venuereport (Clockwise from left) no shortage of vistas at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National South Rim Visitor Center; A colorful wood lily at Rocky Mountain National Park; A Western Tanager adds beauty and song to Mesa Verde National Park. connected Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park 970.641.2337 www.nps.gov/blca Far View Lodge 800.449.2288. www.nationalparkreservations.com Great Sand Dunes National Park Preserve 719.378.6399 www.nps.gov/grsa Mesa Verde institute www.mesaverdeinstitute.org Mesa Verde National Park 970.529.4465 www.nps.gov/meve Rocky Mountain National Park 970.586.1206 www.nps.gov/romo Rocky Mountain Nature Association 970.586 3262 www.rmna.org Zapata Ranch 719.378.2356 www.zranch.org fun facts Need trivia for your group? The National Park websites are chock full of You facts like these. 26 COM+E guided tour of Spruce Tree House if time allows and consider a hike or tour offered by the nonprofit Mesa Verde Institute. Also check the schedule for the annual Four Corners Lecture Series. Stay within the park at Far View Lodge, located near the visitor center and offering panoramic vistas into three states. The 150 hotel rooms are available from late April to late October, and the lodge can host 75 guests for meetings and up to 100 for events. Another option is staying in the nearby towns of Cortez and Mancos or making the drive from Durango. Great Sand Dunes National Park Preserve One expect to find sand dunes in Colorado, let alone the tallest dunes in North America that you can hike on, slide down or just admire in the changing light. Medano Creek at the base of the dunes makes it especially fun to wade through the water. Because the dunes and surrounding mountains are designated wilderness, you also can indulge in the unspoiled {fun fact For the first six centuries, the Ancestral Puebloans primarily lived on the mesa tops. It was not until the final 75 to 100 years that they constructed and lived in the cliff dwellings. Later, they migrated south to New Mexico and Arizona. Colorado Meetings Events sUMMER 2011 natural beauty in a variety of ways from bird watching in ascending a 13,000-foot peak. Concerned that the dunes could be destroyed by gold mining or concrete-making spurred residents of nearby Alamosa and Monte Vista into action seeking national monument status, which resulted in a bill that was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover in 1932. A similar effort resulted in the expansion into a national park and preserve from 2000 to 2004. The basic Great Sand Dunes Lodge is located just outside the park entrance on Highway 150 and is open April to October or check out the options in Alamosa, Fort Garland, Monte Vista and San Luis, ranging from 31 to 45 miles away. A few miles south of park entrance is The Nature Zapata Ranch, a 103,000-acre working bison, cattle and guest ranch that has 15 rooms, a gourmet chef and a restored barn that holds up to 50 for meetings and events. While staying at the ranch, take part in horsemanship, ranching with {fun fact Before Congress established Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915, the areas around Grand Lake and Estes Park were filled with cattle ranches. With the growing popularity of tourism in the area, many of these ranchers converted their properties to dude ranching. {fun fact The Black Canyon stretches far beyond the 14 miles within the national park. Including the canyon within Curecanti National Recreation Area and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, the total length is 53 miles. co a i a a i ce Curecanti National Recreation Area Morrow Point Boat Tours 970.641.2337 ext. 205 www.nps.gov/cure