Book excerpt: Pack up the car and enjoy thirty gorgeous drives through the soaring mountains, broad valleys, and endless plains of Colorado. This indispensable highway companion maps out short trips for exploring the state’s scenic highways and backroads, from the Rocky Mountains and Mesa Verde National Park to the Great Sand Dunes and the Santa Fe Trail. Discover the wonders of Colorado’s multi-ethnic history, ecological and topographical diversity, and magnificent beauty. Along the way, stop and explore long-deserted Anasazi Indian cities, powder-packed playgrounds for skiing nirvana, ghost towns and modern communities that retain a pioneer-era flavor, and numerous historic sites and museums detailing Colorado’s colorful past.