Phantom Canyon is a canyon in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

. The canyon is formed by Eight Mile Creek. The Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad developed it as a route to take gold and supplies in and out of the Cripple Creek and Victor gold mining district. Phantom Canyon Road, a portion of the Gold Belt Byway that runs through the canyon, is an unpaved road connecting

Cañon City A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to ...

and Victor. The road is popularly used for mountain biking and

off-roading Off-roading is the act of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, dirt, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, or other natural terrain. Off-roading ranges from casual drives with regular vehicles to competitive events w ...

. Since 1996, Phantom Canyon has been designated an

Area of Critical Environmental Concern Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act ( ...

by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

(BLM). Information on camping in the canyon's undeveloped campsites and other recreational activities is available from the BLM Field Office in

References

{{authority control Canyons and gorges of Colorado Protected areas of Teller County, Colorado Protected areas of Fremont County, Colorado Nature reserves in Colorado Bureau of Land Management areas in Colorado Landforms of Teller County, Colorado Landforms of Fremont County, Colorado