You’ve been to a Fray concert at Red Rocks. You’ve watched the sun set behind the Flatirons during a University of Colorado football game at Folsom Field. You’ve climbed – or at least thought about climbing – a fourteener.
But really, any Kansan or Nebraskan could do the same thing. One of the benefits to living in Colorado is that not only can we talk the rock, we can walk it too. So next time your flatlander friends visit, take them to one of these beautiful, unique or just plain bizarre collections of stones and show them what living in the Rocky Mountains is all about.
Wheeler Geologic Area
This expanse of hoodoos, pinnacles and domes southeast of Creede looks as if it belongs in the Space Age, but it was actually formed about 25 million years ago.
Theory has it that the 640-acre area was covered in a volcanic rock known as tuff that spewed from the nearby San Juan mountains. Over the eons, the soft tuff eroded, creating an ever-shifting lunar landscape locals have dubbed the “city of gnomes.”
Wheeler was named a national monument in 1908 – Colorado’s first – but its out-of-the-way location made it an unpopular tourist spot. In 1950, it was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service and largely ignored. Today, the rock formations are as isolated as they were a century ago, making a visit to Wheeler an arduous but rewarding journey.
You have only a few options to visit Wheeler – by four-wheel drive (off-road, high-clearance – leave your $60,000 SUV or souped-up station wagon at home), on foot, on horseback, by bike or via an all-terrain vehicle. The single road into the area is 14 miles long and impassible when wet. The hiking trail is about 7 miles long and rated easy to moderate. Once you reach the end of the road or trail, there’s a 3-mile loop around the geological area.
To get to Wheeler, take Colorado 149 southeast from Creede 7 miles to Forest Service Road 600 (Pool Table Road). Follow Pool Table Road about 10 miles to the Hanson’s Mill camping area, where the hiking trail begins and the road becomes four- wheel-drive.
Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s Gem and Mineral Hall
After you’ve finished ogling the Titanic’s china and silver exhibits, check out the big-time bling in the Museum of Nature and Science’s geology collections.
In a series of rooms designed to look like the inside of a mine shaft, you’ll see the Alma King, a cherry-red gem half a foot in diameter. According to the museum, it’s the largest and finest rhodochrosite crystal on Earth. There’s also the largest aquamarine specimen in North America, discovered near the summit of Mount Antero in central Colorado. Or you can be dazzled by a 10,000-carat topaz from Brazil, which was once owned by surrealist Spanish painter Salvador Dali.
Hands-on exhibits help you identify the 650 types of minerals on display, including sulfur, pyrite, azurite and wulfenite. There’s also a gold and silver room featuring the 8 1/2- pound Tom’s Baby, the largest mass of crystallized gold ever found in Colorado.
Colorado National Monument
If you have only a minute to take in a lot of different rocks, head to Colorado National Monument near Fruita. In this 32-square-mile space, you’ll find canyons, plateaus and towers made from the red and white sandstone that also forms Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park in Utah.
There are hiking trails to or near some of the monument’s most spectacular sites, including the purple- gray Book Cliffs and fun stone formations, including the Kissing Couple. Or cruise along the 23-mile Rim Rock Drive, where you’ll see panoramic vistas that recall a John Wayne movie set.
I-70 Geological Point of Interest
Many people whiz by this layer cake of rock on their way to or from the mountains, but few take the time to stop and figure out just why those stripes of gray, maroon, yellow, brown and charcoal rocks are there.
Formed when the stone hogback known as Dinosaur Ridge was blasted away in 1971 to accommodate Interstate 70, this outdoor geology classroom consists of layers of claystone, mudstone, sandstone, limestone, shale and pyrite created between 95 million and 140 million years ago, when this part of Colorado was mostly flat and covered by water.
The geological point of interest is accessible on either side of I-70. Take the Morrison Road exit, and, if you’re heading west, make a right turn into the T-Rex parking lot just off the exit. If you’re heading east, make a left turn into the Stegosaurus parking lot. In the far corners of each lot, there are walkways that lead to a 300-foot fenced path that takes you along the rock formations, close enough to touch.
You’ll find signs with information like “How do sediments become rock?” Simple answer: They smush together. And if you ignore the rush of cars on the highway below, you can transport yourself to a time when dinosaurs rather than diesels ruled the area.
Huerfano Butte
Just as you think you’re about to nod off on the flat stretch of Interstate 25 north of Walsenburg, a conical formation that looks like a big pile of dirt and rocks looms over the prairie, sparking back-seat questions like, “What is that weird thing?” and “Does that mean we’re almost there?”
For centuries, travelers have asked the same questions about Huerfano Butte, a 300-foot-tall mass of slate and black basalt spotted with sagebrush, yucca and cactus. Indians and Spaniards used it as a landmark to guide them to nearby settlements and water. The Spaniards were so fond of the little butte on the prairie that they nicknamed it Huerfano, or “orphan.”
According to the Colorado Historical Society, Huerfano Butte was formed 25 million years ago as a volcanic outcrop. Others refer to it as the “volcano that never was” and believe it was created as part of the uprising that spawned the nearby Spanish Peaks.
You can pull off the highway 10 miles north of Walsenburg to check it out yourself. Although the landmark is on private land, there is a plaque containing information about this orphaned mountain wannabe.
