Colorado Scavenger Hunt
Colorado does not whisper its story—it thunders it across the Continental Divide. From prehistoric footprints at Picketwire to futuristic visions atop Genesee Mountain, the Centennial State is a land of dramatic elevations both topographical and cultural. No place in America wears its verticality so proudly—its rivers plunge, its canyons gape, and its history climbs to heights both literal and metaphorical.
At first, it was the land itself that drew the gaze—volcanic plateaus, silver-laced peaks, and red rock cathedrals so grand they seemed shaped by divine hand. Indigenous peoples called it home for millennia, living with the seasons and the sacred spaces carved by glaciers and wind. Then came the restless prospectors and railroaders, the homesteaders and highwaymen, each carving paths into a state that would come to define the rugged West.
Colorado’s history is a chronicle of invention and reinvention—from boomtowns and ghost towns to Air Force academies and ski resorts. It is where a stagecoach trail could give way to an interstate tunnel beneath alpine snowfields, and where a single cadet chapel might rival cathedrals in splendor. The arrival of Art Deco and Modernist curves, WPA murals and missile silos, tells a story of a place always poised at the frontier—whether geographic, architectural, or ideological.
Whether building bunkers in mountains, theaters in rocks, or entire resorts on Forest Service leases, Colorado has often asked the impossible—and found a way to deliver. This is a state of peaks, of performance, and of perspective. To trace its landmarks is to follow a ridgeline of American ambition.
The photos and stories collected here are a fast and fun way to learn the explanations behind the quirks, the traditions and the secrets that make Colorado uniquely Colorado. What near ghost town did the New York Times call the “Ruby of the Rockies”? Solved. What was the first steel mill west of the Mississippi River? A mystery no more. What Colorado hotel has the longest run of 5-star designations in the country? Identified. What United States President was on hand to dedicate the world’s longest irrigation canal? Revealed. Who robbed the U.S. Mint in 1922? No one knows.
A palace of stone tucked in canyon’s sheer face, Where kivas and rooms form a sandstone embrace. They vanished in silence, the reasons unknown— Yet echoes remain in each chiseled stone. A Congress, awakened, gave ruin its shield, So secrets of ancients would not be repealed.
Where cow once did graze, now presidents stay, In Romanesque finery grand in its day. A palace of granite, with animals crowned, And atriums lit from the ceiling on down. Fireproof and fancy with onyx aglow— It still tells the tale of Denver in show.
To cross the range with lanes in twain, They tunneled through the mountain’s mane. A feat of drills and budget creep— Eleven thousand feet too steep.
He dreamed a hole beneath the peaks, To save the route and shave off weeks. A six-mile bore through stone and snow—his ghost still rides the trains below.
A city snatched a canyon prize, Then strung a bridge to stun the skies. A theme park reigns where cliffs divide—no federal park, just hometown pride.
A steamer-built haven in alpine domain, Where echoes and engines still thrill and remain. Though Stanley cured lungs, the halls chilled the bone— For King saw a horror all crafted in stone. It glows through the mist with Colonial grace, The Overlook’s double in ghost-haunted place.