Colorado | Flag, Facts, Maps, & Points Of Interest | Britannica

Relief and drainage

1 of 3

2 of 3

3 of 3

Colorado’s natural landscape ranges from the flat grass-covered eastern plains—the High Plains of the Great Plains—through the rolling hilly Colorado Piedmont paralleling the Rocky Mountain front, to the high and numerous mountain ranges and plateaus in the western portion of the state that make up the southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. Within those areas the state rises from about 3,350 feet (1,020 meters) in elevation in the east to more than 14,000 feet (4,300 meters) in the Rockies.

Lack of water is the dominant characteristic of Colorado’s eastern plains region. The Arkansas and South Platte are the state’s major eastern rivers, but both rise in the mountains to the west. Many other rivers are dry during much of the year, and the land is flat to gently rolling. Underlain by layered rocks, sandstones, shales, and limestones covered by short-grass vegetation, the natural environment is inhabited by prairie dogs, jackrabbits, coyotes, rattlesnakes, antelope, and such birds as the meadowlark and the lark bunting. The climate, flatness, and layered rocks have produced fertile soils that lack only moisture. Nearly all the plains are covered by brown soils, which support a strong mat of buffalo and grama grass, a valued resource for cattle grazing.

About 50 miles (80 km) wide and 275 miles (440 km) long, the Colorado Piedmont is a picturesque hilly to mountainous landscape sandwiched between the plains and the mountains. It encompasses all the state’s large urban complexes, its major transport arteries, most of its industry, most of its major colleges and universities, and four-fifths of its people. The layered rocks have been uptilted and dissected into prominent stream divides and deep valleys by the major rivers and numerous smaller streams that discharge onto the piedmont from the mountains. The terrain, ground cover, and climatic conditions provide suitable habitats for rabbits, waterfowl, pheasants, coyotes, deer, raccoon, and, on the arid foothills and unirrigated uplands, rattlesnakes. Many species of birds prevail, of which the meadowlark, the crow, the dove, and the western magpie are most numerous. The climate and land of the Colorado Piedmont attract tourists, homeseekers, and, beyond the rapidly growing urban centers, farmers. The major cities and the wealthy farm areas both lie where the streams have broadened the valleys. Among the attractive features of the landscape is the agglomeration of high, dramatically shaped red sandstone formations northwest of Colorado Springs known as the Garden of the Gods. In the foothills southwest of Denver is one of the world’s largest and most-beautiful outdoor amphitheaters, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. Since 1880 more than 400 reservoirs have been built in the piedmont to store water for irrigation. Those sites are meccas for water sports, hunting, and house building.

Britannica Quiz U.S. State Capitals Quiz

The western half of Colorado includes the huge mountain upthrust, comprising much of the southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau, where mesas and mountain ranges alternate with broad intervening valleys and deep narrow canyons. With its copious precipitation, that mountain land provides water for six states and Mexico, principally via the Colorado River, which rises in the northern mountains and flows south and then west through the state until it enters eastern Utah. The drainage pattern from the Rockies is oriented by the mountains themselves, which form the Continental Divide, the main watershed boundary of the continent. The region west of the divide is commonly called the western slope.

The mountainous portion of Colorado comprises a great number of individual mountain ranges. In the north and northwest the Front Range, the Medicine Bow Mountains, the Park Range, and the Rabbit Ears Range are major uplifts, and Rocky Mountain National Park (established 1915) in the western part of the Front Range is a popular destination for tourists and outdoors enthusiasts. The western and southwestern extremities of the state comprise the tilted and acutely uplifted layered rock of the Colorado Plateau. The Grand Mesa and the White River Plateau, both above 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), are major attractions. The region contains several national monuments and parks, most of them primarily scenic, while Mesa Verde National Park, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978, preserves the remnants of cliff-dwelling Native American settlements.

Access for the whole family! Bundle Britannica Premium and Kids for the ultimate resource destination. Subscribe

The San Juan Mountains—a large, heavily ice-dissected volcanic plateau—rises to over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) in the southwest; within those mountains are the headwaters of the Rio Grande, one of the longest rivers in North America. The Sangre de Cristo Range is a linear range in the south-central region of the state. At its western base are some of the largest sand dunes in the interior of the North American continent, an area of 60 square miles (155 square km) set aside in 1932 as Great Sand Dunes National Monument and elevated to national park status and expanded to more than twice its original size in 2004.

1 of 2

2 of 2

The Sawatch, Colorado’s highest range and the central core of the Colorado Rockies, consists of Mount Elbert—at 14,440 feet (4,401 meters) the highest point in the state—and many other elevations above 14,000 feet. The Colorado Rockies contain a significant share of the U.S. public domain in the form of 11 national forests, which total about 22,000 square miles (57,000 square km) of land. (Another national forest lies partly in the state.) There are some 53 peaks above 14,000 feet in elevation and 831 peaks between 11,000 and 14,000 feet (3,400 and 4,300 meters).