Denver, CO
Opened February 28, 1995, replacing Stapleton. Largest US airport by land area — 52.4 square miles, larger than Manhattan. United and Frontier hub. Curtis Fentress's tent-roof Jeppesen Terminal was inspired by the snow-capped Rockies on the western horizon. Runway 16R/34L at 16,000 feet is the longest commercial runway in North America.
Colorado's official air and space museum, housed in something a pilot can appreciate on sight: Hangar No. 1, built in 1939 on the old Lowry Air Force Base. Lowry was a technical training center from 1937 to 1994 that put more than a million airmen through schools in everything from aerial gunnery to photography; when the Air Force left in 1994, volunteers turned the surviving hangar into this museum. Inside the 1930s hangar are 50-plus aircraft and space vehicles — a B-52, a B-1A Lancer (one of only two), an F-14 Tomcat, Century-series fighters, and a replica X-Wing signed by the Star Wars cast. A B-52 is posed out front as if lifting off. Its sister site, Exploration of Flight, is down at Centennial Airport with flight simulators and ride flights.
Five dramatic sandstone slabs tilted at 40-50 degrees, rising 1,000 feet above Boulder. Formed 290 million years ago and thrust upward during the same geological event that created the Rockies. From the air, they appear as sharp red-brown fins against the green mountain backdrop. The contrast between the flat Great Plains to the east and the abrupt mountain wall is one of the most striking geological boundaries in North America.
14,265 feet, renamed from Mount Evans in 2023 in response to John Evans's role in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. The Mount Blue Sky Highway, completed in 1930, climbs to within 130 feet of the summit — the highest paved road in North America, topping out at 14,130ft. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep are commonly visible along the upper reaches. Summit Lake at 12,830ft is one of the highest paved-access lakes in the country, ice-bound much of the year. The Echo Lake Lodge at the road's base is a 1920s stone lodge still in seasonal operation. Visible from Denver International Airport approaches as the major peak directly west.
A 1,367-acre city park of dramatic red sandstone fins and spires at the foot of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. The vertical sandstone slabs are remnants of an ancient sea floor pushed up onto edge during the formation of the Rocky Mountains 250 million years ago; the deep red color comes from iron oxide. Charles Elliott Perkins, a railroad executive, bought the land in 1879 and his children donated it to Colorado Springs in 1909 with the stipulation that it must remain free to the public forever — admission is still $0. The signature view: Pikes Peak rising 8,000 feet straight behind the red rock formations.