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Nudging the state’s eastern border, Burlington and Wray pack a helping of rural living and eastern plains heritage. Just a day trip from Denver, see the farms that bring food to your table. OLD TOWN MUSEUM IN BURLINGTON, MILES/MATT INDEN. MORNING Begin your journey in Wray with some one-of-a-kind birding. In the spring, colorful and peculiar greater prairie chickens strut and dance across local grasslands in search of mates. The ritual is such a spectacle that the Wray Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Parks & Wildlife have teamed up to offer special viewing tours. Housing one of the only permanent Smithsonian exhibits outside of Washington, D.C., the 13,500-square-foot Wray Museum features an extensive Paleo-Indian exhibit, displaying one of the largest and oldest Stone Age bison kill sites. AFTERNOON Mosey down to Burlington and treat yourself to an Old West experience. The Old Town Museum (1) contains 21 refurbished buildings filled with authentic artifacts from the early 1900s. Watch a mock gunfight or can-can dancers in the saloon, visit the old-fashioned soda fountain for a hand-dipped ice cream cone and take the kids around the interactive exhibits on pioneer life. EVENING Grab a quarter and head over to the Kit Carson County Fairgrounds to ride a National Historic Landmark. Out of the nearly 4,000 wooden carousels carved in America between 1885 and the 1930s, the fully restored 1905 Kit Carson County Carousel is one of a handful still spinning. Intricately carved wooden horses, giraffes and lions crafted by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company whirl to the tunes of a 1909 Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ. For an extra bit of fun on summer weekends, ride to the carousel on the Old Town Express, a horsedrawn wagon ride that travels between the fairgrounds and the Old Town Museum. SIDETRIPS Visit ourjourney.info to learn about 13 museums and attractions, upcoming events, off-the-beatenpath sites to explore and geocaches to discover around the region. Colorado is home to more than 450 different avian species, many of which are found in the diverse ecosystems just east of the Rockies. Lone falcons share the sky with droves of tiny white-throated swifts, owls snooze inside hollowed trees and prairie chickens strut through vast stretches of golden shortgrass. Check out COLORADO.Com/TopBirdingTrails to learn more. STAY & PLAY OPTIONS Burlington (page 198), Wray QUICK TIP The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Museum commemorates the first radio-wave telephone system in the US, which made Cheyenne County the technological center of the telephone world in the 1940s.
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