Adopted as the official state bird of Colorado on April 29, 1931, the Lark Bunting is actually a migratory bird. Flocks arrive in April and inhabit the plains regions and areas up to 8,000 feet in elevation, then fly south again in September to north and central Mexico. The Lark Bunting lives in meadows, prairies [...]

Table of Contents for the Haunted Southwest Series: Haunted Hotel: The Stanley Hotel, Colorado The Vulture Mine, Wickenburg, Arizona Haunted Hotel: The San Carlos, Phoenix, Arizona The Haunted Shores of the Great Salt Lake, Utah Haunted Tombstone, Arizona Haunted Mines: Ghost, Goblins and Tommy Knockers, Southwest Ghost Camels of the Southwest Haunted Dawson Cemetary, New [...]

With the enormous snow melt from the Rocky Mountains, you would think large lakes would abound in Colorado. Oddly enough, the largest natural lake is less than a mile across. Over the past 100 years, of course, Colorado has thrown dams across many of the rivers to form reservoirs, but the state has very few [...]

Cripple Creek, elevation 9, 494 feet, just below tree line was not part of the Colorado gold rush that began in the late 1850s. It was thought the area was too high and barren of that precious metal. However, in October 1890, Robert Womack discovered extremely rich ore and the last great Colorado gold rush [...]

{openx:7}The elegant and distinguished Brown Palace Hotel is nestled in the heart of Denver, Colorado against a backdrop of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Made famous by the impressive list of celebrity clientele, this historical landmark has been a popular place for diplomats and tourists alike, looking for more than just a night’s rest. The hotel [...]

Nestled under a protective overhang of red sandstone, Manitou Cliff Dwellings near Manitou Springs, Colorado, is a fun and historical place to visit. This Anasazi pueblo dwelling was built by ancient American people who roamed the Four Corners area of the Southwestern U.S. from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300. These early people developed from hunter/gatherers [...]

La Caverna del Oro or The Cavern of Gold is the story of a legendary lost gold mine somewhere above 13,000 feet, perhaps located on Marble Mountain in Colorado just over Music Pass. Legend says that the Native Americans knew of the gold centuries before European settlers came into the area, but believed the cavern [...]

The white and lavender Columbine, Aquilegia caerulea, more commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Columbine, was voted the state flower by the school children of Colorado in 1881. Of the 22,316 votes cast, 14,472 went to the Rocky Mountain Columbine. Even though the children cast their votes in 1881, the Columbine wasn’t adopted as the [...]

{openx:2}At Hovenweep National Monument, around 800 years ago, ancestors of today’s Native American people built some of the most enigmatic structures in the Southwest. Although human habitation at Hovenweep dates to over 10,000 years ago when nomadic Paleoindians visited the area to gather food and hunt game, it wasn’t until around 1200 A.D. that the [...]

{openx:2}On December 18, 1888, Two cowboys, Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason, started up a steep canyon to the top of a high, green mesa in southwest Colorado. They were hunting for cattle that had strayed from their ranch in the Mancos Valley. On top of the Mesa, partially blinded by heavily falling snow, the men [...]