Explore Colorado
In-depth travel guides to Colorado's best destinations — from the Front Range to the Western Slope.
Front Range
Denver, Boulder, and Colorado's urban gateway to the Rockies
Boulder
The most educated and most outdoors-obsessed small city in America — Pearl Street Mall, Chautauqua Park, world-class climbing on the Flatirons, and CU's farmers market on every corner
Colorado Springs
Pikes Peak rises 14,115 feet above the city — drive or cog railway to the summit, explore Garden of the Gods for free, and understand why the military chose to build here
Denver
A mile above sea level with world-class museums, a craft beer scene that is genuinely world-class, and the Rocky Mountain skiing within 90 minutes in every direction
Estes Park
Gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park — elk wandering through town at dusk, Trail Ridge Road crossing the Continental Divide at 12,183 feet, and the Stanley Hotel inspiring Stephen King
Fort Collins
Colorado's Craft Beer Capital
Manitou Springs
Victorian Springs Town
Ski Country
World-class ski resorts and charming mountain towns
Aspen
Four ski mountains, a summer music festival that attracts the world's finest musicians, and the most stylish après-ski scene in North America — at prices to match
Breckenridge
A genuinely historic gold rush Victorian town at 9,600 feet — the ski mountain is excellent and the Main Street has kept its 1880s architecture while adding world-class restaurants
Crested Butte
Colorado's Wildflower Capital
Glenwood Springs
Hot Springs in a Canyon
Keystone
Family-Friendly Summit County Skiing
Steamboat Springs
A genuine ranch town that happens to have excellent skiing — Steamboat's champagne powder is legendary, the rodeos are real, and the hot springs pools are right in the center of town
Telluride
A box canyon with one road in and one road out, a free gondola connecting town to Mountain Village, and a film festival that makes every September worth the drive
Vail
7,000 acres of ridiculously perfect ski terrain spread across two mountain faces — and a mountain village that somehow pulls off European alpine charm in the Colorado Rockies
Winter Park
Denver's Mountain
Western Slope
Remote canyons, hot springs, and wine country
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Colorado's Most Dramatic Canyon
Durango
A narrow-gauge steam train still runs daily through the San Juan Mountains to Silverton — Durango itself is a Colorado college town with serious mountain biking and a mesa-top brewery worth making the trip for
Mesa Verde National Park
Ancestral Puebloans built 600-room cliff dwellings into canyon walls 800 years ago and then abandoned them — the ranger-guided tours of Cliff Palace are among the most memorable experiences in the American Southwest
Ouray
The Switzerland of America is a 19th-century mining camp in a dramatic box canyon with natural hot springs, world-class ice climbing in winter, and 4WD passes to Telluride in summer