Western Slope
Rio Blanco County
9 Porch Notes tied to Rio Blanco County — the local details that change from one part of Colorado to the next.
Home and property (1)
Water and land (1)
Outdoors and wildfire (2)
Outdoors and wildfire
Rangely Rock Crawling Park: Colorado's only natural rock-crawling playground
A few miles southwest of Rangely sits the only natural rock-crawling park the BLM has designated in Colorado, free to enter and laid out in graded sections from easy to extreme.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Rio Blanco County is the heart of the White River elk herd
The White River valley supports one of Colorado's largest elk herds, which shapes hunting seasons, fall driving, and even fences and crops on local ranches.
Read note ->Cars and driving (2)
Cars and driving
Driving Highways 13 and 64 puts you in real big-game country
The main routes through Rio Blanco County roll through open deer and elk country, a scenic drive where a little extra care at dawn, dusk, and during fall migration keeps it that way.
Read note ->Cars and driving
The Flat Tops Trail byway is a high-country scenic drive between Meeker and Yampa
The Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway between Meeker and Yampa climbs past high lakes and flat-topped peaks; good to know it has long gravel sections, a high pass, and a center stretch that closes in winter.
Read note ->History and culture (3)
History and culture
Canyon Pintado: a thousand years of rock art on the road to Rangely
A 16,000-acre stretch of public land along Highway 139 south of Rangely holds Fremont and Ute rock art panels, some close to a thousand years old, reachable from marked pull-offs.
Read note ->History and culture
In Meeker, a free museum sits inside the army cabins that started the town
Meeker's free White River Museum fills two 1880s log cabins built as army officers' quarters, opening a door to the 1879 Meeker Incident and the Ute history beneath the town.
Read note ->History and culture
The TANK: a Rangely water tank that sings
An old steel water tank outside Rangely became a sound chamber so unusual that musicians fly in to record inside it.
Read note ->