Colorado is also home is 42 state parks, 11 national forests, four national parks and two national recreation areas. Visitors to these parks, including Rocky Mountain National Park (nps.gov) can engage several outdoor activities from hiking to ATV riding, and horseback riding to camping. Mesa Verde (nps.gov), one of Colorado's four national parks, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and offers a glimpse the life of the ancestral Pueblo people. The park has 600 cliff dwellings dating back over 700 years, and guided tours are available to the Cliff Palace, Balcony House and Long House.
Tracing its roots to 1858, Denver (denver.org) is Colorado's most populous city. Among the cities attractions are several museums, including the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (dmns.org) -- with dinosaurs, dioramas, space exhibits, digital planetarium and IMAX theater. The city of Colorado Springs (visitcos.com) is never far from outdoor recreation. Just five miles from the state's second most populous city is a cog railway (cograilway.com) that travels above the timber line to the top of scenic Pikes Peak, or visitors can hike to the 14,115-foot summit.
Mountain towns in the Rocky Mountains and the San Juan Mountains are bases for 26 ski and snowboard areas. Colorado's largest ski area, the 5,289-acre Vail Mountain (vail.com) ski resort, is 100 miles west of Denver. The cozy town of the same name features luxury hotels and restaurants. Many ski areas, including Aspen (aspenchamber.org) and its three nearby resorts, the expansive Winter Park Resort (winterparkresort.com) and the former mining town of Breckenridge (breckenridge.snow.com), are year-round destinations with hiking, mountain biking, fishing and other recreational opportunities possible in warmer months.
Visitors can explore disappearing settlements that were once bustling mining communities. From Durango, vintage steam trains (durangotrain.com) take visitor to the former mining town of Silverton. Once there, inns that once served as miners' residences welcome guests, such as the Wyman Hotel and Inn (thewyman.com). The town serves as a base for exploring the nearby abandoned mining outposts and scenic summits of the San Juan Mountains by all-terrain vehicles. If driving, the Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray, another former mining town to the north, offers hairpin turns and stunning panoramic vistas.
