Blue skies with clouds over lookout view of Garden of the Gods

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Southeast Colorado

Colorado’s arid southeast is a place of high desert landscapes backed by craggy peaks and flat-topped mesas, where silvery sage and scraggly juniper morphs into the great aspens and pines of the central mountains. There's no shortage of glory-hallelujah scenery in this quiet corner of the state, and the dramatic and at times surreal vistas may leave you speechless.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Garden of the Gods
Colorado Springs
This gorgeous vein of red sandstone (about 290 million years old) appears elsewhere along Colorado's Front Range, but the exquisitely thin cathedral…
Pikes Peak
Southern Front Range
Pikes Peak (14,110ft) may not be the tallest of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, but it's certainly the most famous. The Ute originally called it the Mountain…
Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge
Southeast Colorado
This wildlife refuge on the banks of the Rio Grande is a special spot, and will give you some idea of what the valley must have looked like before it was…
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Southeast Colorado
Landscapes collide in a shifting sea of sand at Great Sand Dunes National Park, making you wonder whether a spaceship has whisked you to another planet…
Stations of the Cross
Southeast Colorado
Following a path up a small hill, local sculptor Huberto Maestas’ 15 dramatic life-sized statues of Christ's crucifixion are a powerful testament to the…
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
Colorado Springs
This expansive museum and 400-seat theater originally opened in 1936. The museum’s collection is surprisingly sophisticated, with some terrific Latin…
Trinidad History Museum
Southeast Colorado
This is a lot of museum, a full city block in fact, set smack dab on Main St. There are three sights here: the adobe Baca House (1870), the French-style…
Royal Gorge Bridge & Park
Southern Front Range
In 1929 this 1260ft-long suspension bridge was built across the 950ft-deep Royal Gorge, which stretches for 10 miles west of Cañon City. The bridge and…