16 WAYS TO love SUMMER Warm Days & Cool Nights Lure You Outside Colorado’s beauty stirs a thirst to get out and enjoy every moment. Come to life hiking in Colorado’s dense backcountry, paddling canyon-carving rivers, grinning next to a wildflower-lined waterfall or wrangling a feisty rainbow trout. See how Colorado inspires everyday life through the following activities. 3 4 WILDLIFE WATCHING 1 HIKING Let your legs move you through Colorado’s hidden gems, protected wilderness areas, red rocks and high-mountain desert landscapes. View ancient petroglyphs in Mesa Verde National Park, enjoy the solitude of one of the last short-grass prairies in the world on the eastern plains or rock hop next to herds of mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness Area. COLORADO.com/Hiking & BIRDING It’s always a big year for birders in Col-orado. Let a scenic drive lead you to southeast Col-orado’s shimmering lakes where you’ll see plovers, sandpipers, cranes and gulls. Catch the annual fall elk gathering in Rocky Mountain National Park and spot eagles on Lake Granby. COLORADO. com/WildlifeViewing e 5 ROCK CLIMBING 2 RAFTING & BOATING 3 BACKPACKING & CAMPING Colorado makes it easy to get lost (intentionally, of course) in its voluptuous sand dunes, craggy peaks, rugged mining sites and forested resort-town outskirts. Grab a backpack, a tent and your favorite people and set up camp in one of Colorado’s 42 state parks, 30-plus wilderness areas, 22 million acres of nation-al forests and expansive public lands. COLORADO. com/Camping 6 MOUNTAIN & ROAD BIKING That earthy scent of pine needles warming in the sun is best absorbed while twisting along on two wheels. Communities such as Fruita and Crested Butte come together over a love of singletrack while hard-core riders reunite to crank out 60-mile sections Feel the exhilaration that early pioneers and American Indian tribes felt as they made their way across our rugged and varying landscapes. Find your giddyup at a sprawling dude ranch or trot along in the shadows of 14,000-foot mountain peaks in a national park. Dramatic backdrops and trusted trails make Colo-rado the perfect place to get in the saddle. COLORADO.com/ HorsebackRiding 9 4X4, ATV & JEEP 8 FISHING River, lake, stocked pond or on ice, TOURS To really see the backcountry, you need something a little more rugged than the rental car you picked up at the airport. Let an experi-enced guide take you over hill and dale — and boulder and stream — to see ghost towns or the view from the top of the Continental Divide. Tour companies can provide trails and excursions for all levels of ability. Compa-nies offer guided tours or self-guided rentals for your own high-adrenaline It’s hard to imagine a place looking less like Hawaii than Colorado, but one of the Aloha State’s unique pastimes has been gaining traction in the Rocky Mountains. Stand-up paddleboarding (or SUP) has water lovers standing on surf boards with a long paddle on rivers and lakes around Colorado. SUP tour companies will get you the gear you need and set you to paddlin’. 44 / COLORADO.COM CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LOVELAND PASS, CELIN SERBO; VAIL VALLEY PARAGLIDING; GATEWAY CANYONS RESORT & SPA. Landlocked Colorado will surprise you with its rushing rivers, mountain basins and deep blue reservoirs. See page 63 for the full whitewater rundown. Reach the state’s most stunning pinnacles with your own two hands. Scale the notched rock walls surrounding Fort Collins’ Horsetooth Res-ervoir. Head to Eldorado Canyon State Park and discover more than 500 routes dotted with world-class climbers or hit Shelf Road’s vertical limestone outside of Cañon City. Guide services offer beginners a foray into the school of rock. COLORADO.com/ RockClimbing 7 of highway in annual high-altitude road-biking races. Find your path and join the Colorado way of life. See page 77. Colorado’s largemouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish and famous rainbow trout await just below the surface. See page 50 for a lineup of cast-worthy locales. 10 STAND-UP PADDLEBOARDING 7 HORSEBACK RIDING
Colorado Official State Vacation Guide 2017: Page 44
