Colorado Landscapes

Upper Greasewood Creek is located in Rio Blanco County just east of Rangley, Colorado. The creek is surrounded by a couple of mesas with several interesting plant communities and beautiful views of the surrounding country. It has been designated as a protected natural area by the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife. Photo by Mo Ewing.

Geneva Basin is perhaps Colorado\'s most famous abandoned ski area. It was located between Grant and Georgetown on Guanella Pass Road. The peak at 11,750 feet altitude was opened in 1961 and was called Indianhead Ski Area. It had various owners but was closed in 1984 when an empty chair on the Duck Creek lift fell from the cable at which point, he Colorado Tramway Board shut the ski area down permanently. Now back-country skiers occasionally visit and ski the area in winter. Photo by Susan-Tamulonis.

This is the ruins of one of the several mines on Red Mountain pass, elevation 11,018 feet. It is located in the Red Mountain Mining District on Route 550 between Ouray and Silverton, called the \"Million Dollar Highway\". The mines along this road were built during the historic but short silver boom between 1882 and 1893. The road is paved and passes through three abandoned towns, but drive carefully because the road is narrow, steep and winding in several places. Photo by Lea Baca.

This is Horsethief Canyon, part of the Ruby and Horsethief section of the Colorado River from Loma, Colorado to Westwood, Utah. It flows in mostly flat water, for 25 miles with only one class II rapid. There are several places to hike along the river. The rock you see is 1.7 billion year old Vishnu schist, which is also found in the Grand Canyon. Photo by Mo Ewing.

The 1.5 million acre Uncompahgre Plateau is located in western Colorado, arising from the Colorado River at 4,600 feet to a maximum height of 10,300 feet at Horsefly Peak. It\'s boundaries are the Dolores and San Miguel Rivers on the west and the Gunnison and Uncompagre rivers on the east. The mountains in this photo are the San Miguels. Photo by Mo Ewing

Sand Canyon is located on the southern side of Canyon of the Ancients, near Cortez, Colorado. Canyon of the Ancients is known primarily by the Sand Canyon Pueblo, an ancient ruin containing 400 rooms, but the area is also interesting for its beautiful canyons and wonderful diversity of native plants in the semi-desert shrubland life zone. Photo by Mo Ewing

South Park is one of three mountain parks in Colorado. All of these contain mountain grasslands, but South Park is home to some famous extreme rich fens. South Park is accessed from Denver via Route 285 which enters from the north over Kenosha Pass where you will see the most spectacular views of the area with the Mosquito Mountains in the background. Photo by Linda Smith.

This is a photo of the Ron Steward Preserve at Rabbit Mountain (formerly Rabbit Mountain Open Space) in Boulder. This 5,000 acre preserve has three hiking trails from 1.2 to 4 miles long, great birding, horseback riding, biking and also has wildlife, including prairie dogs, lizards, snakes, mule deer, elk and mountain lions. Photo by Bill Bowman.

The Arikaree River, unlike the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers, does not flow from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern border. Its headwaters start on the Great Plains in the far eastern portion of Elbert County and it flows out of Colorado in Yuma County. East of our border it flows into the North Fork of the Republican River. It is fed mostly by groundwater and summer storms. Photo by ewingphoto.com

The Gore Range runs approximately 60 miles from the south end of the Park Range from Rabbit Ears Pass (U.S. Highway 40) to the Eagle River and Gore Creek near Vail. It forms part of the western boundary of Middle Park which contains the headwaters of the Colorado river. The range was named after Sir St George Gore, 8th Baronet, an Irish hunter who visited the area in the 1850s on a notorious three year hunting expedition through the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado where he claimed to have killed more than 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 elk and deer and 100 bears for sport. Photo by Loraine Yeatts