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COLORADO PARKS & WILDLIFE

  
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Pagosa Skyrocket Archuleta County88 acres2017
Colorado Parks & Wildlife

​This natural area is home to over half of the world's known population of the federally endangered Pagosa skyrocket (Ipomopsis polyantha). It also includes valuable wetland habitat and other tracked species.​

Corral Bluffs El Paso County589 acres2017
City of Colorado Springs

​Corral Bluffs boasts world class paleontological resources and includes one of our state's finest fossil forests. Twelve fossil taxa from the Age of Mammals have been found here.

Unaweep Seep Mesa County36 acres1983
Bureau of Land Management

Unaweep Seep Research Natural Area is an unusual hillside spring ecosystem of wet sedge marshes and seeps. The springs are not affected by flooding or fluctuations in surface water flow. One of three Colorado populations of the rare butterfly Speyeria nokomis (Nokomis fritillary), occurs on Unaweep seep. Also, a large population of a rare wetland plant is found on the lower part of the slope.

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Aiken Canyon El Paso County1,600 acres1994
State Land Board/ Leased by The Nature Conservancy

The Aiken Canyon Natural Area includes the largest intact foothills ecosystem known from the Front Range. The area contains one woodland and two foothills shrubland plant communities of special concern. Aiken Canyon also contains an unusual diversity and concentration of wildlife. Mountain lion, black bear, wild turkey, elk, golden eagles and an abundance of neotropical migratory birds are present in the area. The ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir along streams and on the rugged canyon walls have not been logged, unlike most of the Front Range.

To learn more about Aiken Canyon, visit, The Nature Conservancy's website.

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Antero-Salt Creek Park County8,520 acres2010
State Land Board

The Antero-Salt Creek Natural Area is home to several rare habitat types in Colorado: perched wetlands supporting fen-like vegetation, alkaline marshes and salt springs. Together these habitats house several state and globally imperiled plant species, and provide seasonal homes for rare birds and butterflies. The following is an excellent description of the property provided by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program:

"This area was given the name 'bayou salado' by French explorers due the presence of salts. The plants and plant communities that dominate the alkaline flats are salt-tolerant species...The surrounding uplands are dominated by montane grasslands."

The Natural Area encompasses portions of multiple named and un-named creeks that flow off the eastern flanks of the Buffalo Peaks and Trout Creek Pass into the Antero Reservoir. The property has good connectivity with forested and riparian systems located on Pike National Forest to the west.

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Arikaree River Yuma County2,240 acres2012
State Land Board

The Arikaree River Natural Area is part of the largest and best remaining example of a naturally functioning Great Plains river system in Colorado. Several native and uncommon species of amphibians, fish and reptiles reside within the near-pristine habitat that includes high-quality native prairie and riparian plant communities. The area is also home to birds, including ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls and greater prairie chickens, and serves as a meeting ground for many bird species from the eastern and western United States.

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Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality Grand County1,037 acres1986
State Land Board; Bureau of Land Management

This site has exceptionally large and well-preserved fossils of giant ammonites (Placenticeras spp.) and many other groups of marine invertebrate fossils, including nautiloids, bivalves and gastropods which lived about 70 million years ago. The fossil ammonites found here are the largest specimens of this Cretaceous group known in North America. The area's exceptionally diverse fossil biota, including rare tropical and subtropical forms, represents an unusual fossil assemblage in North America.

Please be aware that this site contains features of state-wide significance. Collection is prohibited at all times with out proper permits.

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Boulder Mountain Park Boulder County7,401 acres2009
City of Boulder, Open Space & Mountain Parks

Boulder Mountain Park is located along the foothills-plains interface just west of the City of Boulder. This Natural Area encompasses Green Mountain, Longs Canyon, the Boulder Flatirons, and the Western Mountain Parks Habitat Conservation Area. All of these areas represent a rich ecotonal area between the mountains and the plains, and create a large habitat for a variety of species.

These management areas support typical examples of modern foothills community types as well as plant species left over from the cooler and wetter conditions prevalent during the last ice age. Among the plant relicts are a stand of paper birch and disjunct populations of boreal and subalpine plants. The property contains a high concentration of rare plants, including one extremely rare plant. There are also several rare birds, mammals and insects that call this park home. At this site, visitors can walk through 1.5 billion years of geologic history and view the renowned Boulder Flatirons.

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Bonny Prairie Yuma County50 acres1988
Bureau of Reclamation; leased by Colorado Parks & Wildlife

Bonny Prairie Natural Area supports a remnant of the loess prairie community, an ecosystem that may once have covered millions of acres in the central United States. Loess, the key element of this prairie, is a fine rock powder that results from the grinding of rocks beneath glaciers. When the ice sheet that covered much of North America eighteen thousand years ago melted, billions of tons of loess were exposed. Wind carried the loess to distant areas and, along with water, shaped the soft deposits into bluffs and rolling hills.

Loess deposits themselves are not rare; however, deep deposits and undisturbed areas with native vegetation are unusual. Because loess soils are fertile and easily tilled, this land was eagerly sought and cultivated as the midwest was settled. Extensive areas in Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa which formerly supported this community type are now devoted to the cultivation of corn and wheat. It is estimated that the little bluestem loess prairie community represented at Bonny Prairie now covers only about 35% or less of its former range. Although the community probably was once common in southeast Yuma and northeast Kit Carson counties, the prairie at Bonny Prairie Natural Area is one of the few fragments of remaining intact loess prairie known in Colorado today.

Upland loess prairies are typically dominated by warm-season grasses of medium height, especially little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula). The relatively lush and tall little bluestem prairie at Bonny stands in contrast to the sparse, sandy shortgrass prairie that dominates much of eastern Colorado.

Bonny Prairie was designated as a Colorado Natural Area in order to recognize and protect this unusual biological community and to provide a critical ecological baseline area for the loess region of the Great Plains. 

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Staunton  Park and Jefferson Counties656 Acres2015
Colorado Parks & Wildlife; State Land Board
Colorado Parks & Wildlife

The Staunton Natural Area encompasses two parcels within Staunton State Park: Black Mountain and Elk Falls Parcels. These parcels contain populations of the globally critically-imperiled budding monkeyflower (Mimulus gemmiparus), a plant endemic to Colorado and known from only eight locations, and James’ telesonix (Telesonix jamesii), a beautiful, globally imperiled, cliff-dwelling saxifrage with large pink flowers. 

This property also provides excellent examples of native plant communities, including a montane riparian woodland, and is home to Peregrine Falcon nesting sites. There are excellent scenic values including the Elk Falls, steep cliffs with Precambrian granite exposures, and vistas of mountains to the west and south.

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Dakota Hogback / Dinosaur Ridge Jefferson County2,168 acres2002
Jefferson County Open Space

The prominent ridge which forms the primary feature of the Natural Area provides excellent illustrations of the geology of the Dakota Hogback, including exposures of the Dakota, Lyons and Lykins formations. Dinosaur Ridge, a National Natural Landmark paleontological site is included in the Natural Area. Here dinosaur tracks, bones, plants and trace fossils are well-exposed in this hogback of Morrison shales capped by Dakota Sandstone.

Dinosaur Ridge tracksThe hogback south of Dinosaur Ridge supports good examples of mixed foothills shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands and mixed grasslands. The hogback as a whole acts as a raptor migration corridor. The area also provides a scenic western backdrop for the Denver metropolitan area. Click here​ to visit the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge website for more information.

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Chalk Bluffs Weld County640 acres2001
State Land Board

This natural area is a small portion of an extensive area in northern Colorado where the barren outcrops of the Ogallala, Fox Hills and Arikaree Formations known as the Chalk Bluffs dominate the landscape. The western site is on the Wyoming border north of Greeley and east of I-25. The eastern site is in northwestern Logan and northeastern Weld counties. Lesser outcrops extend between the two sites and also form the northern bluffs of the S. Platte River valley in eastern Logan County.

The cliffs are protected from fire by their barrenness, and thus support outlying populations of foothills plant species such as ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, limber pine, and mountain mahogany. These montane plants combine with prairie grasses to form communities unique to the escarpment. Clay lenses within the sandstone layers support a different type of barrens community, one dominated by hard cushion plants such as Stenotus armerioides and Tetraneuris acaulis and the rare plants Cryptantha cana and Parthenium (Bolophyta) alpinum. The rocks are rich in Miocene, Eocene and Paleocene vertebrate fossils, and the bluffs support a high concentration of nesting raptors.

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Blue Mountain Larimer County292 acres 1983
Private

This natural area includes an exposure of the Blue Mountain Fault, providing a clear example of drape or drag faulting and of stratigraphic pinch-out of two Permian formations (Satanka and Ingleside). The zone of mingling between the alluvial fan of the ancestral Rockies and the sand beaches of the ancestral sea is clearly visible. Physaria bellii, ​a rare, narrow endemic, is found in two places on the property.

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Mount Emmons Iron Fen Gunnison County75 acres1999
U.S. Forest Service

The Iron Fen is a wetland complex consisting of forested wetland, sedge fen, and a pond, all underlain by peat enriched with iron oxide (limonite). Although commonly referred to as a bog, the wetland is actually a fen. Bogs are wetlands which are disconnected from the water table and receive substantially all their moisture from rain and snow. Fens are fed primarily by ground water, and vary along a chemical gradient ranging from "rich" (enriched by mineral ions) to "poor" (poor in mineral ions). Rich fens usually have a high pH, poor fens a low pH. Mount Emmons and a very few other iron fens in the southern Rocky Mountains are the exception – they are rich in mineral ions (especially iron and sulfur) but have a very low pH. The wetland and its unusual ecology are the primary feature of the Natural Area.

The unusual chemistry results in an unusual flora, similar to that of nutrient-poor "true bogs". Sphagnum mosses and small orchids are common throughout forested and open parts of the Mount Emmons wetland, and the margins of the pond support one of only four populations of the roundleaf sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) known from Colorado. Two unusual species of dragonfly (Leucorhinea hudsonica and Sematochlora semicircularis) frequent the wetland.


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Gothic Gunnison County1,190 acres1980
U.S. Forest Service

Gothic Natural Area contains virgin stands of Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir forest, typical of the upper montane ecosystem of western Colorado. The area ranges in elevation from 10,000 feet at the East River to 12,809 feet at the summit of Mt. Baldy and includes high elevation features such as glacial cirques, moraines, talus slopes and high alpine lakes.

This area also provides an outstanding resource for research and education. Researchers from the nearby Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory use the Gothic Research Natural Area for a variety of projects.

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Deer Gulch Rio Blanco County1,809 acres1988
Bureau of Land Management

This site in Deer Gulch provides habitat for two rare plant species endemic to Green River shales, Physaria parviflora (Piceance bladderpod) and Argillochloa dasyclada (Utah fescue). Good quality remnants of Great Basin grassland, mixed mountain shrubland and lower montane Douglas-fir forest communities also occur within the boundaries. This area is also a BLM Area of Critical Environmental Concern. 

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North Park Jackson County310 acres1986
Bureau of Land Management

The North Park RNA contains a large portion of the endangered Phacelia formosula (North Park phacelia). This rare plant species is restricted to sandstone bluffs of the Coalmont Formation; its only known occurrences are in Jackson County. The designation of this site as a Colorado Natural Area helps to protect this rare species and its habitat, and facilitates research and monitoring efforts.


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Miramonte San Miguel County2,529 acres2012
Colorado Parks & Wildlife

Miramonte Natural Area is located within the Dan Noble State Wildlife Area at Miramonte Reservoir in San Miguel County. The area is renowned for its excellent recreational opportunities and remarkably biologically diverse habitats. The area includes several exposures of Mancos shale around the edges of the reservoir, as well as sage upland habitat and a series of seeps that occur on the western edge of the property. Physaria pulvinata is found on several of the Mancos shale exposures and Puccinellia parrishii is associated with the seeps that occur on the property. Given that this population of Physaria pulvinata is one of only three currently known in the world, it is of essential importance for the preservation of this new species, only just discovered in 2006. Miramonte also contains some of the best habitat for Gunnison sage grouse outside of the Gunnison Basin, and is a known lekking site. This state candidate species is an indicator of both healthy wetland and sagebrush communities.

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Limestone Ridge Moffat County1,350 acres1990
Bureau of Land Management

Limestone Ridge supports a cross-section of Great Basin vegetation types in excellent condition, including three high quality native plant communities which are now rare in Colorado: curlleaf mountain mahogany woodlands, pinyon pine - Utah juniper woodlands with native bunchgrass understory, and limestone barrens communities. The limestone barrens contain cushion plants that are more typical of alpine environments, here occurring at lower elevations on rocky barrens of limestone substrate. A rare plant is also found here. The ridge itself crowns the eastern end of Cold Spring Mountain, a large, relatively flat-topped ridge which is an erosional remnant of the northeast limb of the Uinta anticline. The Mississippian limestone capping the ridge is more than 300 million years old.

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Indian Springs Trace Fossil Fremont County40 acres1980
Private

The Indian Springs Trace Fossil Natural Area includes an outcrop of the Harding Formation which is unusually rich in markings or traces of animals which lived 450 million years ago in the Ordovician Period. Twenty-five types of trace fossils illustrate the behavior of creatures living in the mudflats of an ancient tidal lagoon. Tracks and burrow patterns of jawless armor-plated fish, horseshoe crab, brachiopods and trilobites have been recorded. This site is considered the best location in North America to study trace fossils during this period, due to the excellent preservation and wide variety of the types of trace fossils.

Please be aware that this site contains features of state-wide significance. Collection is prohibited at all times with out proper permits. Visitation is allowed at the discretion of the private land​​owner. For visitation information contact the Indian Springs Ranch and Campground​

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Gateway Palisade Mesa County2,569 acres1987
Bureau of Land Management

The Gateway Palisade is an outstanding scenic feature consisting of a 2000 foot monolithic fin of dark red Wingate sandstone. The stratigraphic sequence displayed at this site helps to interpret the geologic history of the Uncompahgre Uplift during the Permian period (225 million years ago).

There have also recently been several rare plant species discovered on the property, making this Natural Area even more interesting.

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Ken-Caryl Ranch Jefferson County1,602 acres2000
Private

The Ken-Caryl Ranch Natural Area contains a textbook example of the geologic formation known as a "hogback." The highest ridge of the hogback is composed of Dakota sandstone (approximately 75 million years old), with a lower ridge to the west composed of Glennon Limestone (about 250 million years old). The Niobrara shale on the east face of the main hogback supports a population of a hybrid between two rare species of twinpods, Physaria vitulifera x Physaria bellii. The area is also an important topographic feature for migrating raptors. The Ken-Caryl hogback is vegetated with a mosaic of plant communities representative of the rocky scarps and shallow valleys of hogbacks along the east face of the Front Range. There are examples of foothills mixed grass prairie, oneseed juniper woodland, and Gambel oak thicket.

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Colorado Tallgrass Prairie Boulder County269 acres1984
City of Boulder, Open Space & Mountain Parks

The Colorado Tallgrass Prairie Natural Area consists of eight small parcels located along the broad floodplain of South Boulder Creek. The properties contain the largest known area of the once-extensive xeric and mesic native tallgrass prairies in Colorado. These tallgrass prairie remnants support flora similar to the prairies of South Dakota, Kansas, and the Midwest, including big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and yellow Indiangrass (Sorgastrum nutans). The grassland also supports a wide variety of wildlife from spirited songbirds to elusive mountain lions.

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Comanche Grassland Lesser Prairie Chicken Baca County9,210 acres1987
U.S. Forest Service

This Comanche National Grassland site historically contained prime habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken as well as the largest concentration of leks (mating display grounds) for the Lesser Prairie Chicken in Colorado. The dense sandsage community on the site provided critical habitat for this state-listed threatened species. This species has not been observed on the Natural Area for several years.  

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Mount Callahan Garfield County762 acres1987, updated 2008, 2015
Private

The Mount Callahan, Mount Callahan Saddle, and Logan Wash Mine Natural Areas contains high quality remnants of Great Basin grasslands and barren communities and supports populations of rare plant species including Roan Cliffs blazing star (Mentzelia rhizomata) and sun-loving meadowrue (Thalictrum heliophilum). The property also provides excellent examples of a number of rare native plant communities. 

Owned by Occidental Petroleum Company (Oxy), this natural area is a great example of how a state agency and a private petroleum company can work cooperatively toward the protection and preservation of the Parachute penstemon. Oxy has engaged in voluntary efforts to protect this rare plant including buffer zones, weed control, motorized travel limits, and funding of annual population studies.


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Mini-Wheeler (Stirrup Ranch) Fremont County449 acres2001
State Land Board

The unusual "Devil's Dunce Cap" formations are the eroded remnants of a 1200-square-mile volcanic ash flow. This Gribbles Park Tuff was deposited 29 million years ago during the Oligocene. Although located within the Thirtynine Mountain Volcanic Field, the tuff's source is thought to be outside of the field to the west. The exact source is unknown, and research on this may be useful in determining the timing of the opening of the upper Arkansas valley. The more well-known Wheeler Geologic site in Mineral County has higher formations (and is from a different volcanic source), but this site covers a larger area than Wheeler.

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Dudley Bluffs Rio Blanco County1,620 acres1988
Bureau of Land Management

Dudley Bluffs is an outcrop of the thirteen mile Tongue of the Green River Formation, which supports populations of two threatened plant species, Physaria obcordata (Piceance twinpod) and Lesquerella congesta (Dudley Bluffs bladderpod). Remnants of high quality pinion pine - Utah juniper woodlands and cold desert shrublands also occur at Dudley Bluffs.

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Cross Mountain Canyon Moffat County2,160 acres1997
Bureau of Land Management

Cross Mountain Canyon is a classic example of an "exhumed horst" cut by a superimposed stream. This block of ancient sedimentary rock was folded, broken, and uplifted during the formation of the Uintah Mountains in the early Tertiary period. These mountains were eventually worn down and buried in their own debris, then were again uncovered or exhumed by erosion as a new round of uplift began about 10 million years ago. In the meantime, the Yampa river had established its modern course, and as the land rose, the river cut a deep canyon and exposed the structure of the mountain. Vertical cliffs of Mississippian Madison Limestone rise to over 200 feet in height in the canyon, which is bounded on the west by a well-exposed fault zone. Two rare plant species and four endangered fish species occur in the canyon of the Yampa at this site. Peregrine falcons may nest on the cliffs.

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California Park Routt County640 acres2002
State Land Board

California Park provides nesting habitat for a large number of state-rare greater sandhill cranes, historic state-endangered boreal toad breeding, and is the only area in Colorado where the three native species of grouse occur together: Columbian sharp-tailed, blue and northern sage.

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Indian Spring Saguache County640 acres1987
National Park Service

Indian Spring is the largest of the natural cold springs in the San Luis Valley. It lies in the midst of an active, warm climate dune field adjacent to Great Sand Dunes National Monument. The drainage has been separated from the Rio Grande River for several thousand years, isolating the aquatic fauna. A rare species of tiger beetle and an unusual diversity of wasps, bees and butterflies occur nearby.

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