Beautiful Colorado

When entering the great state of Colorado, one passes the sign saying "Colorful Colorado", which is once again pretty accurate description of this place. Colorado is world famous for its skiing, high Rocky Mountains, and perfect snow conditions. Indeed this is all true, I have never seen better powder snow than here. But there is much more to this state. Interesting culture, history, nature, great beer, famous NHL hockey team and liberal society also are attributes of Colorado. One thing will always be safe to say about our northern neighbour: Colorado is simply beautiful!

Estes Park, CO.

Our first introduction to Colorado was a four-wheeling trip with our friends, major Jeep enthusiasts. An old friend of mine invited to join them on their annual trip to Ouray, CO, where he takes his FJ Toyota, some friends and their Jeeps for some mountain excitement. We were camping right below the majestic peaks of the Rockies. This part of Colorado is called the Switzerland of America, for a good reason. This place was just amazing. We drove there through Durango and across the mountains along the Million Dollar Highway. Just the drive on the paved road itself was spectacular. But when Scott took us on the first trips to the mountains on the old mining access dirt roads, we fell in love with this place properly. The first proper trip we took with them was the Black Bear Pass, which is actually considered the most dangerous in the area. Well, needless to say, this was exciting, high adrenaline experience and I was instantly hooked! This was so much fun, I cannot begin to describe. The camp we stayed in was very primitive, with no facilities, just the way we like it, so the extra bonus of this location was the Ouray hot springs that provided us both with a great view of the mountains, relaxing bath, as well as solved our "lack of shower problem".

Here is a video from our crazy crossing of the Black Bear Pass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GBGhZz9lSw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Four-wheeling around Ouray, CO.

Since then, we visited Colorado many times exploring different parts of this state. The main attraction of this place are its majestic mountains and spectacular nature. We have made many visits to the famous Rocky Mountain National Park. We fell in love with Estes Park and the surrounding area. It is a spectacular natural preserve with spectacular rocky peaks and endangered alpine tundra ecosystem that is protected by the national park. In the summer, it is possible to drive across the high ridge through the park, which is extremely scenic and much recommended. During our third visit to Estes Park we stayed at the historical Stanley Hotel, famous for being the premise for Stephen King's novel 'The Shining' and the famous movie starring Jack Nicholson. A very cute are of the park is also the Bear Lake which is open through out the year. Apart from the popular sites like the Bear Lake, there are many other wonderful hikes and backpacking trails through out the park and it is well worth it to beat the crowds and find those amazing remote areas of untouched Alpine nature. Another park, which is more like cut out from another planet is the Great Sand Dunes NP. This natural marvel was created by gusty winds that travel through the wide Rio Grande Valley and then hit the Rockies creating huge sand dunes just below the high rocky peaks. It is truly something else standing on these dunes looking at high snow capped mountains - Sahara meet the Alps? Crazy, right!? One of the popular destinations and a stunning natural wonder is the Garden of the Gods, near Colorado Springs, originally named "BEER Garden of the Gods" due to the many outdoor dining and drinking activities carried out there back in the day. Another spectacular place is the Black Canyon of the Gunnisson National Park. 

Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain NP, CO.

Rocky Mountain NP, CO.

Sunset over Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain NP, CO.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, CO.

Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, CO.

Black Canyon of the Gunnisson National Park, CO.

Dinosaur National Moument, CO.

Hiking the Ute trail in the Rocky Mountain NP, CO.

But it is also not strictly natural beauty that makes Colorado so attractive. There is also a lot of history, even prehistoric monuments. Some of the best preserved fossils can be found in the Dinosaur National Monument and in the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. What amazed me in particular is the ancient history and Indian heritage, in particular in the southern parts of the state. The Mesa Verde National Park is a world famous historical site with thousands of visitors coming to admire the local Ancestral Pueblo Ruins. I have already described my personal obsession with the Pueblo culture and history in my older article about New Mexico. The Chaco culture was closely connected with Mesa Verde and these high mountain mesas served as a refuge for the Pueblo nations about 1000 to 800 years ago at time of unrest. These are the best preserved and largest cliff dwellings in the entire Southwest. There are many other archeological sites in the area, many of which have not yet been excavated, like the Hovenweep National Monument and Yucca House National Monument.

Mesa Verde NP, CO.

Mesa Verde NP, CO.

Mesa Verde NP, CO.

Dinosaur National Monument, CO.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, CO.

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to explore Colorado and gave it its name for its abundant natural resources. They gave names to many places here, but never settled this area. It was the United States that bough Colorado and sent the first expeditions to explore this land. Due to the riches, mainly silver, but also gold and other valuable metals, and coal, Colorado has been a favourite destination for miners hoping to find their fortune there. This made it a challenging but popular destination on the frontier of the American West. Many pioneers ventured here, building many roads, railways, wooden towns, settlements in the mountains, mines and farms. Today these remain evidence of turbulent history of the Wild West and offer great tourist destinations including great four-wheeling trips to remote mines in the mountains, well preserved Wild West ghost towns, mines and industrial history. These are my favourite, we love ghost towns and industrial history! Colorado has some of the best ghost towns in the West if that is what you want to see here, make sure you visit Saint Elmo and Animas Forks ghost towns. Both can be accessed by a dirt road, so a four-wheel drive is recommended. There is also a lot of sad heritage here, mainly due to the mining industry that shaped the history of the state. Many of the mining towns were run by corporations and witnessed great hardship of poverty and hard work of poor miners in mercy of "evil" corporations. The monument to commemorate one of the most tragic moment in Colorado's mining history, the Ludlow Massacre, can be visited just off the southern part of the i25 highway.

Animas Forks ghost town, CO.

Animas Forks ghost town, CO.

Animas Forks ghost town, CO.

Saint Elmo ghost town, CO.

Saint Elmo ghost town, CO.

Saint Elmo ghost town, CO.

Old railway in San Luis Valley, CO.

Early 20th century ranch in the Dinosaur NM, CO.

19th century ranch in the Florissant, CO.

Historical Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO.

Colorado is full of very cute towns. I have already mentioned Ouray and Estes Park, but apart from those we found many other charming places. Among my favourites are Silverton, Telluride, Salida, which are old frontier mining and railway towns and today are a base for four-wheeling enthusiasts and ski resorts, Pagosa Springs, which is a home of hot springs, skiing and one excellent bakery! Durango is also a very nice place and home of one of the best ski resorts in Colorado: Wolfcreek, famous for its abundant snow fall. Denver is a very hip and fun city full of young people, great universities and most importantly home of the Colorado Avalanche NHL team. We love going back to Denver every time and we never miss going to an NHL game, every time we visit. The Avalanche have become our home team and we follow their progress in the league very closely. NHL games are great entertainment and I would recommend to go to one even if you are not a hockey fan. Colorado is also famous for countless breweries. Apart from the famous Corrs, there are countless micro-brews, pretty much every town has them, and those are actually mostly very good! No trip to CO can be done without visiting the local brew masters and tasting their delicious product!

Black Bear Pass, Ouray, CO.

Swedes do wear short sleeves in CO :D

Summit County, CO.

Colorado Avalanche Game in Denver, CO, March 2013.

Colorado Avalanche NHL Play-off game, Denver, CO, April 2014.

During one of our trips we drove north through the San Luis Valley, which offers stunning mountain views as well as history. We drove past Salida, visited the local Saint Elmo ghost town. The highest elevation railway tunnel (Alpine Tunnel) and several mines can be accessed via a dirt road and hikes. There are many old railways in this area and lots of excellent industrial history. We stopped by the Twin Lakes on the way, which offer some stunning views of the mountains. Here, once can take a scenic byway (route 82) towards Aspen that takes you through the narrow pass within the mountains (closed in winter). We then continued towards Estes Park crossing the Summit County, where we climbed some of the most monumental peaks in Colorado. This is way is the more scenic alternative if you wish to drive between Denver and Santa Fe.

Twin Lakes, CO.

Grand Sand Dunes NP, CO.

Katerina Falk