Center – The state-of-the-art, 60,000-square-foot facility houses 12 different galleries and dozens of interactive displays that detail Olympic and Paralympic history, showcase the athleticism required to be a world-stage competitor, and tell inspiring athlete stories. You can also take a tour of the training center.

Cortez

• Creations from Mufflers – Yard art display of hundreds of spare car parts sculptures. Muffler families lounge along a creek. About 3 miles north of Cortez, Hwy 145, left/west on CR P, on the right.

Creede

• World’s Longest Fork – Made of aluminum, forty feet long, weighs over 600 pounds. Because it rests on a 45 degree angle the fork is the longest, but not the tallest.

Cripple Creek

• Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine Tour – Get lowered in a cage 1,000 feet beneath the surface for a one-hour subterranean tour. Everyone gets a free rock with gold in it.

Denver

• Buckhorn Exchange Restaurant – 500 Stuffed Animals, proudly holds the first license for “Beer, Wine and Spirituous Liquor” issued in the state of Colorado.
• Denver Botanic Gardens
• Denver Museum of Nature and Science –
• Downtown Aquarium – Teams of up to eight “Mystic .Mermaids” swim daily in an otherwise normal big city aquarium.
• Forney Transportation Museum – A vast collection of automobiles that also has the world’s largest steam locomotive.
• Hammond’s Candies Tour – factory tour, with a video on the history of the company, followed by a walk-thru tour of the candy making and packaging. Fun and free, and you get a free sample at the end 
• International Church of Cannabis – a genuine century-old house of worship with interesting art
• Meow Wolf Denver – a contemporary art museum, a haunted house, an amusement park, and a film set all rolled into one 90,000-square-foot space
• Denver Zoo
• Denver Art Museum
• 16th Street Mall – the mall starts with Union Station on the north end and the Colorado State Capitol on the south end, with attractions like the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Larimer Square and the Denver Pavilions – a shopping and dining complex with multiple movie theaters and pop-up events – along the way. If you’ve worked up an appetite walking around, you won’t go hungry: There are more than 40 outdoor cafes throughout the mall, as well as plenty of casual, upscale and international eateries.
• Union Station
• Washington Park – Occupying 155 acres, this immense park boasts miles of jogging paths, two massive lakes and two formal gardens, one of which is a replica of George Washington’s Mount Vernon gardens
• Molly Brown House Museum – On a guided tour of the house, you’ll learn about Brown’s experience aboard the Titanic, as well as her role in the women’s suffrage movement and her endeavors in Colorado’s mining industry.
• Elitch Gardens – amusement park
• US Mint
• Wings over the Rockies Air & Space Museum – Housed in a hangar on the former Lowry Air Force Base in eastern Denver, this museum has more than 100,000 square feet of exhibit space that explores the history of the base’s role in World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars and the Cold War. About 20 miles south of the museum is its sister location, the Exploration of Flight, which offers visitors a more immersive experience. They include a pilot simulator and actual flights in vintage and modern aircraft. 
• Sculptures
  • Big Sweep – Dust Pan and Broom Sculpture – 35-feet-tall piece of public art.  (100 W 14th Ave}
  • 20-Foot-Tall Concrete Cowboy – Rustic Ranch Mobile Home RV Park (5565 Federal Blvd)
  • Sleeping Giant in a Sombrero – (3550 South Raleigh St, Bear Creek Park)
  • 20-Foot-Tall Dog Made of Dog Tags – At Denver’s Municipal Animal Shelter, “Sun Spot” is a 20-foot-tall metal dog sculpture covered with over 90,000 shiny stainless steel dog tags. If you go inside the shelter you can see the dog’s enormous collar. (1241 W. Bayaud Ave.)
• Nearby
  • Golden, CO – Home to Coors Brewery
  • Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre

Durango

• Durango and the Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway

Easton

• Lee Maxwell Washing Machine Museum – Lee Maxwell, passionate collector of ancient washing machines, has his total up to 1,500 at last count. (by appointment only)

Estes Park

• International Cryonics Museum – located in The Stanley’s historic Ice House, the world’s only museum dedicated to the science of cryonics, read pioneering stories of real people who have dedicated their lives to the science, and get a glimpse into the future of this fascinating field.

Fairplay

• Monument to Prunes and Shorty the Burros

Fort Carson

• 4th Infantry Division Museum – Highlights include a dummy of hairy Saddam Hussein as he appeared when he was dragged out of his Iraq hiding hole.

Fort Collins

• Downtown – Disney-esque

• Trolley
• Horsetooth Mountain Open Space
• Colorado State University campus Annual Flower Trial Garden
• Gardens on Spring Creek –
• Giant Ice Cream Churn – A 26-foot-tall old-fashioned ice cream churn bucket. It was built in 2018 with real fir wood, and has a steel hand crank that weighs a ton.
• Restaurants
  • Totally 80’s Pizza & Museum
  • Walrus Ice Cream

Fruita

• Metal sculpture of Mike, the headless chicken, maybe five feet tall, an artistic rendition made of old metal implements such as horse shoes and hand tools.
• Street with other sculptures that have nothing to do with headless chickens.
• a twenty-foot-tall dinosaur. It’s at the entrance to downtown in a grassy park. Named “Grrretta” by school children.

Golden

• Buffalo Bill’s Grave and Museum – Colorado paid the widow of Buffalo Bill $10,000 to bury him at the top of a mountain as a tourist attraction. Cody, Wyoming, claims that the corpse in this grave is someone else after it switched the bodies in the morgue.

Grand Junction

• Museum of the West – This place has the expected one-room schoolhouse and Anasazi pots, but also a simulated stagecoach ride, Conquistador armor, an observation tower, a collection of baseball bats, an exhibit on World War II POW camps, a replica walk-thru uranium mine, “The Jensen Tablet” — an infamous 1950s archeological fraud — and a selection of Wild West outlaw firearms, including the gun that Kid Curry, of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang, used to kill himself when cornered by the law. An ancient golden chalice-shaped relic that was brought to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and promoted as “The Holy Grail” — but is now thought to be a 5th century lamp.

Greeley

• Greeley Garage and Auto Repair Muffler Man

Hooper

• UFO Watchtower – a campground, had a small stucco saucer dome built as a gift shop, and surrounded it with a ten-foot-high viewing platform. Vortex and horse skeleton. Located along the Cosmic Highway, Colorado 17.

Idaho Springs

• Argo Gold Mine – tours available

Lake City

• In the winter of 1874, three miles south of the present town site Alferd became a Wild West legend by cannibalizing his five traveling companions. Now the town celebrates the event with a festival and various tourist traps. The County Museum has some artifacts from the massacre.

Lakewood

• Casa Bonita – giant Mexican restaurant with live entertainment: indoor cliff divers, Wild West shootouts, brawling pirates, a dancing gorilla. All can be viewed while you eat.  30-foot-tall indoor waterfall, tumbling into a Gatorade-green lagoon. Surrounding it are fake rock cliffs on one side and a fake stucco Mexican village on the other.
• Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park – unique “pioneer town” that preserves buildings not from the Wild West, but from the mid-20th-century. The idea behind the park was that Lakewood hit its stride during the 1940s and ’50s, when its Colfax Avenue was the main tourist route between Denver and the Rocky Mountains.

Lamar

• Petrified Wood Gas Station (501 N Main St)

Longmont

• Muffler Man guards a private ranch with his custom-made pitchfork.

Mancos

• Hogan Trading Post – giant arrows made with telephone poles between tepees.
• Sculptures of Dave Sipe – The display varies, but the yard is usually populated with large, recognizable inhabitants that range from the Statue of Liberty to the Grinch. Sculpted by Dave Sipe, who lives there and welcomes visitors.

Montrose

• Black Canyon of Gunnison
• Museum of the Mountain West – Collection of transplanted 1880s-1940s buildings containing 500,000 Old West artifacts and memorabilia of Richard E. Fike.

Morrison

• 150 tiny replicas of famous Colorado landmarks in one tiny place.
• Red Rocks Park – 15-foot-tall bronze John stands with his acoustic guitar slung across his back, holding an arm aloft as a giant eagle lands on it.

Mosca

• Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve
• Colorado Gators Reptile Park

Mount Evans

• Highest Paved Road in the USA. It costs $15 per car.

Nathrop

• St. Elmo – A real ghost town, very well preserved, with a few functioning stores. The big attraction is the town’s frisky population of tourist-acclimated chipmunks, who will run up your arms to be hand-fed. Bring loads of sunflower seeds.

North Mosca

• Great Sand Dunes National Park – Highest Sand Dunes in North America. 750 feet high — roughly as high as a 75-story building — and not as easy to climb as they look. You know how sand is.

Northglenn

• The Northglenn Veterans Memorial is a 23-foot-tall metal American flag with ten soldiers of relevant wars popping out from between the stripes.

Ouray

• Ouray County Museum – This 1887 county museum offers much to tempt the traveler, such as a walk-through replica mine, mummified Feejee Mermaid, and Jim the (stuffed) Bear, formerly owned by the town doctor.
• Million Dollar Highway – The Million Dollar Highway is a 25-mile stretch of paved highway that winds through the majestic San Juan Mountains in Colorado. This thrilling and scenic road runs between the towns of Silverton and Ouray. Its hairpin turns, lack of guardrails, and mining history make it both thrilling and challenging.

Pueblo

• Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum – Over 30 big and small planes on display, as well as a selection of transport oddities such as high-speed experimental maglev and air-suspension vehicles.

Rye

• Bishop Castle – For over 50 years, Jim Bishop has been building a castle with rocks from the San Isabel National Forest on a mountainside in central Colorado

Salida

• Salida Museum – City is famous since 1939 for fur-bearing trout that supposedly grew fur in the winter because its water was so refreshingly cold.

Silverton

• Million Dollar Highway – The Million Dollar Highway is a 25-mile stretch of paved highway that winds through the majestic San Juan Mountains in Colorado. This thrilling and scenic road runs between the towns of Silverton and Ouray. Its hairpin turns, lack of guardrails, and mining history make it both thrilling and challenging.

South Fork

• Giant lumberjack, 24 feet tall, carved from a single Douglas Fir in 1987, stands in front of Biggin’s (formerly The Hungry Logger) restaurant.

Trinidad

• Southern Colorado Coal Miners Memorial – Two memorial sculptures on a fenced plaza: coal miners toil, while a giant bronze canary on a perch in a cage chirps.

Victor

• Rita the Rock Planter: Giant Troll

Woodland Park

• Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center – 20,000 square foot museum exhibits the bones of huge prehistoric creatures. Peek through windows into the fossil lab where paleontologists assemble dinosaurs.

Tips

Rocky Mountain National Park

• Go Early in the day (before 8 am) to beat crowds and see animals
• The shuttle bus leaves from Estes Park and the RMNP visitor centers.
• RMNP has seven visitor centers throughout the park. The larger centers are Beaver Meadows, Fall River, and Alpine.
• A popular place to see the elk is in Morraine Park in the morning or evening.
• drive Trail Ridge Road. Plan for your trip to take at least a half day. You will want to spend some time looking around at the Alpine Visitor Center too.
• Timed entry permits are mandatory for all Rocky Mountain National Park visitors. The timed entry permit system will start on May 24, 2024, on recreation.gov