Colorado Springs Parks by Radius

National Park Service

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
Located on the banks of the Niobrara River, Agate Fossil Beds and the surrounding prairie are an important source of 19.2 million year-old Miocene epoch mammal fossils. Once part of Captain James H. Cook's Agate Springs Ranch it,also, became a gathering place for Chief Red Cloud and other Oglala Lakota people.

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
Alibates Flint, distinctive for its varied coloration, occurs in dolomite outcrops atop Permain Aged Redbeds in the Canadian River breaks near Amarillo and Fritch, Texas. Early inhabitants left shallow pits as evidence and quarry activity

Arches National Park
Arches National Park preserves over two thousand natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations. In some areas, faulting has exposed millions of years of geologic history.The extraordinary features of the park, including balanced rocks, fins and pinnacles, are highlighted by a striking environment of contrasting colors, landforms and textures.

Aztec Ruins National Monument
Aztec Ruins National Monument preserves structures and artifacts of Ancestral Pueblo people from the 1100's through 1200s.

Bandelier National Monument
Best known for mesas, sheer-walled canyons, and the ancestral Pueblo dwellings found among them, Bandelier also includes over 23,000 acres of designated Wilderness.

Bents Old Fort National Historic Site
The fort provided explorers, adventurers, and the U.S. Army a place to get needed supplies, wagon repairs, livestock, good food, water and company, rest and protection in this vast "Great American Desert." During the war with Mexico in 1846, the fort became a staging area for Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West". Disasters and disease caused the fort's abandonment in 1849.

Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison's unique and spectacular landscape was formed slowly by the action of water and rock scouring down through hard Proterozoic crystalline rock.

Canyon De Chelly National Monument
At the base of sheer red cliffs and in canyon wall caves are ruins of Indian villages built between AD 350 and 1300. Canyon de Chelly National Monument offers visitors the chance to learn about Southwestern Indian history from the earliest basketmakers to the Navajo Indians who live and farm here.

Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park preserves a colorful landscape of sedimentary sandstones eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River and its tributaries.

Capulin Volcano National Monument
The primary significance of Capulin Volcano National Monument lies in the phenomenon of Capulin Volcano. This well-preserved volcano relatively young (58,000 to 62,000 years old), symmetrical volcanic cinder cone rises steeply (more than a 1,500 feet) and conspicuously from the surrounding grassland plains to an elevation of 8,182 feet above sea level: its irregular rim extends about a mile in circumference; and its crater is about 415 feet deep. The sighting of the prominent cinder cone by travelers at a distance makes it an important landmark today as it probably also was for early pioneers.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area. The Chacoan cultural sites are fragile and irreplaceable and represent a significant part of America's cultural heritage. The sites are part of the sacred homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest..

Chimney Rock National Historic Site
This unique formation--the most noted on the Oregon Trail--has come to symbolize the greatest voluntary migration in the history of mankind.

Colorado National Monument
Colorado National Monument consists of geologic features including: towering red sandstone monoliths, deep, sheer-walled canyons, and a variety of wildlife (bighorn sheep, golden eagles, mule deer and mountain lions)

Curecanti National Recreation Area
Three reservoirs, named for corresponding dams on the Gunnison River, form the heart of Curecanti National Recreation Area. Panoramic mesas, fjord-like reservoirs, and deep, steep and narrow canyons abound.

Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument protects a large deposit of fossil dinosaur bones Some of the first dinosaur fossils found were huge bones and teeth, very lizard-like except for their size, and so the idea of monstrous lizards was born. The fossils at Dinosaur National Monument continue to help us learn more about these fascinating animals.

El Malpais National Monument
Historic and archeological sites provide reminders of past times. More than mere artifacts, these cultural resources are kept alive by the spiritual and physical presence of contemporary Indian groups, including the Puebloan peoples of Acoma, Laguna,and Zuni, and the Ramah Navajo.

El Morro National Monument
Rising 200 feet above the valley floor, this massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or Inscription Rock) a popular campsite. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
The Florissant Fossil Beds hold remnants of the earth's prehistoric life. Huge petrified redwoods and incredibly detailed fossils of ancient insects and plants reveal a very different Colorado of long ago.

Fort Laramie National Historic Site
In 1834, where the Cheyenne and Arapaho travelled, traded and hunted, a fur trading post was created. Soon to be known as Fort Laramie. In 1849 as the Gold Rush of California drew more westward, Fort Laramie became a military post, and for the next 41 years, would shape major events as the struggle between two cultures for domination of the northern plains increased into conflict. In 1876, Fort Laramie served as an anchor for military operations, communication, supply and logistics during the "Great Sioux War."

Fort Union National Monument
Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During it's forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final Fort Union was the largest in the American Southwest, and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Nestled in southern Colorado, North America's tallest dunes rise over 750 feet high against the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The wind shaped dunes glow beneath the rugged backdrop of the mountains.

Hovenweep National Monument
Hovenweep National Monument protects five prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.

Lake Meredith National Recreation Area
Lake Meredith was created on the Canadian River and now fills many breaks whose walls are crowned with white limestone caprock, scenic buttes, pinnacles, and red-brown, wind-eroded coves. Above lies the mesquite, prickly pear, yucca, and grasses of arid plains. And up the sheltered creek beds stand cottonwoods, soapberry, and sandbar willows.

Mesa Verde National Park
The archeological sites found in Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. Mesa Verde National Park offers visitors a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people.

Natural Bridges National Monument
Natural Bridges protects some of the finest examples of ancient stone architecture in the southwest. Meandering streams cut through the canyon walls where three natural bridges formed: Kachina, Owachomo and Sipapu.

Nicodemus National Historic Site
This area preserves, protects and interprets the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War.

Niobrara National Scenic River
The Scenic River preserves a superb example of a Great Plains river and protects a unique ecological crossroads where six distinct ecosystems and their associated flora and fauna mix. Many locally-owned ranches are found along the river retaining the valley's rural flavor, yet much of its wild character is preserved.

Pecos National Historical Park
Pecos preserves 12,000 years of history including the ancient pueblo of Pecos, two Spanish Colonial Missions, Santa Fe Trail sites, 20th century ranch history of Forked Lightning Ranch, and the site of the Civil War Battle of Glorieta Pass

Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest features one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood. Also included are the multi-hued badlands of the Chinle Formation known as the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites and displays of 225 million-year-old fossils.

Petroglyph National Monument
Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 25,000 images carved by native peoples and early Spanish settlers.

Rocky Mountain National Park
The park exhibits the massive grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. Trail Ridge Road crosses the Continental Divide and looks out over dozens of peaks that tower more than 13,000 feet high. The high point on Trail Ridge Road is 12,183'. .Longs Peak, the highest peak in the park, is 14,259' in elevation.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was perserved to recognize the national significance of the massacre in American history, and its ongoing signficance to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people.

Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe.

Scotts Bluff National Monument
This site preserves the memory of the historic Oregon, California and Mormon Trails.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is a new kind of national park. The preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass ecosystem.

Yucca House National Monument
Yucca House National Monument is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan surface site.