ROUTE01
LOOP 01 / 03 stops
Front Range to High Country
Boulder · Loveland Pass · Breckenridge
Start where the trip is easy, learn a little sky, then climb out of the Denver glow into mountain darkness.
OPENROAD BOOK / FIVE LOOPS
Plan the good nights first. Let the road connect them.
Denver is the natural launch point for several loops because so many trips begin there and the highways split in every direction. Once you get farther out, use the hub that actually fits the geography: Alamosa, Steamboat, Gunnison, Durango or wherever the night has taken you.
ROAD BOOK / PICK A CORRIDOR
Five ways to string the stars together
The loops overlap at useful gateways instead of pretending Colorado can be divided into clean boxes. Denver anchors several central routes; the Four Corners starts from Durango because that is the road that makes sense.
ROUTE02
LOOP 02 / 05 stops
South Park + San Luis Valley
Breckenridge · Browns Canyon · Valley View Hot Springs · Great Sand Dunes · Westcliffe & Silver Cliff
Pick up where Route 1 leaves you in Breckenridge, cross Hoosier Pass into the huge high-country bowl of South Park, then follow the Arkansas Valley into the San Luis Valley before returning to Denver through Westcliffe.
OPENROUTE03
LOOP 03 / 04 stops
Western Slope Dark-Sky Loop
Breckenridge · Old Snowmass · Black Canyon of the Gunnison · Lake Fork Earth & Sky Center / Slumgullion
Branch west from Breckenridge into the Roaring Fork Valley, cross into the Gunnison country for one of Colorado's strongest dark-sky national park stops, then finish high above Lake City at the Lake Fork Earth & Sky Center / Slumgullion.
OPENROUTE04
LOOP 04 / 06 stops
Eastern Plains Night Road
Boulder · Pawnee National Grassland · Jackson Lake State Park · John Martin Reservoir State Park · Kim, Colorado · Comanche National Grassland
Branch east from Boulder and trade mountain horizons for prairie scale, following Colorado's plains from Pawnee and Jackson Lake toward the much darker southeast around John Martin, Kim and Comanche National Grassland.
OPENROUTE05
LOOP 05 / 04 stops
Southwest Sky & Culture
Lake Fork Earth & Sky Center / Slumgullion · Chimney Rock National Monument · Mesa Verde · Hovenweep
Continue south and west from Route 3 at Lake Fork Earth & Sky Center / Slumgullion, then follow the San Juans into Southwest Colorado through Chimney Rock, Mesa Verde and Hovenweep.
OPENROUTE06
LOOP 06 / 03 stops
San Luis Valley Night Road
Westcliffe & Silver Cliff · Great Sand Dunes · Crestone
Use Denver or Colorado Springs as the northern launch, then let Alamosa become the hub for a slower southern route through enormous horizons and very different kinds of night.
OPEN