Colorado's busiest event season is just getting underway.  There are quite a few popular annual events in May -- take a look at the events calendar on the top menu to check them out or click on these links for a few examples:  

Telluride Mountain Film Festival, May 23-26

Boulder Creek Festival, May 24-26

Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, May 23-26

Junior College (JUCO) Baseball World Series, May 24-31

BolderBOULDER 10K Road Race, May 24-26 

To browse our feature articles, scroll down the page or click on the following links.  Older articles are archived by month under the "Article Archive" menu on the left.

Trail Ridge Road Opening (NPS)

Colorado's Historic and Scenic Railroads

Paint Mines Interpretive Park

RM Arsenal: Chemical weapons plant transformed into wildlife refuge

Canyon Rim Trail: Colorado National Monument 

Tundra Wildflowers on Trail Ridge to Bloom Soon 

Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain NP

Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the continental United States, celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2007. The road rises to an elevation of 12,183 feet, above where trees can grow. The central eleven miles of this high route traverse open, windswept alpine tundra. This route provides some of the greatest mountain views available from roadside in the nation.

The lower portions of Trail Ridge Road are open year-round. The central part of Trail Ridge Road is generally open from late May through mid-October.

Trail Ridge Road is currently opened to Colorado River Trailhead on the west and Many Parks Curve on the east. The higher elevation sections are scheduled to open Friday, May 23, 2008.

W.H. Jackson: St. Peter's Dome

W.H. Jackson: Pikes Peak Prospector

Royal Gorge Railroad

The avent of the automobile and airplane in the early 20th century doomed many of the railroads to extinction. In the past few decades, however, there has been a resurgent interest in these old trains for tourism. Colorado is in the envious position of having preserved a number of heritage trains. In addition to the ones mentioned above there are the 1891 Pikes Peak Cog Railway, the Leadville Colorado and Southern, and the Cripple Creek and Victor Railroad. If you are interested in more information on these fascinating trains, please click on the links below.

State Map: Colorado Train Rides

Cumbres and Toltec

Durango and Silverton

Georgetown Loop

Pikes Peak Cog

Royal Gorge Route

Alpine Daisies, Trail Ridge

The stark, barren surface of the wind swept "tundra" (treeless land) is transformed into a tapestry of vivid color as wildflowers begin to bloom on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park. Usually by early June the beautiful tiny blue clusters of forget-me-nots dot the landscape, and yellow snow buttercups peek through the patches of melting snow. As the spring turns to summer, a large variety of flowers bloom during the tundra's short growing season of six to ten weeks. Blooming starts in late May to early June and usually peaks about mid-July, although some flowers bloom throughout the summer.

Extreme conditions exist in the tundra -- desiccating winds, often over 100 miles per hour, extreme cold, a growing season with only about 40 frost-free days, repeated freezing and thawing cycles, and intense solar radiation. Tundra plants, most of them perennials, have unique ways of adapting to these conditions. They typically grow close to the ground to preserve energy, put out long tap roots to search for moisture, and have stems with wax or hairy coverings to preserve moisture and heat. Most of the plants are small and compact, and some contain "anthocyanin", a chemical "antifreeze" that converts sunlight into heat.

A short stay at Forest Canyon Overlook, a one mile walk at Rock Cut, or a leisurely walk along the trail at Medicine Bow Curve pullout will introduce you to the diversity of Trail Ridge's interesting wildflowers. A variety of cushion plants are found in rocky areas of the tundra such as these. The cushion plants include blue Forget-Me-Nots, pink Moss Campions, white Sandywinks (Sandwort), and bluish to white Alpine Phlox. Another variety of cushion plant is the colorful yellow Draba.  Always remember to stay on the trail if an area is designated as a "Tundra Protection Area", as these flowers are fragile.

Hoodoos at Paint Mines

Colorful clay and stone spires called "hoodoos' punctuate the landscape at Paint Mines Interpretive Park near Calhan. This El Paso County park preserves one of the few areas of its kind in Colorado. The bright red, orange, yellow, purple, and gray bands of clay that form the spires have been protected from erosion over millions of years by hard capstones. Vestiges of a ancient tropical forest remain as scattered pieces of petrified wood.

Paint Mines has been used by humans for over 9,000 years. This was a favorite hunting ground for early American Indians, who probably used the area to survey for game and entrap them. The petrified wood was used by the Indians to fashion dart and arrow points, and ceremonial paint and pottery were made from the clays. These Plains Woodland ceramics were the earliest in Eastern Colorado. Because of this rich prehistoric heritage, the area has been designated as an Archeological District in the National Register of Historic Places. In the 1800's, Euro-Americans, who settled the region for agriculture and ranching, used the clay to make bricks that were used as far away as Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Pronghorn Antelope near Paint Mines

Short Horned Lizard at Paint Mines

Visitors can hike on 4.5 miles of trails that wind through the hoodoos, prairie, and streams. Where the trails reach their highest point, snow-capped Pikes Peak can be seen rising in the distance. Although the trails are not difficult, it is advisable to bring water along and to wear waterproof shoes if hiking the stream bed section of the trail after a rain. Paint Mines is a very pleasant way to spend a half day, especially in the Spring, and is a welcome escape from the crowds and noise of the city.

Directions:  Take Highway 24 east from Colorado Springs to Calhan; turn south on Yoder Road/Calhan Highway and drive about a mile to Paint Mines Road; turn east on Paint Mines Road and drive about 1.5 miles to the first designated parking area.

RMA South Plant before cleanup (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the United States is catapulted into World War II. As a deterrent to Hitler's chemical weapons, a 27 square mile plot of farmland 10 miles northeast of Denver, Colorado, is purchased by the government for construction of a U.S. chemical weapons facility. By June 1942, construction of the new Rocky Mountain Arsenal is underway. The main road across the Arsenal is aptly named December 7th Avenue.

Today there is little to remind the casual visitor of the 40 year history of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal as a U.S. Army Facility. An unused military guard house stands at the entrance, and there are a few "No Admittance" signs on side roads. Driving along the entry road, one glances across 17,000 acres of grassland, liberally populated with a variety of wildlife including prairie dogs, deer, coyotes, eagles, hawks, burrowing owls, and many others. There is a small Visitor Center at the terminus of the entry road with interpretive displays about the wildlife, ecology, and history of the Arsenal. Tram tours to observe wildlife are given several days a week. Nine miles of hiking trails extend from the Visitor Center, winding around several small lakes. In March 2007, 16 bison from the National Bison Range in Montana were released on the Arsenal, and in May three bison calves were born. After over a century of absence, wild bison have now returned to the Denver plains, albeit in a most unlikely spot.

Wild Bison, Rocky Mountain Arsenal

So what has happened over the past 65 years to cause this metamorphosis? From 1942 until the early 1980's, the Arsenal served several purposes, including the manufacture of nerve gas and rocket propellant by the military, and the production of pesticides by Shell Oil Company. One report labeled the Arsenal "the most contaminated square mile on earth".

Rachel Carson's 1962 best-seller "Silent Spring" signaled a new public attitude about the environment that sparked a series of new laws regulating the disposal and control of hazardous wastes. In the mid-1960's, ground water contamination was discovered just outside the Arsenal, prompting demands to clean up the facility. Initial cleanup efforts began in the next decade. As the cleanup expenses mounted in the 1980's, conflict broke out between the Army, Shell Oil, and the State of Colorado concerning who would shoulder the costs and how the cleanup would be done. In 1987 the Arsenal was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund National Priorities List.

Rim Rock Trail View, Colorado NM

An excellent way to experience the Spring season is to visit Colorado National Monument and hike the Canyon Rim Trail, which offers scenic panoramic views of the canyon and plateau country of Colorado and a variety of colorful blooming plants along the way. The trail, following the cliff's edge of Wedding Canyon, stretches from the monument's Visitor Center on Rim Rock Drive to a scenic overlook at Book Cliffs View. This half-mile long trail provides a great introduction to the geology, animal, and plant life of the monument, and is especially enjoyable early in the morning or in late afternoon. 

A Visitor Center brochure identifies some of the plants found on the trail. These plants include Utah juniper, with its blue berries seen in spring and summer, Pinyon pine, Mormon tea (Ephedra), and dwarf sagebrush. Yucca, with bright white blooms in May, and prickly pear cactus, with yellow or hot pink flowers, are also plentiful. Common wildlife on the trail includes mule deer and birds, such as the bright blue scrub jay, canyon wren, and white-throated swift.  Golden eagles and red-tailed hawks are often seen gliding through the canyons. There are also several types of lizards that live in the monument and are active in spring -- Collared, Sagebrush, and Whiptail.