National parks in Colorado

Colorado's National Park Service units stretch across the whole state, from the glacier-carved peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park in the north to the ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde in the southwest corner. The collection tilts heavily toward the dramatic and the geological: the sheer dark walls of Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the improbably tall sand dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the dinosaur-fossil country straddling the Utah border at Dinosaur National Monument, and the sculpted canyon terrain of Colorado National Monument. Less obvious spots like Curecanti National Recreation Area are worth the attention of anyone willing to look past the big names. Running through all of them is something that ties the units together more than geography does: unusually dark, high-altitude skies that make Colorado a natural fit if you want to combine hiking and camping with serious stargazing.