Destination Summer: On The Road
National Parks And Notable Sites In Colorado
The National Park Service oversees hundreds of designated national parks, historic sites, trails, monuments and recreation areas throughout the United States. The following is a list of those in Colorado — many of them are open year ‘round, but are particularly accessible in the summertime and make for great day or multi-day car trips from Park Hill. Maps and other information is at the national parks website, at nps.gov/index.htm.
Amache — National Historic Site
Amache, near Granada, Colo. This was one of 10 incarceration sites established by the War Relocation Authority during World War II to unjustly incarcerate Japanese Americans.
Bent’s Old Fort — National Historic Site
Features a reconstructed 1840s adobe fur trading post on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade.
California — National Historic Trail
Follow in the footsteps of over 250,000 emigrants who traveled to the gold fields and rich farmlands of California during the 1840s and 1850s: the greatest mass migration in American history. (Runs through the following states: CA, CO, ID, KS, MO, NE, NV, OR, UT, WY)
Colorado — National Monument
Colorado National Monument in Fruita preserves one of the grand landscapes of the American West.
Curecanti — National Recreation Area
Curecanti National Recreation Area in Gunnison is a series of three reservoirs along the once wild Gunnison River.
Dinosaur — National Monument
In Dinosaur, Colo. and Vernal, Utah. Dinosaurs once roamed here. Their fantastic remains are still visibly embedded in the rocks.
Florissant — National Monument
Beneath a grassy mountain valley in central Colorado lies one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world.
Great Sand Dunes — National Park and Preserve
In the San Luis Valley southwest of Denver. The tallest dunes in North America are the centerpiece in a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, forests, alpine lakes, and tundra.
Hovenweep — National Monument
In Cortez, Colo. and Blanding, Utah, Hovenweep includes six prehistoric villages built between A.D. 1200 and 1300.
Mesa Verde — National Park
For over 700 years, the Ancestral Pueblo people built thriving communities on the mesas and in the cliffs of Mesa Verde, near what is now the towns of Cortez and Mancos, Colo. Today, the park protects the rich cultural heritage of 26 tribes and offers visitors a spectacular window into the past.
Old Spanish — National Historic Trail
Follow the routes of mule pack trains across the Southwest on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California. (Runs through the following states: AZ, CA, CO, NV, NM, UT)
Pony Express — National Historic Trail
This relay system along the Pony Express National Historic Trail in eight states was the most direct and practical means of east-west communications before the telegraph. (Various States including CA, CO, KS, MO, NE, NV, UT, WY)
Rocky Mountain – National Park
70 miles northwest of Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park’s 415 square miles (265,807 acres) encompasses a spectacular range of mountain environments.
Sand Creek Massacre – National Historic Site
The Sand Creek Massacre site in Kiowa County: profound, symbolic, spiritual, controversial.
Santa Fe — National Historic Trail
This trail was a main wagon line between western Missouri and Santa Fe, NM. (Runs through the following states: CO, KS, MO, NM, OK)
Yucca House — National Monument
Yucca House National Monument in Cortez preserves a large unexcavated pueblo with a stunning setting in Montezuma Valley, nestled between Mesa Verde and Ute Mountain.
— Compiled by Cara DeGette