Must-see attractions in Southwest Colorado

The only way to see the superb Cliff Palace is to take the hour-long ranger-led tour. The tour retraces the steps taken by the Ancestral Puebloans –…

A fascinating, if slightly eerie, national park. Anthropologists will love it here; Mesa Verde is unique among American national parks in its focus on…

One of the few American museums dedicated to one tribe. The Ute are the traditional people of western Colorado. The museum is situated on a homestead that…

Within the borders of the Uncompahgre National Forest, this bone-rich area yielded one of the most diverse Jurassic vertebrate collections in the world…

Sold in Colorado's finest restaurants, Colterris sits in a league of its own – as a sip of its earthy, balanced Cabernet Sauvignon confirms. The inviting…

If cute were currency, Mike and Cindy McDermott would be sitting on a gold mine with their combination Alpaca and lavender farm. While Mike patiently…

The arts center hosts shifting exhibitions of local artists and a stellar schedule of live music and performance pieces. There’s always something lively…

Named for a band of the Ute tribe, the Weminuche Wilderness Area is the most extensive wilderness in Colorado, with an area of more than 700 sq miles. The…

Ute people once inhabited this entire region, from the San Luis Valley west into Utah, and, after a series of forced relocations and treaties from the…

Tickets are required for the one-hour guided tours of Balcony House, on the east side of the Cliff Palace Loop. A visit is an adventure that will…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Anasazi Heritage Center, a good stop for anyone touring the area’s archaeological sites. It’s 3 miles…

Part of the La Garita Wilderness, the dramatic stone formations of the Wheeler Geologic Area were carved by wind and rain into volcanic tuff framed by…

On Wetherill Mesa, the magnificent Long House is the second-largest cliff dwelling in the park. A strenuous place to visit, it is only reached as part of…

Exhibits on the Ancestral Puebloans, as well as art displays, make this museum worthy of a visit if you have a few hours to spare. The adjoining Cultural…

On display are a staggering number of pieces from the 1880s to the 1930s. There’s a re-created Old West town replete with storefronts, a saloon, drugstore…

A huge red rock mesa standing sentinel over the Grand Junction metropolis, the monument offers exceptional hiking, camping and road biking.

Wetherill Mesa is the second-largest concentration of sites. Visitors may enter stabilized surface sites and two cliff dwellings, including the Long House…

In AD 1270 a catastrophic earth flow moved almost 5 miles down the mountainside and dammed the Gunnison River to form Lake San Cristobal, Colorado’s…

Ridgway was the birthplace of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, a narrow-gauge rail line that connected to Durango with the ‘Galloping Goose,’ a kind of…

Designated an Archaeological Area and National Historic Site in 1970, these 4000 acres within the San Juan National Forest hold remains of 100 permanent…