Places to go in Colorado.

Springs, beaches, parks and gardens worth the drive. Save the ones you want to visit and tick off the ones you’ve been to.

Explore places across the United States →

MountainsCanyons & desertsAttractions

All places

Browse everything by category or region.

15 places

Mountains

Rocky Mountain National Park

Estes Park, CO · Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountain National Park packs more than 60 peaks above 12,000 feet into a single stretch of the Front Range, with alpine tundra, glacier-carved valleys, and elk grazing in open meadows. Trail Ridge Road climbs above 12,000 feet, making it the highest continuous paved road in the country and an easy way to reach the high country by car. With over 350 miles of trails, abundant wildlife, and dramatic scenery just 90 minutes from Denver, it is one of the most rewarding parks in the West to visit.

Mountains

Maroon Bells

Aspen, CO · Rocky Mountains

Two jagged 14,000 foot peaks of deep maroon mudstone rise above Maroon Lake, framing what is often called the most photographed scene in Colorado. The short, paved loop trails deliver postcard reflections within minutes of the parking area, while longer routes climb into the surrounding wilderness for those who want solitude. Plan ahead, because timed shuttle and parking reservations are required during the busy season from late spring through fall.

Canyons & deserts

Garden of the Gods

Colorado Springs, CO · Rocky Mountains

Garden of the Gods is a free public park where towering fins of red sandstone rise dramatically against the backdrop of Pikes Peak. Easy paved trails wind right up to the iconic formations, making the signature scenery accessible to almost anyone, while climbers, cyclists, and horseback riders find plenty to explore. The free Visitor and Nature Center across from the main entrance offers exhibits, guided walks, and the best first stop for orientation.

Canyons & deserts

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Montrose, CO · Western Slope, Colorado

One of America's deepest, narrowest gorges, Black Canyon of the Gunnison drops as much as 2,722 feet through dark, lichen-stained walls so steep and shadowed that parts of the canyon floor see only minutes of sun a day. Stand at the South Rim's Painted Wall Overlook, where pink pegmatite stripes streak the tallest cliff in Colorado, then drive the South Rim Road between viewpoints near Montrose. Designated a Dark Sky Park, it hosts a summer astronomy festival.

Canyons & deserts

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Mosca, CO · San Luis Valley, Colorado

Great Sand Dunes National Park holds the tallest dunes in North America, a 30-square-mile sea of sand rising up to 750 feet against the jagged Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Mosca, Colorado. Climb the ridgeline to Star Dune or sandboard down the slopes, then cool off in seasonal Medano Creek at the dune base. Spring through early summer is prime, when snowmelt feeds the creek's wide, beachy flow.

Canyons & deserts

Mesa Verde National Park

Cortez, CO · Four Corners, Southwest Colorado

Mesa Verde preserves the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans, who tucked entire stone villages into sandstone alcoves above the canyons of southwest Colorado some 800 years ago. The centerpiece is Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, with roughly 150 rooms and 23 kivas reached on a ranger-led tour by ladder and footpath. Spring and fall bring the best weather and ticketed access near Cortez.

Attractions

Telluride

Telluride, CO · San Juan Mountains

Telluride sits at the dead-end of a glacial box canyon, a former silver-mining camp boxed in on three sides by 13,000-foot San Juan peaks with Bridal Veil Falls, Colorado's tallest free-falling waterfall, spilling 365 feet over the rim at the head of the valley. The free gondola climbs from the brick-and-clapboard storefronts of Colorado Avenue over the ridge to Mountain Village, and in summer the trails up to Bear Creek and Bridal Veil trade the ski runs for wildflowers. It is a town you reach on one road in and the same road out, which is part of why the Bluegrass and Film festivals feel like the whole place has shown up.

Mountains

Million Dollar Highway

Ouray to Silverton, CO · San Juan Mountains

The twelve miles of US 550 south of Ouray climb the Uncompahgre Gorge to the 11,018-foot summit of Red Mountain Pass, hugging cliffs carved straight into the rock with no guardrail between you and the drop. Hairpin switchbacks open onto the rust-red slopes of Red Mountain and a wall of snow-streaked San Juan peaks, the old mining country that gave the route its name. Go slow, pull off at the overlooks, and save it for a clear day from late spring through fall when the high passes are open.

Mountains

Pikes Peak

Colorado Springs, CO · Front Range

Rising 14,115 feet over Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak is the fourteener that put a phrase in everyone's mouth: Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful after taking in the view from the top in 1893. You can reach the summit three ways, by the cog railway out of Manitou Springs, by the 19-mile toll highway with its switchbacks and famous June hill climb, or on foot up the long grind of Barr Trail. However you get there, the rite of passage is a fresh doughnut at the summit house, where the high-altitude recipe is the only one that comes out right at 14,000 feet.

Attractions

Aspen

Aspen, CO · Aspen / Roaring Fork

Tucked into the Roaring Fork Valley at 7,900 feet, Aspen runs on two clocks: powder mornings on four mountains in winter, and a slower summer of wildflower hikes, Aspen Music Festival concerts, and patio lunches where the conversation outlasts the meal. The brick storefronts on a walkable downtown grid trace back to silver-rush money, and a few minutes out of town the Maroon Bells and the aspen groves of Castle Creek give you the postcard the whole place is named for. Come for the skiing or the music, but stay for the way the light hits those golden hillsides in late September.

Mountains

Mount Blue Sky

Idaho Springs, CO · Front Range

Renamed from Mount Evans in 2023, this 14,266-foot Front Range giant lets you drive nearly to the top. The Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway climbs 28 paved miles from Idaho Springs past Echo Lake and Summit Lake, the highest paved road in North America, gaining over 7,000 feet to a turnaround just below the peak. Mountain goats pick across the tundra, ancient bristlecone pines twist along the slopes, and on a clear morning the plains roll out a hundred miles east.

Attractions

Ouray

Ouray, CO · San Juan Mountains

Ouray sits at 7,792 feet on the floor of a box canyon, wedged so tightly between the San Juan peaks that the town earned the nickname Switzerland of America. The main street is a row of 1880s mining-boom buildings, the Wright Opera House and the Beaumont Hotel among them, with red-rock walls climbing straight up behind the rooftops. It is the northern gateway to the Million Dollar Highway, a soak in the town hot springs, and the trailhead for Box Canyon Falls, where Canyon Creek drops 285 feet into a quartzite slot.

Mountains

San Juan Skyway

Durango, CO · San Juan Mountains

This 236-mile loop out of Durango stitches together the most dramatic corner of the San Juans, climbing over Red Mountain Pass on the white-knuckle Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray before swinging through Telluride and the old mining towns of Rico and Dolores. Come the third week of September the aspens turn the whole drive gold, and the valleys go so saturated you half doubt your own eyes. Give it a full day at least, longer if you want to stop for the hot springs in Ouray and the cliff dwellings near Mancos.

Mountains

Independence Pass

Aspen, CO · Aspen / Roaring Fork

At 12,095 feet, Independence Pass is the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in North America, and the drive up CO-82 from Aspen earns every switchback. The road climbs past treeline into open tundra, where a short paved path leads to an overlook with the glacier-carved peaks of the Sawatch Range laid out in every direction. It is only open late May through early November, snow willing, so catch it while the wildflowers are out and the alpine ponds are still holding the sky.

Canyons & deserts

Colorado National Monument

Fruita, CO · Grand Valley, Western Colorado

Colorado National Monument sits above the Grand Valley, where Wingate sandstone cliffs drop into red canyons. Rim Rock Drive runs 23 paved miles between the Fruita and Grand Junction entrances, threading three tunnels to canyon overlooks. Independence Monument, a 450 foot freestanding tower, rises a mile southeast of the Saddlehorn Visitor Center, and Otto's Trail reaches a rim view of it in half a mile. Monument Canyon Trail is the longer walk, six miles one way and 1,440 feet down, passing the tower at 3.5 miles. Entry is $25 per vehicle for seven days, or $15 on foot or bike, with no permit or reservation. The road suits a sedan and stays open year round, closing a day or two after heavy snow, ice, or rockfall. Tunnels clear 16 feet at the centerline but only 10 feet 6 inches near the curbs. Summer canyon heat tops 100 degrees with no water below the rim, so carry your own.