Click here to read Part 2: The Local Favorites and Part 3: The Hidden Gems.
1. Maroon Lake
The Scene: An alpine lake perfectly positioned to reflect the image of the Maroon Bells, two purple-and-white-striped peaks. The idyllic display lures photographers with tripods trying to find new angles, fly fishers arcing their lines upon its placid waters and hikers humbled by the panorama. Nearby Towns: Aspen, Snowmass
2. Dallas Divide
The Scene: No other place in Colorado encompasses such a variety of settings in one view: ranch country, rolling foothills giving way to aspen, spruce and fir trees, and peaks so jagged it seems they were carved yesterday. Visitors in autumn find a rainbow of blue skies, plum-colored mountains, orange and gold leaves, and outstretched green meadows. Nearby Towns: Ridgway, Telluride
3. Trappers Peak
The Scene: Off the Flat Tops Trail and set in the Flat Tops Wilderness, just beyond serene Trapper’s Lake and a swath of 60-foot spruce trees, sits this striking plateau. Because of its level summit, hikers can walk along this most iconic Flat Top, glimpsing dozens of tiny lakes below. Nearby Towns: Meeker, Yampa
4. Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
The Scene: Every spring, a wide, shallow and gently flowing creek emerges from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains behind Great Sand Dunes National Park to form a oasis for those waiting to build sandcastles and cool off in its divinely chilly waters. Just as quickly, come summer, the creek disappears for another year. Nearby Towns: Alamosa, Mosca
5. Pikes Peak
The Scene: Christened America’s Mountain for its part in inspiring the words to “America the Beautiful,” Pikes Peak's 14,107-foot-high summit is busier than most of the state’s tallest peaks. It bustles with lovers of spacious skies and purple-mountain majesties who arrive via winding road or hearty hike. Nearby Towns: Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs
6. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre
The Scene: Massive, slanting red-rock outcroppings rise from the earth to create the acoustically ideal natural Red Rocks Amphitheater. Hikers explore every curious crevice and concertgoers savor the crystal-clear sounds that emanate from its famous sandstone-surrounded stage. Nearby Towns: Morrison, Lakewood, Golden, Denver
7. City Park, Denver
The Scene: Looking west from the park’s lake offers a snapshot of what makes Denver such a special place. The surrounding stretch of green gives way to downtown’s skyscrapers. And beyond those, the Front Range mountains — skyscrapers of a different sort — cut through the sky, reminding residents of the playground that awaits when they leave the office. Nearby Town: Denver
8. Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
The Scene: At sunrise, the lake’s waters mirror the light show displayed on the snow-capped mountains behind it. The sun takes full advantage of the Continental Divide’s unobstructed exposure, turning the peaks inside Rocky Mountain National Park a brilliant shade of pink. Nearby Town: Estes Park
9. Painted Wall, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
The Scene: Pinkish-white veins of rock infiltrate the otherwise dark cliff face of the tallest vertical wall in Colorado. Ascending 2,300 feet from the Gunnison River, the cliff face is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s signature vista. Nearby Towns: Gunnison, Montrose, Crawford, Hotchkiss
10. Pawnee Buttes
The Scene: Vibrant green shortgrass sways in the wind as far as the eye can see. The only interruption in the endless flat horizon is two 300-foot-high mesas, the Pawnee Buttes, visible from miles around. These “two sentinels of the plains,” as dubbed by author James Michener, are the only companions of the remote area’s pronghorns, coyotes, kit foxes, hawks and falcons. Nearby Towns: Sterling, Grover
11. Royal Gorge Bridge
The Scene: From the cars of the Royal Gorge Route Railroad — which traverses a 120-year-old route along the rushing whitewater of the Arkansas River — passengers gaze 1,200 feet up a sheer-walled canyon at North America’s highest suspension bridge, which spans the breathtaking gorge. Nearby Town: Cañon City
12. Steamboat Rock, Dinosaur National Monument
The Scene: Amid Dinosaur National Monument's red- and purple-streaked sandstone mesas and canyons, a 1,000-foot-high, mile-long monolith emerges at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Through the summer, rafters swing around this curve on a rollercoaster ride built by Mother Nature. Nearby Towns: Dinosaur
13. Hanging Lake
The Scene: Appearing to cling to the edge of a mountainside, the almost supernaturally green Hanging Lake is surrounded by moss-covered rocks and a meandering trail. Wisps of water cascade quietly off a cliff into the lake’s still depths, adding to an already surreal atmosphere. Nearby Town: Glenwood Springs
14. Fish Creek Falls
The Scene: The falls are spectacular any time of year, but they are most breathtaking in the spring. When temperatures rise and the snowmelt reaches its peak and winds its way downhill, water whooshes over Fish Creek’s cliff, emitting a thunderous sound and a gentle spray that serves as a cool reward to those who’ve trekked in to see the water works. Fish Creek Falls is a rare cascade in that it has an overlook that's accessible to wheelchair users. Nearby Town: Steamboat Springs
15. Grand Lake
The Scene: Each summer, the state’s largest natural lake serves as the embodiment of a bucolic, lazy day. Shore dwellers can while away an entire afternoon watching red, yellow and white sails catch the mountain wind and skitter across the sapphire-hued water, which has Rocky Mountain National Park as its backdrop. Nearby Towns: Grand Lake, Granby
16. Garden of the Gods
The Scene: Those who walk the trails that run around and between Garden of the Gods' otherworldly red-rock figures search for geologic formations in the shapes of kissing camels, cathedral spires, praying hands and sleeping giants — and a few that seem to teeter in gravity’s grip. Nearby Towns: Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs
17. Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park
The Scene: Staircases, sunken niches, multistory towers and more than 150 rooms carved out of rock thousands of years ago by the area’s Ancestral Puebloans sit abandoned by their creators beneath a protective cliff inside the Mesa Verde National Park. Nearby Towns: Cortez, Dolores, Mancos