Rockies destinations in the USA

Park County, Cody to the Beartooth, Wyoming

A red hill in a green park, and a mountain watching it.

44.7° N · 109.4° WOpen plate →

Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming

The ground here is still being written by fire.

44.4° N · 110.6° WOpen plate →

Glacier National Park, Montana

A range still wearing the shape of its vanished ice.

48.8° N · 113.8° WOpen plate →

White River National Forest, near Aspen, Colorado

Two matching summits doubled in still water.

39.1° N · 107.0° WOpen plate →

San Luis Valley, Colorado

A Sahara parked at the foot of fourteeners.

37.8° N · 105.6° WOpen plate →

Teton Range, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Mountains that begin without asking permission of the valley.

43.8° N · 110.7° WOpen plate →

Bear Lodge Mountains, Black Hills, Wyoming

A single stone column standing in a sea of prairie.

44.6° N · 104.7° WOpen plate →

Snake River Plain, Idaho

A rehearsal for another planet, left in Idaho.

43.4° N · 113.5° WOpen plate →

Sawtooth Range, near Stanley, Idaho

A hidden range of teeth above a town of two hundred souls.

44.1° N · 115.0° WOpen plate →

Beartooth Highway, Absaroka–Beartooth, Montana / Wyoming

A road that climbs until the trees give up.

45.0° N · 109.5° WOpen plate →

Absaroka Range, east of Yellowstone, Wyoming

The first forest the country decided to keep.

44.5° N · 109.6° WOpen plate →

Bob Marshall Wilderness, Flathead National Forest, Montana

A forest big enough to lose a mountain range inside.

47.6° N · 113.4° WOpen plate →

Wind River Range, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming

A flat-topped mountain doubled in still water.

43.3° N · 109.9° WOpen plate →

Ashley National Forest, Utah

A range that refused to run north–south.

40.7° N · 110.8° WOpen plate →

Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho

A river that named itself by refusing a way back.

44.7° N · 114.8° WOpen plate →

Absaroka Range, north of Cody, Wyoming

A hidden valley the mountains forgot to close.

44.8° N · 109.5° WOpen plate →

Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, Wyoming

A pass that opens the Absarokas like a door.

44.7° N · 109.4° WOpen plate →

Bighorn Basin, east of Cody, Wyoming

A naked range of colored hills the basin kept for itself.

44.6° N · 108.8° WOpen plate →

south of Lander, Wind River Country, Wyoming

A red book of stone left open beside the highway.

42.7° N · 108.7° WOpen plate →

Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, Absaroka front, Wyoming

A white canyon the Beartooths cut on their way out.

44.9° N · 109.3° WOpen plate →

Gunnison River, Colorado

A canyon so narrow the day never quite arrives.

38.6° N · 107.7° WOpen plate →

Colorado Springs, Front Range, Colorado

Red towers holding a mountain in the doorway.

38.9° N · 104.9° WOpen plate →

San Juan Mountains, near Ouray, Colorado

A mountain that learned to be a horn.

38.0° N · 107.8° WOpen plate →

Handies Peak, San Juan Mountains, Colorado

A high meadow that blooms like a second sky.

37.9° N · 107.5° WOpen plate →

Million Dollar Highway, San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Mountains that rusted in place.

37.9° N · 107.7° WOpen plate →

Grand Valley, near Grand Junction, Colorado

A red canyon country the valley kept for a back wall.

39.0° N · 108.7° WOpen plate →

La Garita Wilderness, Colorado

A town the volcano built and the weather unbuilt.

37.9° N · 106.6° WOpen plate →

White River Plateau, Colorado

Mountains that chose to be a table.

40.0° N · 107.3° WOpen plate →

San Luis Valley front, Colorado

A range that stands up like a single sentence.

37.6° N · 105.5° WOpen plate →

western Colorado, above the Grand Valley, Colorado

A forest that learned to live on a table.

39.0° N · 108.0° WOpen plate →

Pike National Forest, Front Range, Colorado

A wilderness that hides its own river.

39.3° N · 105.5° WOpen plate →

San Juan Mountains, north of Lake City, Colorado

A mountain that chose bulk over a horn.

38.1° N · 107.5° WOpen plate →

Taos Plateau, New Mexico

A crack the river opened in a lava floor.

36.5° N · 105.7° WOpen plate →

Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

A mountain that became a meadow.

35.9° N · 106.5° WOpen plate →

Sangre de Cristo Range, near Taos, New Mexico

The highest thing in the state, and still quiet.

36.6° N · 105.4° WOpen plate →

Snake River, Idaho–Oregon line, Idaho / Oregon

A canyon deeper than the famous one, and quieter.

45.4° N · 116.7° WOpen plate →

Eagle Cap Wilderness, Wallowa County, Oregon

A granite range the Cascades do not own.

45.3° N · 117.2° WOpen plate →

Albion Mountains, Cassia County, Idaho

A stone city the wagons named and then left.

42.1° N · 113.7° WOpen plate →

Wind River Range, Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming

A ring of towers around a lake that earned its name.

42.8° N · 109.2° WOpen plate →

Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

The high roof of the Bighorns.

44.4° N · 107.2° WOpen plate →

Bighorn National Forest, US-14, Wyoming

A short, hard fall the highway stops to hear.

44.6° N · 107.6° WOpen plate →

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Wyoming / Montana

A canyon the river kept, then a lake filled.

45.0° N · 108.3° WOpen plate →

east of Kelly, Wyoming

Red hills the river kept for itself.

43.6° N · 110.5° WOpen plate →

Slide Lake, Wyoming

The mountain that walked.

43.6° N · 110.5° WOpen plate →

Continental Divide, east of Grand Teton, Wyoming

The east door that first shows the Tetons.

43.8° N · 110.1° WOpen plate →

near Pinedale, Wind River Range, Wyoming

A cold lake the glaciers left at the door.

43.0° N · 109.8° WOpen plate →

Red Desert, Sweetwater County, Wyoming

Dunes that still move in a desert of sage.

42.0° N · 109.1° WOpen plate →

Snowy Range, Lake Marie, Wyoming

A granite lake the storms keep rewriting.

41.4° N · 106.3° WOpen plate →

west of Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming

A stone span the creek refused to go around.

42.7° N · 105.6° WOpen plate →

Laramie Range, Wyoming

The mountain the plains use as a compass.

42.3° N · 105.4° WOpen plate →

Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark, Wyoming

A stone circle still in use on the mountain.

44.8° N · 107.9° WOpen plate →

Cloud Peak Skyway, US-16, Wyoming

A high lake the skyway leans toward.

44.2° N · 107.2° WOpen plate →

Bighorn National Forest, US-16, Wyoming

A limestone hall the highway had to ask.

44.1° N · 107.3° WOpen plate →

Bighorn National Forest, US-14, Wyoming

A stone bow the highway runs under.

44.8° N · 107.4° WOpen plate →

US-14A, west rim of the Bighorns, Wyoming

The west door of the mountains.

44.8° N · 107.9° WOpen plate →

Larimer County, on the Wyoming line, Colorado

Red hills the prairie kept.

41.0° N · 105.2° WOpen plate →

head of the box canyon, Telluride, Colorado

A white thread the canyon kept for a last wall.

37.9° N · 107.8° WOpen plate →

San Juan Mountains, above Lizard Head Pass, Colorado

A tooth the volcano left standing.

37.8° N · 108.0° WOpen plate →

near Lizard Head Pass, Colorado

Sheep Mountain held in still water.

37.8° N · 107.9° WOpen plate →

Needle Mountains, Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado

A granite room the Needles kept.

37.6° N · 107.6° WOpen plate →

below Mount Sneffels, Dallas Peak wall, Colorado

Turquoise water the cirque kept.

38.0° N · 107.8° WOpen plate →

National Monument, near Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Two stones the mesa stood on end.

37.2° N · 107.3° WOpen plate →

Glenwood Canyon, Colorado

A green bowl the canyon hid on a shelf.

39.6° N · 107.2° WOpen plate →

Crystal, on the Crystal River, Colorado

A wooden house the river kept on a rock.

39.1° N · 107.1° WOpen plate →

McInnis Canyons NCA, west of Grand Junction, Colorado

A red window the canyon cut and kept.

39.2° N · 108.9° WOpen plate →

Echo Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado

A river that learned to go around a ship of stone.

40.5° N · 109.0° WOpen plate →

East Rifle Creek, Colorado

Three white ropes the limestone let go.

39.7° N · 107.7° WOpen plate →

near Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

A white fall the mountain hid in a crack.

37.6° N · 105.6° WOpen plate →

West Elk Mountains, Colorado

A gold hillside the clones kept together.

38.9° N · 107.1° WOpen plate →

near La Veta, southern plains, Colorado

Two volcanoes the plains could not wear down.

37.4° N · 105.0° WOpen plate →

Twin Peaks Wilderness, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Sundial held in a still bowl.

40.6° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

A fall the rock learned to pour through a hole.

40.6° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Timpanogos Basin, Utah

A green bowl under the Timp wall.

40.4° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Albion Basin, Utah

A secret the basin spelled its own way.

40.6° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

Bear River Range, Utah

Limestone over a still northern lake.

41.9° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

High Uintas Wilderness, Utah

A quartzite keep above its own lake.

40.8° N · 110.5° WOpen plate →

Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen, Utah

A mountain the river learned to cut in two.

40.4° N · 109.3° WOpen plate →

Utah–Idaho line, Utah

A lake that learned a Caribbean blue.

41.9° N · 111.4° WOpen plate →

Nokhu Crags, Never Summer Range, Colorado

The crags Rocky Mountain Park looks at and does not keep.

40.7° N · 106.0° WOpen plate →

Cimarron Ridge, Uncompahgre NF, Colorado

A reservoir the Cimarron walls still keep.

38.2° N · 107.5° WOpen plate →

Columbine high country, San Juan NF, Colorado

A red-banded horn the Columbine forest still looks at.

37.7° N · 107.8° WOpen plate →

Conejos River, Rio Grande high country, Colorado

A reservoir the Conejos walls still keep.

37.4° N · 106.5° WOpen plate →

Holy Cross Wilderness, White River NF, Colorado

A cross of snow the wilderness still keeps.

39.5° N · 106.5° WOpen plate →

Bitterroot National Forest, Ravalli County, Montana

A granite canyon the Bitterroot still cuts.

46.3° N · 114.3° WOpen plate →

Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Kootenai NF, Montana

Lakes the Cabinet walls still hold.

48.2° N · 115.7° WOpen plate →

Sewemup and Unaweep country, Uncompahgre NF, Colorado

A mesa the forest still keeps high.

38.5° N · 108.6° WOpen plate →

Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF, Montana

A wilderness the Pintler wall still keeps.

46.0° N · 113.4° WOpen plate →

Bruneau Dunes State Park, Snake River Plain, Idaho

A pale dune ridge over sage and a hard Idaho sky.

42.9° N · 115.7° WOpen plate →

Wasatch saddle, Salt Lake and Wasatch counties, Utah

A high saddle the canyon road has to cross.

40.6° N · 111.6° WOpen plate →

American Fork fee area, Alpine Loop, Utah

Cold water building its own stone stairs.

40.5° N · 111.5° WOpen plate →

Utah 150, Kamas to the Wyoming line, Utah

The paved road that reads the west Uintas.

40.7° N · 110.9° WOpen plate →

US-89, Logan Canyon, Utah

Limestone windows in the canyon wall.

41.8° N · 111.7° WOpen plate →

Mallard-Larkins Pioneer Area, St. Joe, Idaho

A named lake under its own Clearwater peak.

47.0° N · 115.6° WOpen plate →

White Cloud Mountains, Sawtooth NRA, Idaho

High water in the quieter range beside the Sawtooths.

44.0° N · 114.6° WOpen plate →

Swan Range, Flathead National Forest, Montana

A Forest Service lake under the Swan crest.

47.5° N · 113.6° WOpen plate →

Ice Lake Basin, San Juan National Forest, Colorado

A high turquoise bowl above Silverton.

37.8° N · 107.8° WOpen plate →