Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve  Colorado's newest National Park is located in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado on the west side of Laveta Pass. Here you will find North America's highest sand dunes rising over 750 feet in height. The area contains over 30 square  miles of sand dunes.    Map

 Black Canyon Of The Gunnison This is a unique exploration experience. No other canyon in North America offers the sheer walls, the depth and the narrow openings of the Black Canyon. Located in western Colorado between Gunnison and Montrose.   Map

Bents Fort National Historic Site On this site in 1833 William & Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the original fort to trade with the plains Indians and the trappers. At it's peak the St. Vrain Company had three forts in Colorado and stores in Taos and Sante Fe New Mexico. The fort was on the old Sante Fe trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements to the south and west. The fort was abandoned in 1849.    Map

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site This historic site has been authorized and 920 acres have been obtained. However the National Park Service has not yet officially established the area. The site when open will feature the event that took place on November 29, 1864. On this day Colonel John M. Chivington led over 700 volunteers from southern Colorado on a raid of a Cheyenne and Arapaho village along the banks of sand creek in southeastern Colorado. During this surprise raid they killed 150 native Americans mostly women, children and older people. The act was later severely condemned by federal investigators. The park is located in far eastern Colorado on highway 96 east of Eads. Link  History

 Mesa Verde National Park. This park is located in the extreme southwest corner of the state just outside Cortez and 35 miles from Durango. This park is the home of the best preserved cliff dwellings in the US. Between 600AD and 1300 AD thousands of people lived and flourished here. In about 1200 AD they began moving out and within a generation or two they disappeared from the area. No one really knows why but opinion and ideas abound. Mesa Verde Spanish for Green Table is a must see for this type of experience is rare indeed.   Map

Dinosaur National Monument This area is located in the extreme northwestern corner of Colorado and spans westward into Utah. The key to this area was the discovery of large amounts of well preserved dinosaur bones and you can watch them work most every day at the dinosaur quarry there. It is here that the Yampa River the last natural flowing river in the Colorado River System joins the Green.  Map

Colorado National monument This area has about 20,500 acres of some of the greatest beauty in Colorado and gives the western traveling visitor a good taste of the red rock beauty to come in our neighbor Utah. Another big advantage to this park is that not every one in the US has discovered it yet and there are a minimal amount of visitors every year. One of the most spectacular drives in Colorado and maybe the nation is the 23 mile Rim Rock road which offers red rock vistas, soaring expanses of rock and some very colorful sunsets. The monument is located just south of Grand Junction Colorado.  Map

Curecanti National Recreation Area This area is primarily made up of three reservoirs. Blue Mesa Reservoir is Colorado's largest body of water and is the largest Kokanee Salmon fishery in the US. The area is also a rather new archeological district because of a newly discovered dinosaur find. There is also a narrow gauge railway here.   Map

Florissant Beds National Monument. Just west of Pikes Peak is valley that holds spectacular history of the earth's prehistoric past. The past is in clear evidence as ancient insects and plants revel a very different environment than the visitor sea's around them. Huge petrified redwoods are also in evidence too.  About 35 million years ago an enormous volcanic eruption buried this entire area and preserved it for us to see and explore. The area is west of Colorado Springs about 35 miles on highway 24 to Florissant.      Map

Yucca House National MonumentYucca House National Monument. This area is a large unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan surface site. The site is located just off the highway between Cortez and Towaoc Colorado. It can be seen at the same time as you visit Mesa Verde National Park There are no fees or facilities here yet.    Map

All Weld County National Historical Sites Link