The U.S. State of Colorado has designated 95 natural areas of the state for special protection. The Colorado Natural Areas Program was established in 1977 to preserve and protect special areas of the state with distinctive

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''biota''. Zoo ...

, ecological, geological, and paleontologic features. It is a program of Colorado Parks and Wildlife that identifies and protects public, and in some cases private, areas with at least one unique or high-quality natural feature of statewide significance. Land management agreements are made with landowners concerning private property. __TOC__

Natural areas

The Colorado Natural Areas are: *

Aiken Canyon Natural Area Aiken Canyon Preserve is a Nature Conservancy-managed state property in Colorado. It was first observed and named after Charles Aiken, a 19th-century U.S. surveyor, pioneer, and ornithologist who first surveyed the region in the 1870s and iden ...

* Antero-Salt Creek Natural Area * Arikaree River Natural Area *

Badger Wash Natural Area Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by the ...

* Blacks Gulch Natural Area *

Blue Mountain Natural Area Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obse ...

Bonny Prairie Natural Area Bonny Lake State Park is a former state park located in Yuma County, Colorado near Hale. Created in 1966 and closed in 2011, Bonny Lake was the easternmost state park in Colorado. History In September and October 2011, Bonny Reservoir was dr ...

* Boulder Mountain Park Natural Area in Boulder Mountain Park *

Brush Creek Fen Natural Area A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

California Park Natural Area California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

Castlewood Canyon Natural Area Castlewood Canyon State Park is a Colorado state park near Franktown, Colorado. The park retains a unique part of Colorado's history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst i ...

in Castlewood Canyon State Park * Chalk Bluffs Natural Area * Colorado Tallgrass Prairie Natural Area * Comanche Grassland Lesser Prairie Chicken Natural Area in

Comanche National Grassland Comanche National Grassland is a National Grassland located in southeastern Colorado, United States. It is the sister grassland of Cimarron National Grassland and contains both prairie grasslands and canyons. It is separated into two secti ...

* Copeland Willow Carr Natural Area * Corral Bluffs Natural Area * Cross Mountain Canyon Natural Area * Dakota Hogback Natural Area commonly known as Dinosaur Ridge in Matthews/Winters Park *

Deer Gulch Natural Area Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reind ...

Dome Rock Natural Area A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

Dome Rock State Wildlife Area A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

* Droney Gulch Natural Area * Duck Creek Natural Area *

Dudley Bluffs Natural Area Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

East Lost Park Natural Area East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

in Pike National Forest *

East Sand Dunes Natural Area State Forest State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Jackson and Larimer counties east of Walden, Colorado, United States. The park was established in 1970 in the Medicine Bow Range of the Rocky Mountains. Facilities include a visitors' ...

in State Forest State Park *

Elephant Rocks Natural Area Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and ...

Escalante Canyon Natural Area Escalante may refer to: People * Amat Escalante (born 1979), Mexican filmmaker * Bernardino de Escalante (born 1537), 16th-century Spanish writer, author of one of the first European books on China * Enrique Escalante (born 1984), Puerto Rican vol ...

* Fairview Natural Area *

Fourmile Creek Natural Area Fourmile or Four Mile may refer to: People * Henrietta Marrie, an Australian human rights activist, ''née'' Henrietta Fourmile Canyons and bodies of water * Fourmile Canyon and Fourmile Creek, west of Boulder, Colorado, the site of a major wild ...

Fruita Paleontological Locality The City of Fruita is a home rule municipality located in western Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 13,395 at the 2020 United States Census. Fruita is a part of the Grand Junction, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area a ...

* Garden Park Fossil Locality *

Gateway Palisade Natural Area Gateway often refers to: *A gate or portal Gateway or The Gateway may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Gateway'' (film), a 1938 drama * ''The Gateway'' (2015 film), a horror film * ''The Gateway'' (2017 film), a science-fictio ...

* Geneva Basin Iron Fens Natural Area *

Gothic Research Natural Area Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

in Gunnison National Forest * Gunnison Gravels Research Natural Area *

Haviland Lake Natural Area Haviland can refer to: People * Aslaug Haviland (1913–2003), deaf and blind Norwegian woman and motivational speaker * Chris Haviland (born 1952), Australian politician * David B. Haviland (born 1961), Swedish-American physicist * Edna Havilan ...

Haviland Lake State Wildlife Area Haviland can refer to: People * Aslaug Haviland (1913–2003), deaf and blind Norwegian woman and motivational speaker * Chris Haviland (born 1952), Australian politician * David B. Haviland (born 1961), Swedish-American physicist * Edna Havilan ...

High Creek Fen Natural Area High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

High Mesa Grassland Natural Area High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

* Hoosier Ridge Research Natural Area on the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, no ...

in Pike National Forest and White River National Forest * Hurricane Canyon Natural Area in Pike National Forest *

Indian Spring Natural Area Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Indian Springs Trace Fossil Locality Indian Springs Trace Fossil Natural Area is a 40-acre privately owned site in Fremont County, Colorado. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1980. Overview There are 25 types of trace fossils of horseshoe crab, brachiopods, trilobit ...

Irish Canyon Natural Area Irish Canyon is a valley in Moffat County in the northwest portion of the U.S. state of Colorado, at 6,099 feet in elevation according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Bureau of Land Management states the elevation in the valley ...

* Jimmy Creek Natural Area * Ken-Caryl Ranch Natural Area * Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality *

Limestone Ridge Natural Area Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when th ...

Logan Wash Mine Natural Area Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local g ...

Lookout Mountain Natural Area A lookout or look-out is a person in charge of the observation of hazards. The term originally comes from a naval background, where lookouts would watch for other ships, land, and various dangers. The term has now passed into wider parlance. ...

* Lower Greasewood Creek Natural Area *

McElmo Natural Area McElmo Phase refers to a period in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, when drastic changes in ceramics and masonry techniques in Chaco Canyon appeared. During this period the Ancestral Puebloans living in the canyon started using painted blac ...

Mexican Cut Natural Area Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

* Mini-Wheeler Natural Area *

Miramonte Reservoir Natural Area Miramonte may refer to: * Miramonte, California, in Fresno County * Miramonte High School, in Orinda, California * Miramonte Elementary School, an elementary school within the Los Angeles Unified School District in which child abuse scandals broke ...

in Dan Noble State Wildlife Area * Mishak Lakes Natural Area *

Mount Callahan Natural Area Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

* Mount Callahan Saddle Natural Area * Mount Emmons Iron Fen Natural Area in Gunnison National Forest *

Mount Goliath Natural Area Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

in Arapaho National Forest * Narraguinnep Natural Area in San Juan National Forest *

Needle Rock Natural Area Needle Rock Natural Area is located at the western edge of the West Elk Mountains of Colorado. The surrounding terrain is characterized by laccolithic mountains flanked by precipitous cliffs, extensive talus aprons, forested mesas, canyons, and s ...

* North Park Phacelia Natural Area *

Orient Mine Natural Area The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

Owl Canyon Pinyon Grove Natural Area Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feat ...

Pagosa Skyrocket Natural Area The Town of Pagosa Springs (Ute dialect, Ute language: Pagwöösa, Navajo language: Tó Sido Háálį́) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat, the most populous community ...

Paradise Park Natural Area Paradise Park Natural Area is a natural area in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, several miles east of Grand Lake. It protects the upper Paradise Creek basin, encompassing several alpine lakes, alpine meadows, and virgin spruce-fir forest. ...

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

Park Creek Hogback Natural Area A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

* Pyramid Rock Natural Area * Rabbit Valley Natural Area * Rajadero Canyon Natural Area *

Raven Ridge Natural Area Raven Ridge is a starkly visible sedimentary rock exposure located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado and Uintah County, Utah, USA. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The ridge contains a diverse selection of rare plants unique to the ...

* Redcloud Peak Natural Area *

Rough Canyon Natural Area Rough may refer to: * Roughness (disambiguation) * Rough (golf), the area outside the fairway on a golf course Geography * Rough (facility), former gas field now gas storage facility, off the Yorkshire coast of England People * Alan Rough (born 1 ...

Roxborough Natural Area Roxborough State Park is a state park of Colorado, United States, known for dramatic red sandstone formations. Located in Douglas County south of Denver, Colorado, the park was established in 1975. In 1980 it was recognized as a National Na ...

in and near Roxborough State Park * Ryan Gulch Natural Area * Saddle Mountain Natural Area in Pike National Forest * San Miguel River at Tabeguache Creek Natural Area *

Sand Creek Natural Area Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

* Shell Duck Creek Natural Area * Shell Rock Natural Area * Slumgullion Earthflow Natural Area in San Juan National Forest * South Beaver Creek Natural Area *

South Boulder Creek Natural Area South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

* South Cathedral Bluffs Natural Area * Specimen Mountain Research Natural Area in

Staunton Natural Area Staunton State Park is a Colorado state park in Park and Jefferson counties, located west of Conifer, Colorado. The park, which opened on May 18, 2013, includes dramatic rock outcroppings, several streams and a waterfall. On December 4, 201 ...

Staunton State Park Staunton State Park is a Colorado state park in Park and Jefferson counties, located west of Conifer, Colorado. The park, which opened on May 18, 2013, includes dramatic rock outcroppings, several streams and a waterfall. On December 4, 201 ...

Tamarack Ranch Natural Area ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and al ...

in Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area * Treasurevault Mountain Natural Area * Trinidad K-T Boundary Natural Area in Trinidad Lake State Park *

Two Buttes Natural Area 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many culture ...

* Unaweep Seep Research Natural Area * Wacker Ranch Natural Area *

West Creek Natural Area West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

* Wheeler Geologic Natural Area in the La Garita Wilderness of Rio Grande National Forest *

White Rocks Natural Area White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

* Yanks Gulch/Upper Greasewood Creek Natural Area * Zapata Falls Natural Area

References

External links

Colorado state government website

Colorado Department of Natural Resources website
*
Colorado Parks and Wildlife website
**
Colorado Natural Areas Program
**

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural areas, List of Colorado Colorado geography-related lists Environment of Colorado Nature reserves in Colorado Protected areas of Colorado Colorado natural areas, List of Colorado natural areas, List of

Natural areas

See also

References

External links