Central Colorado

At the center of Colorado in the dizzying heights of the Rocky Mountains you will find a million-and-one attractions. Much of the adventure centers in iconic ski resorts like Aspen, Vail and Breckenridge. By summer, these are also great spots for hiking, mountain biking and other alpine adventures into the vast alpine wilderness found here.

In the less-known areas around South Park and Leadville you can still find world-class rafting, mountain climbing and vistas that go on for miles. There are alpine lakes to be visited, wildlife to be seen, backroads to mining ghost towns to be explored, steam trains to be ridden and much more.

It's also a place of fun-loving irreverence, wild parties and plenty of mountain-town high jinx. Part of the journey is connecting with the sun-kissed broad-smiled locals.

Explore Central Colorado

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Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Central Colorado.

  • Museum

    Barney Ford Museum

    Barney Ford was an escaped slave who became a prominent entrepreneur and Colorado civil-rights pioneer, and made two stops in Breckenridge (where he ran a…

  • Mountain

    Mt Evans

    The pinnacle of many visitors’ trips to Colorado is a drive to the alpine summit of Mt Evans, less than an hour west of Denver’s skyscrapers. It was…

  • Glacier

    St Mary's Glacier

    Wildflowers and windswept trails, boulders and snowfields – these are the disproportionately big rewards for the easy hike up to St Mary’s Glacier. It’s a…

  • Memorial

    Camp Hale

    About 16 miles north of Leadville on Hwy 24, just over Tennessee Pass, lies the former US Army facility Camp Hale. Established in 1942, it was created…

  • Museum

    Frisco Historic Park & Museum

    Set on the site of the original town saloon in 1889, and later converted into the town’s second school in 1901, this museum features a number of…

  • Museum

    Edwin Carter Discovery Center

    This award-winning museum sheds light on a pioneer lured west by the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858. He reached the Blue River valley in 1860. An original…

  • Museum

    Ice Age Discovery Center

    In October 2010, a bulldozer working near Snowmass unearthed the tusk of a female mammoth. Spurred by this unusual discovery, the Denver Museum of Nature …

  • Viewpoint

    Boreas Pass

    Originally known as Breckenridge Pass (11,481ft), this road first began serving stagecoaches in 1866 when prospectors flooded into the area from South…

  • Amusement Park

    Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

    This family-oriented destination lumps together several attractions at once: the Fairy Caves (once billed as the eighth wonder of the world), a full-on…

  • Ghost Town

    Independence

    Just 16 miles east of Aspen, at the foot of Independence Pass, this gold-mining boom town turned ghost town started as a tented camp in the summer of 1879…

  • Ghost Town

    Ashcroft

    The access point to the breathtaking Castle Creek Valley is the ghost town of Ashcroft, a silver-mining town founded in 1880. What remains are mostly…

  • Cemetery

    Linwood Cemetery

    Established in 1886, this is where John Henry ‘Doc’ Holliday was allegedly laid to rest in November 1887 (debate about this persists, since some scholars…

  • Museum

    Healy House Museum & Dexter Cabin

    Two of Leadville’s oldest surviving homes are decked out with the owners’ original gear, plus period pieces resembling what they may have enjoyed. The…

  • Historic Site

    South Park City

    South Park City has nothing to do with Cartman, Kyle, Stan or Kenny. It's a collection of 35 original buildings, built in the 1870s and 1880s in places…

  • Museum

    Aspen Art Museum

    This art museum's striking building features a warm, lattice-like exterior designed by Pritzker Prize–winner Shigeru Ban and contains three floors of…

  • Historic Site

    Matchless Mine

    This is where silver magnate and Colorado senator Horace Tabor made and then lost millions in the 1880s, and where his glamorous and sensational wife,…

  • Gallery

    Breckenridge Arts District

    This block-long stretch of historic Breckenridge is where you’ll find a burgeoning arts scene. It has a live-work art space for visiting artists, a…

  • Mine

    Lomax Placer Mine

    Here’s a chance to pan for gold, learn how old-mining-town chemists assayed the valuable claims and check out the actual sluices and flumes used in placer…

  • Library

    Rocky Mountain Land Library

    If you're a fan of libraries, you'll want to check out this 1862 ranch, which is currently being renovated to accommodate some 32,000 volumes about the…

  • Historic Building

    Redstone Castle

    Several of Redstone's original buildings are still standing, including the original chalet-style workers' cottages and John Osgood's personal residence,…

Top experiences

Whether it’s a guided tour of a historic landmark, private tasting of local delicacies, or an off-road adventure — explore the best experiences in Central Colorado.