Outdoors
Colorado is more than a third public land — mountains, rivers, plains, and high desert with rules to match. This hub takes the official rulebooks and turns them into plain English, like a knowledgeable neighbor on the porch. Fifteen deep, fact-checked guides are live, with more on the way.
Live now
The most complete guides we've built — each fact-checked against current CPW sources, with the Colorado quirks people get wrong and the official links to confirm everything.
Cornerstone guide
Licenses, the big-game draw, OTC tags, every species, where you can hunt, the field rules, CWD, and the Colorado quirks people get wrong — explained in plain English, then linked back to CPW.
Open the hunting guide →Cornerstone guide
Licenses, bag limits, Gold Medal waters, the fish you can catch, Clean-Drain-Dry, the stream-access trap, and where you can fish — plain-English answers, then the official CPW source.
Open the fishing guide →Shared overview
The shared front door above the two guides: one license system, how sportspeople pay for conservation, the Habitat Stamp, the State Wildlife Area access rule, ethics, and reporting.
Open the overview →Cornerstone guide
Registration and nonresident permits, where you can ride, the street-legal quirk, equipment and sound, the famous trails, and snowmobiles — with COTREX and the MVUM to check what's open.
Open the off-road guide →Cornerstone guide
State parks and the Keep Colorado Wild Pass, free dispersed camping, national parks and timed entry, fire bans, bears and food storage, and how to score a sold-out reservation.
Open the camping guide →Field & safety guide
What to do if you meet a moose, bear, or lion (the responses are opposite), the animals you'll see, the wildlife laws, diseases to know, and where to watch wildlife safely.
Open the wildlife guide →Cornerstone guide
Wild mushrooms and berries, rocks, gems, and gold, fossils and shed antlers, firewood and Christmas trees — what you can keep, what needs a permit, and what's a federal crime to pocket.
Open the foraging guide →Field & safety guide
Boat registration and the ANS stamp, mussel inspections, life jackets, the 2024 operator-age law, where to boat and paddle — and the cold-water safety that saves lives.
Open the boating guide →Field & safety guide
Getting in the water: the contested river-access law, tubing, swimming holes, hot springs, the rafting experience, and toxic-algae and water-health advice.
Open the rivers guide →Field & safety guide
Altitude and lightning, the Ten Essentials, fourteeners and their shifting access, where to hike, trail etiquette, mountain biking, e-bikes, and Colorado bike law.
Open the trails guide →Rules signpost
"Public land" isn't "shoot anywhere": where target shooting is and isn't legal land by land, the Front Range closures, ranges, fire rules, and the outdoor gun-law basics.
Open the shooting guide →Where-to-go guide
Colorado's certified dark-sky parks and towns, observatories, the Milky Way and meteor showers, how to stargaze, and how to help keep the night dark.
Open the stargazing guide →Where-to-go guide
Top hotspots by habitat, the gear and free apps, the dawn grouse leks and the sandhill crane migration, a seasonal calendar, the festivals, and the watching ethics that keep animals safe.
Open the birding guide →Safety hub
The safety front door: afternoon lightning, hail and tornadoes, flash floods and the monsoon, wildfire and smoke, avalanches, winter driving, altitude — the patterns, the golden rules, and how to get alerts.
Open the weather guide →Seasonal guide
Skiing and snowboarding, the Epic vs. Ikon passes, snowmobiling and ice fishing — plus the deep avalanche-safety story and the winter-driving / traction-law material the other guides point you here for.
Open the winter-sports guide →On the way
These are next. Each will get the same treatment: plain-English answers up top, the Colorado-specific catches in the middle, and the official links at the bottom.
Coming soon
Day-use parks, the Keep Colorado Wild Pass deep-dive, and which parks are worth the drive in each season.
Coming soon
Forest Service, BLM, wilderness, State Wildlife Areas — who runs what, and what you're allowed to do there.
Porch Notes
Short, sourced notes on State Wildlife Areas, public land, fishing spots, and access — tied to real Colorado places.
Browse notes →Places
Wondering what the land, access, and seasons look like where you're headed? Start with the place.
Browse places →