Welcome to the Colorado backcountry

The vast acreage of wilderness and backcountry beauty in Colorado make it one of the more popular locations for camping, backpacking, and day-hiking.

In addition to a eight National Parks and Monuments, Colorado boasts an equal number of Wilderness Areas, millions of acres of National Forest and BLM land, and over three dozen state parks.

From mountains to deserts, and grasslands to canyons, one could spend a lifetime hiking the trails of Colorado and not cover all of them.

an explosion of autumn mountain color

Heavy spring rains created a fungus that caused many aspens to drop their leaves early this year, but there were enough of those that didn't to create some spectacular landscapes.  These were taken not in the wilderness (which is filled with hunters now), but in the Crystal River valley, between Redstone and Marble, Colorado.

autumn, colors, colorado, mountains
McKee Pond, near Marble

click on this pond panorama to see it better