Colorado’s state flag commemorates its natural wonders. The color red recalls the Spanish word Colorado, or “red.” The colors gold and silver (yellow and white) represent two of Colorado’s most valuable mineral resources. It is also said that the colors blue, gold, and white were inspired by the Rocky Mountain columbine, Colorado’s mountain-dwelling state flower.
Though not an official interpretation, the color red could be thought of as representing the Colorado Plateau, white the snow-capped Rockies, yellow the Great Plains, and blue Colorado’s skies and waters.
Colorado is best known for its majestic mountains. The continental divide runs through the Colorado Rockies in a line shaped like a giant reverse S. Rivers on the east side of the divide flow generally eastward towards the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Rivers on the west side angle southwestward, emptying into the Colorado River, which crashes through the Grand Canyon en route to the Pacific Ocean.
Among Colorado’s mountains are more than fifty “fourteeners,” peaks over 14,000 feet high. Rising abruptly from eastern foothills, Pikes Peak is Colorado’s most spectacular and most famous mountain.
Colorado’s mountains are separated by large, high valleys or basins called parks. The largest and southernmost is San Luis Valley. The Wyoming Basin stretches from Wyoming into northwestern Colorado. It separates the Southern Rocky Mountains, which are located primarily in Colorado, from the Middle Rockies.
But Colorado boasts more than mountains and basins. It is a very diverse state, where the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and Colorado Plateau come together. The word colorado means “red” in Spanish. The region’s largest river was named the Colorado, reportedly because the river was stained with red soil or dirt. The state took its name from the river, and so did the Colorado Plateau, a vast region of canyons and mesas that embraces western Colorado and much of neighboring Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Portions of the Colorado Plateau are protected in Colorado and Great Sand Dunes national monuments. On the Colorado-Utah border, Dinosaur National Monument is famed for its fossils of Jurassic dinosaurs. Mesa Verde National Park and Hovenweep and Yucca House national monuments preserve ruins of ancient Indian dwellings.
On the High Plains grasslands of eastern Colorado, where herds of bison so recently roamed, cattle now graze peacefully in the shadow of ancient volcanoes.
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