Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway

https://www.codot.gov/travel/colorado-byways/southwest/unaweep-tabeguache

About the Byway
Length: 133 miles
Driving time: 3 hours

A fabulous journey through history, geology, culture and nature awaits you on the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway. Consisting of Highways 141 and 145, the vast scenery along this byway will keep you inspired along your journey.

Unaweep Canyon knives through the soft red sandstone of the Uncompahgre Plateau all the way to Precambrian times. Ancient rivers silted the rock away, exposing hundreds of millions of years of the geologic record (including fossils of dinosaurs and early amphibians). Other secrets of the earth were ferreted out by miners with picks and shovels. The canyon witnessed a copper boom around the turn of the century; decades later, the U.S. Army processed ore from nearby Uravan to produce the uranium used in the first atomic bombs. Above all, this ageless desert region offers sheer scenic wonder - striated cliffs towering a thousand feet overhead, raging streams, and boundless skies.