Colorado’s 5 Best-Kept Secret Destinations To Visit, According To Travel Bloggers

According to The Colorado Sun, the Centennial State drew in additional than 93 million guests in 2023. Winter sports activities, the delights of the Denver metro space, and day-tripping alternatives are only a few of the foremost components that contribute to the state’s attraction. One factor is for positive: There’s a lot to get by means of, and you possibly can spend a lifetime exploring all of it. Colorado has the hovering peaks of the ever-popular Rocky Mountain National Park, the mountain climbing mecca of Pikes Peak, and arguably the very best snowboarding within the U.S. as a complete.

But what you won’t know is that there stay hidden gems, off-the-beaten-path attracts, and native secrets and techniques on this land between the desert plateaus, the Great Plains, and the Rockies. That’s the place this information is available in. We’ve put collectively an inventory of 5 of Colorado’s best-kept secrets and techniques, all of that are persistently talked about by the vacationers and locals who know them finest, as talked about throughout a variety of blogs and publications devoted solely to this subject.

Prepare for a critically various mixture of issues. Great canyons meet huge geology parks on this listing, and bison-trodden reserves sit alongside curious fairy-tale castles constructed deep within the forests. It’s an inventory of lesser-known locations that we have curated to stoke wanderlust in hikers, historical past buffs, household vacationers, and journey lovers alike.

The primary most advisable hidden gem within the Centennial State we got here throughout whereas scouring the web was this wild cut-out of canyons, mesas, and valleys on the western aspect of the Rocky Mountains. Situated some 12 miles to the northeast of the city of Montrose, and simply shy of 1.5 hours’ drive from the town of Grand Junction, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a pure surprise whose cliff views will go away you breathless.

Visitors come right here to gaze over the sting of an amazing gorge that drops 2,000 feet into the canyon and the Gunnison River under. It was cast over the course of billions (yep — billions!) of years, so it showcases a number of the oldest geological formations on the North American continent. But even with these spectacular options, the place nonetheless would not draw such massive crowds as different regional reserves, such because the well-known Arches National Park over the state line in Utah, on to the west.

The South Rim Scenic Drive is a jaw-dropping intro to the entire park. It’s solely 7 miles lengthy, however it results in a sequence of precipitous lookout factors, similar to Pulpit Rock, with its head-on views straight into the canyon, and Dragon Point, the place the rock’s veins are stated to kind the shapes of legendary creatures. Some well-rated mountain climbing trails skirt the sting of the canyon, too. Take the Rim Rock Nature Trail for a reasonably flat romp of simply 2 miles with good views the entire method. Alternatively, there’s the tougher Oak Flat Loop Trail, which dips a bit into the canyon on paths shrouded by oaks and aspens.

Several of the journey bloggers we reviewed in our search singled out the architectural marvel of Bishop Castle as one in every of Colorado’s best-kept secrets and techniques. It’s hardly shocking it will get a lot reward — it is like one thing you’d discover in a fantasy story. Rising from the perimeters of the San Isabel National Forest simply off the Greenhorn Highway about an hour south of Cañon City, it has all the pieces you’d count on of a bona fide fairy-tale fort, from a sprawling nice corridor fronted with floor-to-ceiling home windows to hovering turrets and roofs adorned with metalwork dragons.

The entire factor is the brainchild of only one man, a sure James Roland Bishop, dubbed “Jim Bishop, the Castle Builder” over on the official website for the distinctive vacation spot. The story goes that Jim initially constructed a humble, one-room abode for himself and his spouse, however saved including increasingly more additions through the years to finally create the citadel seen at this time, which rises to 160 toes.

Apparently, people can come to go to throughout daytime with none cost, however there are additionally strict notices that they accomplish that at their very own danger, since this stays an energetic constructing zone. Former guests on Reddit are additionally fast to level out that the fort won’t be the most secure place round, with one touch upon the r/Colorado subreddit studying: “I went to the very top of each tower during the winter when it was icy… about the scariest and most dangerous thing I’ve done in my life”.

The Wheeler Geologic Area is hidden amid the large, 1.8-million-acre vastness that’s the Rio Grande National Forest of southwestern Colorado. Only it is however a small sprint of that bigger entire, protecting a humble 60 acres in all. But small issues can are available in gasp-inducing packages on this state, and so it’s right here, the place a sequence of hoodoo spires and surprisingly shaped peaks are framed by the San Juan massifs above and inexperienced swathes of evergreens under.

The space is the product of round 30 million years of abrasion and volcanic metamorphoses, which flooded this a part of the mountains in silt, minerals, and dust that point, wind, and rain would erode to kind the curious tuff-stone shapes you come nose to nose with now.

How’s all that remained such a well-kept secret, you ask? Simple. It’s not straightforward to get to. The journal and information to Denver and the Rockies, 5280, hails this spot as one of many state’s “most beautiful — and least accessible — landscapes.” Indeed, getting here’s a little bit of an ordeal, however an journey nonetheless. You’ll must drive up Highway 149 after which skirt the Rio Grande River earlier than parking the automobile at Hanson’s Mill. There, you both swap to an off-roader or hit the path — a 7.5-mile romp by means of the wilderness to succeed in the primary lookouts over the distinctive geological wonders of Wheeler.

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge additionally managed to clock a number of mentions throughout the top-ranking blogs about Colorado’s best-kept secret locations and is additional proclaimed a “hidden gem” by Colorado.com, the state’s official tourism web site. The refuge stays a relative secret regardless of (or maybe due to) its considerably out-in-the-open location, sitting a mere 20 minutes’ drive from the very beating coronary heart of Denver.

It appears as if some Denverites cannot fairly consider it is nonetheless below the radar, both. One native commenting on a thread about Rocky Mountain Arsenal on the r/Denver subreddit stated, “It baffles me that the Arsenal is not a lot more popular among Denver folks. I go there for trail running and biking and see more amazing wildlife … than people.”

Sitting on 16,000 acres of former weapons-testing territory left over from World War II, the refuge is now one of the intriguing ecological websites within the U.S., a mosaic of swaying prairie grasses, wildflowers, and restored native habitats. The spotlight needs to be the designated driving route that cuts by means of the center of it, on which you may whizz previous bison herds, see coyotes, and even, perhaps, uncommon ferrets. The spot is open each day from dawn to sundown, however it closes for main holidays.

Bringing up the tip of this listing of Colorado’s most under-the-radar locations is the Paint Mines Interpretive Park of El Paso County. Like the Wheeler Geologic Area earlier than it, this one shines on account of its distinctive rocks and pure geological options. It’s a land of surprisingly coloured stone spires, rainbow-tinted canyons, and mushroom-shaped sandstone bluffs that loom over the paths. It additionally occurs to be the place you’ll find a few of Colorado’s finest stargazing.

The Paint Mines is likely one of the few websites on this listing to be positioned on the japanese aspect of Colorado. It sits simply off Highway 24, about an hour’s drive out of Colorado Springs. It covers 750 acres, provides a number of parking heaps for guests, and is free to enter.

Pulling on the mountain climbing boots is one of the best ways to actually delve into the center of the reserve. The Paint Mines Interpretive Trail is the positioning’s hottest path, stretching 3.4 miles from begin to end. It includes pitstops at a sequence of informative plaques, one in every of which tells the story of the 9,000 years of human habitation recorded right here. Keep look ahead to lizards and pink foxes as you stroll — they’re typically in attendance over within the japanese prairie.

This listing of probably the most attractive hidden-gem locations in Colorado comes from our evaluation of top-ranking weblog posts on the subject and cross-referencing these mentions with testimonials from locals and vacationers who’ve been to those locations. 

We trawled by means of every weblog and listicle that we might discover that we additionally deemed related to the subject. Every time a location was talked about, we awarded it a degree, including further factors for every subsequent point out of the identical place. We ended up with an inventory of over 50 candidates, however solely seven emerged with two or extra factors. 

We then sprinkled a bit editorial magic into that ultimate grouping, putting spots with probably the most mentions towards the highest and breaking ties primarily based on our personal hands-on journey data of the American West.