Glenwood Canyon

Glenwood Canyon Review

Along I-70 east of town is the 15-mi-long Glenwood Canyon. Nature began the work as the Colorado River carved deep granite, limestone, and quartzite gullies—buff-tint walls brilliantly streaked with lavender, rose, and ivory. This process took a half-billion years. Then man stepped in, seeking a more direct route west. In 1992 the work on I-70 through the canyon was completed, at a cost of almost $500 million. Much of the expense was attributable to the effort to preserve the natural landscape as much as possible. When contractors blasted cliff faces, for example, they stained the exposed rock to simulate nature's weathering. Riverside biking trails were also created, along with a hiking trail to the hauntingly beautiful Hanging Lake Recreation Area. Here Dead Horse Creek sprays delicate flumes from curling limestone tendrils into a turquoise pool, as jet-black swifts fly to and fro. It may be the most transcendent of several idyllic spots in the canyon reachable by bike or on foot. The intrepid can scale the limestone cliffs here, which are pocked with caverns and covered with pastel-hue gardens.