Things to do / Travel Guide
With snow or without, from atop the peaks or below them, whether skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking, driving, or hiking on the region's slopes, trails, or roads - no matter the season or your vantage point; no matter your activity or terrain; Colorado Rockies' scenic overlooks will take your breath away. You will struggle to find a scrap of sky that isn't superbly scenic in the Colorado Rockies region. Unparalleled panoramas, lush landscapes, magnificent mountains, and skyscraping summits are as easy to come by as a McDonalds in the Midwest. Trails, lakes, highways, and riverbanks provide scenic overlooks at every turn. In fact, even the simple streets of many towns are blessed with a backdrop of bountiful beauty. For photographing, sightseeing, communing with nature, hiking, or just plain-old feasting the eyes, here are a few scenic overlooks that top the charts:
- Considered a Grand Canyon in its own right, Colorado National Monument, near Grand Junction in Northwest Colorado, offers a startling display of sheer cliffs, varicolored sandstone, and sweeping desert-scapes. Walk, drive, or bike along the 23-mile Rimrock Drive and you will come across more than a dozen scenic overlooks.
- In Northwest Colorado, Aspen's White River National Forest is a fabulous place to fix your eyes on a heck of a lot more than just forest. Many points along the easy two-mile Rio Grande Trail offer great views of the Roaring Fork Valley. Also, you can take the 1½-mile Maroon Lake Scenic Trail, which traces Maroon Creek, to shimmering alpine Maroon Lake for a view of the spectacularly jagged twin peaks of Maroon Bells.
- By far one of the Southwest's most spectacular natural phenomena, Southwest Colorado's Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument is a 2,000-foot-deep, crooked fissure carved over two million years, by the Gunnison River's crafty current.
For some of the best views into the canyon's narrow middle, try the scenic overlooks on the South Rim Road beyond the visitor's center: Gunnison Point, Pulpit Rock, Devil's Lookout, and Chasm View.
For a breathtaking perspective on Mt. Wilson (elevation: 14,246 ft), try the overlook on State Road 145, just south of the Sunshine Campground near Telluride in Southwest Colorado.
Moving Scenic Overlooks: Cable Car-Gondola Rides and Chairlifts in the Colorado Rockies
Suspend yourself above the scenery; a spring, summer, or fall foliage chairlift will certainly give you the lofty perspectives you seek; a gondola ride gives great glimpses of the grandeur. In summer you can get the same view the skiers enjoy during the winter - simply without the snow. Leaving from Gondola Square in the Northwest Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs, the Steamboat Gondola offers panoramic vistas of wildflowers, aspen-lined pastures, and the majestic Mt. Werner. Located in the Northwest Colorado ski area of Vail, Lionshead-Eagles Nest gondola rides last just 15-minutes but offers jaw-dropping views of Vail Valley and the Sawatch mountain range. Beaver Creek, also in Vail, offers chairlift rides as well. To see all that is beautiful and breathtaking, the world-class Northwest Colorado mountain and ski resorts of Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, and Keystone offer off-season chairlift rides, and for a more up-close and personal encounter with the San Juan Mountains, Telluride Ski Area in Southwest Colorado offers free gondola rides in the summer.
Observation Towers in the Colorado Rockies
To gain a little height amidst the skyscraping summits in the Colorado Rockies, try several of the area's observation towers. Monarch Pass, outside of the South Central Colorado town of Salida, boasts stunning views of nearly a dozen of Colorado's Fourteener mountains (those over 14,000 feet). To look some of these powerful peaks in the eye (well, almost) take the Monarch Aerial Tram to an observation tower at nearly 12,000 feet. This is, by far, one of the Colorado Rockies' most stunning scenic overlooks. The tram is open from mid-May-mid-October. To get a good sense of Grand Junction's and Northwest Colorado's geology and surrounding geography, head to the Sterling T. Smith Education Tower, where you can enjoy the perspective of 360-degree panoramas.
Waterfall Views in the Colorado Rockies
Just a few minutes from downtown Steamboat Springs in Northwest Colorado, the simmering white ribbon of 283-foot Fish Creek Falls sits about a quarter-mile in from Fish Creek Falls Road. Continue on the trail toward a second, less-visited waterfall that is equally worth your while. The captivating Clear Creek, just outside of the Southwest Colorado community of Ouray, cascades almost 300-feet into the dramatic granite Box Canyon. Take the steel suspension bridge across the canyon and over the falls for one of the most stunning views. To see the falls from the bottom-up, take the short (but rugged) half-mile Lower Cascade Falls Trail. Just west of Telluride in Southwest Colorado, two steamy, sinewy stripes of water pour a misty curtain against a craggy cliff at the 100-foot-tall Bridal Veil Falls.
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