50 Amazing Colorado Adventures

Fifty isn’t going to be enough to cover the diversity of adventures in Colorado, but it’s a great start. The Centennial State is one of the best in the nation for outdoor recreation, and it has a diversity of terrain that spans the spectrum from hot to cold, wet to dry, and low to high. It is home to four national parks, eight national monuments, and three national historic areas. Nearly a third of the state is publicly owned or managed. That’s good for everybody, and we all know it.

Bisected by the Rocky Mountains, Colorado contains virtually every recreational opportunity conceivable: Its western mountains are rich with history and archeology, four-wheel recreation, scenic drives, and winter skiing, its canyons are full of little-climbed trad routes and vertiginous cliffs, its deserts have the tallest dune in North America, and that’s without considering the endlessly explorable Front Range. This is a life’s work.

To inspire you and fairly represent the state’s wide-ranging recreation, this extensive list of adventures is state-wide and pulls from Colorado’s outdoor tradition: 14ers, mining history and archeology, alpine lakes, mountain biking, and more. You have better adventures? Share them in the comments.