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Grand Mesa National Forest
Colorado

The monstrous flat-topped mountain known as Grand Mesa is the largest of its kind in the world, reaching heights of 11,000 feet as it soars like a cool, green oasis above the high desert in west central Colorado. Whereas the parched landscape in the valley below is speckled with sagebrush and rabbit brush, the mesa is lush with aspen, Engelmann spruce, and subalpine fir.

Pinon pine and Grand Valley
Pinon pine & Grand Valley

The mesa was formed as lava seeped upward through fissures in the earth 10 million years ago. This geological wonder cradles over 300 high-altitude lakes, creating a unique head-in-the-clouds trout fishing experience that is as close as mere mortals can come to angling amongst the Gods.

The Ute Indians called the Grand Mesa"Thunder Mountain" before the U.S. government moved them to reservations in Utah and southwestern Colorado in the early 1880s. President Benjamin Harrison created the Grand Mesa National Forest on December 24, 1892. It was first called the Battlement Mesa Forest Reserve and was the third such reserve to be created in the nation.


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