You'll climb to the summit of 14,110-ft. Pike's Peak (by cog railway, in your own car, or under your own power). You'll stand at the foot of a 450 ft. sandstone monolith in the Colorado National Monument, scramble to the top of 700 ft. high mounds of sand in the Grand Sand Dunes National Monument, and float down rivers whose waters started as trickles atop the Continental Divide, running pall mall to the nearest ocean.

You'll come face to face with Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and long haired white mountain goats that always seem to be in a state of molting.

You'll learn the meaning of purple mountain majesty in the midst of drop-dead scenic panoramas such as Rocky Mountain National Park's Trail Ridge Road, where 14,000-ft. peaks are at eye level.

But, we're not just a pretty place on the map. Our cities, with their museums, galleries, coveted shopping, professional sports teams, live theater, amphitheater music concerts, fairgrounds and amusement parks make your stay fun-packed as well as educational and inspirational..

You can chow down on buffalo burgers, rattlesnake sausage, five-alarm chili and barbecue to die for. You can be swept up a mountain to dine on six courses at its summit. Or take along a llama who's toting your gourmet lunch. Or attend one of many resort tasting festivals for a soupcon from each restaurant.

You can sleep under the stars in hundreds of campgrounds, be charmed to tears at quaint bed and breakfasts, or stay at one of our Best Western properties.

NATIONAL PARKS
The numbers are staggering. Colorado is privileged to be home to 11 national parks and monuments, 17 national forests, and 40 state park and recreation areas. What does this say about us? We're fun; we're dramatically impressive; we're full of contrasts; and we're as big as the great outdoors.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, less than two hours northwest of Denver, is our "most" park-most visited, most popular, and most awesome. A gaggle of 14-ers (peaks over 14,000-ft.), and a highway that puts you almost eye-to-eye with their summits, Trail Ridge Road, is the country's highest continuous paved byway Here, tundra flowers, barely a quarter-inch in diameter, bloom above timberline. In the valleys, keep your wildlife checklists handy; you're bound to fill the page with sightings of hawks, eagles, coyote, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and even hundreds of species of butterflies.

If you're fortunate enough to be here during the elk rut in early fall, you'll hear the males bugle-a hauntingly melodious call that remains with you forever.

The park's eastern gateway is from Estes Park, a mountain charmer with 300 shops and restaurants; at the western gateway is Grand Lake, majestic with its 150-mile shoreline.

Kids love the GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL MONUMENT. No wonder-700-ft. high dunes of sand to climb, roll or four-wheel drive down. These miles of piles stretch along the San Luis Valley floor, against a backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in southern Colorado.

At MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, in the southwestern comer of the state, evidence of the ancient Anasazi civilization remains in their marvelously engineered cliff dwellings. Here, you can explore their ceremonial kivas, and wander through their mountainside homes.

From ancient civilizations to Jurassic parks (without the live guys) the FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT is a testament to the time when this central mountain region west of Pike's Peak used to be an inland sea. More than 80,000 specimens of fish, insects, pine cones, fragile butterflies, and petrified sequoia trunks are dramatic reminders of a forgotten time.

Lest we forget the dinosaurs populating Colorado's lowlands, DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT, up in the northwest region, and the Grand Valley near Grand Junction, are paleontologists' playgrounds. Rated as two of the most scientifically important areas in the world, dinosaur remains are discovered here almost daily

Also, near Grand Junction, the 20,000 acre canyon area of arches, spires and natural monoliths in the COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT show what millions of years of rain and wind can do to a landscape. The 23-mile Rim Rock Drive through the park is so spectacular, you suffer sensory overload.

In western Colorado, near Montrose, the BLACK CANYON OF THE GUNNISON NATIONAL MONUMENT, lets you peer deep, 3,000-ft. deep, into one of the narrowest gorges in the world. While, near Colorado's eastern border, BENT'S OLD FORT NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, is a reconstructed 1830's fur trading fort, a major commercial stop along the Santa Fe Trail. Today, it's furnished with antiques and artifacts excavated at the fort site.

NATIONAL FORESTS
When 15 million acres of Colorado are under national forest domain, this means the U.S. Forest Service has reserved the land for your recreation, adventure and travel, as well as the government's natural resource development and land preservation. Within their boundaries, you'll find historic sites, ghost towns, scenic byways over mountain passes, and preserves of shortgrass prairies.

STATE PARKS
Catering to everyone's recreational wishes, are Colorado's state parks, open year-round and as varied as the state's topography. There are 500 miles of hiking trails in the high country and on the plains. Paved biking routes, warm and cold water fishing, sandy beaches for swimming and waterfront camping, lakes and reservoirs for water skiers, jet skiers, sailors, motorboat jocks and windsurfers.
There are parks with total RV hook-ups and services, those with access for the physically challenged, and more than 3,000 campsites for rugged, backcountry types to those used to the comforts of civilization.

THE ARTS
As soon as the snow melts in spring, until the aspen leaves turn gold in fall, there are music, art, film, theater, crafts, food and wine festivals up and down the Front Range, on the state's western slope, and at every major mountain resort. Some towns, such as Snowmass and Telluride, are so event-oriented, there's a festival scheduled every summer weekend.
Music groups clamor to be in the line-up of performances at Red Rocks, the dramatic, natural sandstone amphitheater in the foothills west of Denver. At the other end of town, Fiddlers Green hosts music groups several times each week.

Boulder covets its Colorado Music and Shakespeare Festivals; this artsy town surrounding the Colorado University campus, is a culture capital.

Opera, in English, resonates in the century old Victorian Theater in Central City, the mining town famous for its Face on the Bar Room Floor.

At the Gerald Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Bravo! Colorado schedules a summer of classical performances with visits from the Russian Bolshoi Ballet. Meanwhile, over the pass, the National Repertory Orchestra and Breckenridge Music Institute give classical and popular concerts in this town's Riverwalk Center.

Internationally acclaimed musicians perform at the Aspen Music Festival (with visiting concerts in Salida), As one of the nation's premier music events, the Aspen festival put this town on the summer map decades ago.

There's bluegrass and jazz at Telluride, country western in Grand junction, and America's second largest arts complex in Denver hosts music, dance and Broadway theater productions year-round.

A most unusual event takes places each June and July in the forests of Larkspur, south of Denver. The Colorado Renaissance Festival brings you back centuries in time, with jousting knights on horseback, medieval crafts, magicians, jugglers, fortune tellers and feasting with maidens, knaves, oafs and monks.

Art galleries fill Front Range and mountain towns. Salida, alone, has 53; in Estes Park, more than 200 artists' works may be viewed and purchased, Outdoor arts and crafts shows line the streets of Snowmass, Durango, Dillon, Breckenridge, and Steamboat Springs, pen where photography workshops also are popular. Festivals in Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge are extremely popular and attract the top creative hands from across the country.

The largest outdoor art celebration in Colorado is the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in this tony area of Denver. Only the finest artists, craftspersons, sculptors, potters and photographers make the strict juried selections for exhibition at this anticipated annual event each Fourth of July weekend.

Statewide food tasting festivals let local chefs strut their stuff. This is the chance to sample signature dishes from the finest resort restaurants. The Taste of the Summit, in late June, summons chefs from restaurants in the world-class resorts of Keystone, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge in addition to the towns of Dillon, Frisco and Silverthorne. Breckenridge, itself, with more than 100 fine restaurants in this restored Victorian mining town, holds its tasting over the Memorial Day weekend, combining it with cooking demonstrations. The posh resort of Beaver Creek shares its delicious secrets in a summer tasting fete. And, in early fall, Grand junction celebrates its newest harvest with a wine festival and tastings from its critically acclaimed six wineries.

Hot air balloon festivals are feasts for the eyes. Mass ascensions in Snowmass, Steamboat Springs and Telluride are spectacular summer traditions. Pilots challenge each other's maneuvers with tests of skill, while visitors engage-in sensory overload.

Then there's Oktoberfest, usually celebrated in late September to coincide with the turning of the aspens. Beer, brats, music and dancing herald the start of fall in scores of towns.

For more information contact:

Colorado Department of Tourism

or visit their web-site at:
http://www.state.co.us