Most Colorado road trips go up. Denver sits at a mile high, and the mountain roads west of it climb past 10,000 feet. Several questions in this deck are about that height: the Mile High marker on the capitol steps, fourteeners, the Continental Divide, and why water boils at a lower temperature up here.
Questions that change with altitude
Use the elevation signs as your cue. Colorado posts them at mountain passes, and each one is a chance to ask a question that fits:
- Leaving Denver: the Mile High step on the capitol and the Denver Mint’s letter D.
- Climbing I-70: the Eisenhower Tunnel question, just before you reach it.
- At any pass with a Continental Divide sign: the Divide question, then have someone guess which ocean a raindrop falling on the car’s right side would end up in.
- Above tree line: the bighorn sheep and fourteener questions. Bighorns are sometimes spotted along mountain roads here.
A route idea: the Trail Ridge loop
From Denver, drive to Estes Park and take Trail Ridge Road across Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Lake. The road climbs above 12,000 feet, with tundra on both sides. The Colorado River starts in this park, so the Grand Canyon question has a strange answer: the river that carved it begins somewhere here. Trail Ridge Road closes for the winter, usually from mid-October to late May, so check before you go.
A southwest Colorado swing
If your route runs to Four Corners, it passes Mesa Verde and its cliff dwellings, and Durango, where the steam train to Silverton leaves from downtown. Great Sand Dunes sits to the east, in the San Luis Valley. Save the Four Corners question for the monument itself, where you can stand in four states at once.
Three Colorado facts that aren’t in the deck
- Aquamarine is Colorado’s state gemstone.
- The US Air Force Academy is in Colorado Springs, a short drive from Garden of the Gods.
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park has cliffs so steep and dark that parts of the canyon floor get only minutes of direct sun a day.