Explore The Best Of Colorado On A Road Trip Through Its Iconic Natural Wonders

On U.S. maps, Colorado looks like a near-perfect rectangle, though its state lines are actually squiggly enough to give it 697 sides. Its general shape and layout nonetheless facilitate the perfect road trip, where you can circle around all four of Colorado's national parks, other famous natural wonders, and the state's two biggest cities. Unlike some road trip routes, where you would drive one-way or backtrack, this one keeps putting new sights on the road ahead even though it begins and ends in the same place.

Denver is your starting point for an epic, 1,000-mile journey. The city is home to everything from the Colorado State Capitol, where the dome color symbolizes the Gold Rush, to the International Church of Cannabis, where rainbow colors come alive in laser light shows. In the LoHi neighborhood, hit the rooftop deck at Root Down to dine on seasonal fare and fresh veggies grown in an on-site garden. Save room for dessert at Little Man Ice Cream, if only for the novelty of ordering from a 28-foot-tall milk can.

From Denver, it's a 65-mile drive to Rocky Mountain National Park, passing through Boulder on a turnpike that was the first U.S. toll road to pay off its construction costs and become a freeway. Park the car, and you can explore the Continental Divide while hiking out and back along the East Shore Trail. Stay in the car, and you can still appreciate the splendor of the Colorado Rockies as you snake up Trail Ridge Road. It starts in Estes Park, where even non-guests can take The Shining Tour of The Stanley, a must-visit hotel for horror movie fans.

The Rocky Mountains may be Colorado's most-visited national park (and one of the top five in the U.S.), but the Maroon Bells are said to be the country's most-photographed mountain peaks. You'll find them about 175 miles away, just outside Aspen, where mountain views make Ashcroft Ghost Town a worthy visit, too. When the light catches them just right, the peaks truly do look maroon, thanks to the light red shale and siltstone makeup of the rock formation.

Next stop: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Like the Grand Canyon in Arizona, it has a North and South Rim, the latter of which is more developed. Follow U.S. Highway 50, a continuation of Nevada's "loneliest road," through Montrose, then turn onto Colorado Highway 347, which becomes South Rim Drive. You'll enjoy a winding, seven-mile drive through the park, with a dozen scenic overlooks from Tomichi Point to High Point (where the road loops around and takes you back the way you came).

What makes Black Canyon unique is that its depth is greater than its width in many places. You can visit some of North America's steepest cliffs at this national park. The canyon, hewn out of volcanic rock by the Gunnison River, plunges 2,250 feet at the Painted Wall Overlook, where you'll see pink pegmatite veins streaking Colorado's tallest cliff. Two other popular overlooks with breathtaking views are Gunnison Point and Pulpit Rock. The former is located right behind the South Rim Visitor Center, which is as far as you can go in winter when the road closes to cars.

The three-hour drive from Black Canyon to Mesa Verde National Park takes you by the picturesque mountain town of Telluride, known for its ski resort and long-running film festival every Labor Day weekend. Cliff dwellings, built hundreds of years ago by the Ancestral Pueblo people, are the highlight of Mesa Verde. The biggest one in North America, Cliff Palace, is accessible from May to October on ranger-led tours, reservable through Recreation.gov.

Anyone with a fear of heights or tight spaces might want to sit out the Balcony House tour. It involves laddering up a steep cliffside and crawling through a tunnel only a foot and a half wide. Mesa Verde also has some challenging yet rewarding hikes, like the Petroglyph Point Trail, where you'll move between boulders and down stone stairs to see ancient rock carvings. Near the trailhead (from the Spruce Tree House Overlook) and on the Long House Loop (an easier, paved trail), you'll see the park's next two largest cliff dwellings from a distance.

Back in the car, you could share the road with a horse-drawn carriage as you make your way through historic downtown Durango to the fourth and final national park on this trip. Located about 220 miles from Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes National Park has a name that speaks for itself. This is where Colorado visitors trade the usual snowboarding for sandboarding and sand sledding down the tallest dunes on the continent. An International Dark Sky Park, Great Sand Dunes is open 24 hours, and the lack of light pollution makes it ideal for stargazing.

Just because you're done with national parks after Great Sand Dunes doesn't mean you're done with scenic nature spots in Colorado. A 165-mile drive east along US-160 and north on I-25 will take you to Colorado Springs, where you can get lost in the Garden of the Gods, a National Natural Landmark spanning over 1,300 acres. Distinguished by eye-catching rock formations like the Three Graces, the park has bike, segway, and horseback riding tours. Or you can just drive through (for free) at 20 miles per hour alongside jeep and trolley tours.

Garden Drive runs right between two of the most interesting formations: Balanced Rock and Steamboat Rock. In the Visitor and Nature Center, you can see the 125-million-year-old skull of a new dinosaur species, Theiophytalia kerri, discovered in the park. It's only 25 miles by toll road from Garden of the Gods to the summit of Pike's Peak. From Memorial Day weekend to September, you need a timed entry permit to visit the peak, where Kathy Lee Bates began writing the song lyrics for "America the Beautiful" while gazing out across "purple mountain majesties."

The Colorado Springs area is also home to beautiful waterfalls like Helen Hunt Falls, along with the National Museum of World War II Aviation and the U.S. Air Force Academy. With 17 spires reaching for the sky, Cadet Chapel, the most-visited human-built attraction in Colorado, is under renovation until 2027. If you flew in like a cadet and rented a car for this trip, you can return it down the road in Denver and take solace in knowing you're using America's most sustainable airport.