Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests

Usually when an event as wonderful as the lighting of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has its 50 th anniversary, the events surrounding it are packed with people ready to celebrate. That was the plan this year, but the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything and yet nothing.

For 50 years, the arrival of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has brought enormous excitement to the workers who deliver the tree across the country and then hoist the towering conifer into place on the West Lawn of Capitol Hill.

When most people think of the lighting of a national Christmas tree, they are often thinking of the ceremony near the White House during which the President flips a switch and lights the tree.

Your face is dusty. Your All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) is muddy. Your adrenaline is at an all-time high. You have just finished riding one of your favorite trails on the U.S. Forest Service’s Grand Mesa National Forest and couldn’t be happier. But, do you ever wonder how all these miles of off-highway...

A new year means new resolutions and new adventures to embark upon. As many of you sit down to contemplate your goals of the year, I would like to suggest learning to ski or snowboard on national forests. January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, which means that on many resorts learning now can...

For the third time, the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships have returned to the White River National Forest in Colorado, placing special emphasis on the importance of ski area development on national forests throughout America’s history. Each year millions of visitors ski and snowboard down the...

There are small piles of fallen wooden timbers on national forests in the Rocky Mountain Region that tell a story of the area’s past. They are part of aboriginal wooden structures known as wickiups, a conical-shaped dwelling used by native people. These relics are known to be part of the Ute...

The Raggeds Wilderness, a nearly 65,000-acre area on the Gunnison and White River National Forests near Paonia, Colorado, is prime elk habitat with herd numbers in the hundreds. Acres of undisturbed coniferous forests are interspersed with open slopes of wet meadows thick with grasses and sedges, a...

Sloshing through a wet meadow in ankle deep water, I am surrounded by thick mats of sedges, rushes and some beautiful wildflowers. This saturated meadow lies in the shadows of the 13,000-foot Sheep Mountain peak near Trout Lake, Colorado. It is a scenic spot, rich in plant diversity, but also a...