HOME

PLACES

Colorful Colorado

Colorado is the rectangle shaped state in the western United States. The Rocky Mountains, form the most dominant physical feature of the state. To the west of the Rockies lie the high plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, and to the east are the Great Plains. High, rugged mountains and plateaus occupy fully two-thirds of the state, and make Colorado a state of striking beauty. All of Colorado is more than 3300 feet above sea level. The state, with an average elevation of about 6800 feet, is the highest of all the states.

Colorado's central location in the United States made it a necessary crossing point for many railroads. Despite the state's rugged terrain, railroad workers managed to complete the railroad sections that crossed the state. Today, the Durango-Silverton Railroad provides a scenic journey through the mountains for visitors to the state.
Todd Powell/ProFiles West

Leadville, Colorado, is the highest incorporated city in the United States at an elevation of about 10,200 feet above sea level. Named for its abundant deposits of lead ore with a substantial silver content, Leadville became a large mining town only 20 years after it was founded in 1860. People from all over the country flocked to the town to mine gold, silver, zinc, and copper, as well as lead. Visitors to the town can still view some of its original buildings, pictured here.
Frank Staub/ProFiles West

The mountains and plateaus are rich in gold, silver, and other minerals and are the source of most of the state's water. The mountains have played a major role in the development of Colorado, most recently by attracting a steady flow of tourists, but they have also been a barrier to travel, communication, and settlement. Except for small cities and towns in the sheltered river valleys and mountain basins, most of western Colorado is sparsely populated.

In contrast, eastern Colorado has flat, treeless plains that extend from the Rockies to the Nebraska and Kansas state lines. Cultivated where there is sufficient moisture or irrigation, they consist of croplands and grasslands. On the plains just east of the Rockies is Denver, which is the state capital, the center of the state's largest metropolitan area, and a major city of the Western United States.

The state's name, Colorado, is a Spanish word meaning "reddish colored." It was the name early Spanish explorers gave to the Colorado River, which originates in the state. When Colorado became a territory in 1861, William Gilpin, the first territorial governor, formally requested that it be called by the old Spanish name. Colorado was admitted to statehood on August 1, 1876, during the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and today its official nickname is the Centennial State.

Famous for its portion of the Rocky Mountains, the state of Colorado has spectacular lowlands as well. The Colorado River, measuring 1450 miles in its entirety, has carved a number of deep canyons and gorges along its path through the state.

Will Landon/ALLSTOCK, INC.

The quaking aspen is a common sight in Colorado. The tree takes its name from its compressed leafstalks, which readily flutter in a breeze. Livestock and livestock products account for about 70 percent of Colorado's income derived from agriculture. Here, sheep graze in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado.

Allen Russell/ProFiles West

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Colorado ranks eighth among the states in size. It has an area of 104,100 square miles, including 371 square miles of inland waters. The state is rectangular in shape, measuring 387 miles from east to west and 276 miles from north to south. Colorado straddles the Continental Divide, which separates rivers flowing to the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In Colorado the lands west of the divide are referred to as the Western Slope, while those to the east are often called the Eastern Slope.

The Sawatch Mountains form part of the Continental Divide, which runs through western Colorado. The divide, the main watershed boundary of the North American continent, weaves through the continent along the tops of the Rocky Mountains. It marks the point at which all rivers to the east flow toward the Atlantic Ocean or South to the Gulf of Mexico and all rivers to the west flow toward the Pacific Ocean.

Allen Russell/ProFiles West

Natural Regions

Colorado includes parts of three major physical graphic areas of the western United States. They are, from east to west, the Great Plains, the Southern Rocky Mountains, and the Colorado Plateau. In addition, Colorado includes small sections of two other natural regions, the Wyoming, or Green River, Basin and the Rocky Mountains, which lie in the extreme northwest. Both of these regions are, like the Southern Rocky Mountains, part of the vast Rocky Mountain System.

The Great Plains, a broad expanse of flat or rolling prairies that extend from Alberta to Texas, cover the eastern third of Colorado. They rise gently from about 4000 feet above sea level along the Kansas state line to about 7000 feet above sea level at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. The plains are used mainly for growing wheat and other crops and for grazing cattle.

Visitors from all over the world travel to Colorado every year to climb the state's mountains. Varying in difficulty, most of the climbs provide hikers with some of the most breathtaking scenery in the country. These hikers view the magnificent Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area in the state's Sawatch Range after mastering Mount Harvard.

Frank Staub/ProFiles West

The physical features of the Great Plains are not uniform throughout the state. The plains are sometimes divided into three sections: the High Plains, the Colorado Piedmont, and the Raton section.

The High Plains, which include the most level land in the Great Plains, extend along the eastern border of Colorado. The only significant variations in relief occur where steep-sided river valleys, such as those of the Arkansas and Republican rivers, cross the plains or where there are shallow saucer like depressions.

The Colorado Piedmont, to the west of the High Plains, is more varied in relief, and many low ridges, steep bluffs, flat-topped mesas, and conical hills, called tepee buttes, rise above the surface. In the south the piedmont merges with the Raton section. The Raton section, more rugged than the Colorado Piedmont, includes numerous mesas and buttes of volcanic origin and narrow, rocky canyons.

The Southern Rocky Mountains occupy most of central Colorado and extend in a north-south direction across the state. In Colorado the Rockies are between 75 and 175 miles wide and include 53 peaks that are more than 14,000 feet in elevation.

The mountains do not form a single highland area but are divided into two roughly parallel groups, or belts, of ranges. Several broad, high-altitude valleys and mountain basins separate the mountain belts from each other.

The eastern mountain belt includes the Laramie Mountains, the Front Range, and part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The highest peaks of these eastern ranges are Blanca Peak,