You can paddle here.

You can peddle here... or you can ride here.

But whatever you do, you just got to get out here.

This place is incredible.

If you love the outdoors, you'll love Moffat County on Colorado Uncharted.

Northwestern Colorado.

A truly unique part of our state It's an outdoor paradise for someone looking to escape th and to get outside.

Craig is the Moffat County seat, a city of about 10,000 with a rich, old western heritag It's an amazing home base for adventure in the high desert When I visit different regions of Colorado, I like to connect with a local a to show me around, and Lincoln Cleverly certainly fits that bill.

His family has been part of the local outdoor scene here for the better part of the century.

Lincoln, how are you?

Hey, Conor.

How's it going?

Good to see you.

What a gorgeous day here in Crai Colorado.

Yeah, man, I'm excited to show y Northwest Colorado.

Yeah.

You got a good spot for coffee around here?

I know just the spot.

Lets start there!

You see, walking down Yampa Aven here.

Still a lot of local businesses on the street.

Probably been here for a long ti Any of these, right?

Yeah.

Well, then you're the same case, right Yeah.

A couple generations.

Generations.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, the 518.

Whats the 518?

Youll find me there at 518 every night.

(laughs) Here in Northwest Colorado, we h Gates of Lodore and the Yampa Ca We have Good Vibes River Gear he they have all your, river needs.

Great outfitters or anything out Awesome, awesome.

All right, Conor.

This is Prodigal Sons, a great little coffee shop here in town.

Looks like a good spot.

Yeah.

You've been in this community a It sounds like your family's been here a long time.

Just tell me about your history in Craig, in Moffat County.

Yeah.

You know, lucky enough to grow up and be raised in the mountains and rivers of N Colorado.

Just such a special place, you k Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Good coffee.

Thank you very much Oh, look at that pop tart!

Yeah.

There we go.

There we go.

That's like a work of art right there, man.

Yeah, excited about that?

Craig seems like it's really the base for Northwest Colorado.

Yeah, it doesnt matter if your for a river activity, or a mountain activity, hunting, Were really trying to expand ou on that recreational division.

Im so lucky to call the Yampa R and see how its expanding now w whitewater park and also with the whitewater par and the adventure and the fun th brings, it also bring fishing habitat an hopefully more fish down from the Routt County area, down to the Yampa and expands that fishing here in the Yampa Valley down in Moffat County.

Yeah.

What do you think the opportunit recreation and tourism done in a really thoughtful, sustaina that, you know, is in step with the vi the history and heritage of this But what does that mean to you?

Yeah, you know theres a lot of growth here.

Moffatt Countys got a couple of little things, Grand Old West Days, Little of the Woods, some great little events that po the heritage of Moffat County.

So people can come and see what wild west was still kinda like from back in the day.

Yeah.

You got the Great American Horse Drive.

What are you going to do this weekend with us?

It's cool that you can do all of in one weekend.

I mean, truly, you got a little bit of everything.

And thats just it.

Youre just the surface.

The second largest county in Colorado.

It's probably one of the most vast kind of open parts of Colorado t right?

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, yeah.

So, a lot less crowds than you m Youre not going to run into too many people out there on the And thats the glory of Moffat C is that you can get out there an escape from the crowds, closer than some of these bigger Lincoln, what is the genuine character of Craig, Colorado?

You know its a pretty authentic country, western town... with a great jumping off point t youre really looking to do outs great wide open of the high arid of Northwestern Colorado.

Yeah, yeah.

It certainly seems that way.

Let's get into it.

Let's go expl One more bite of this... All right.

Yeah, let's do it.

One more bite... carbo loading.

Oh, yeah.

That's good stuff.

Yeah.

The Museum of Northwest Colorado is an epicenter of Old West heri And some of the legends behind i Housed in the old State Armory b the museum tells stories of gunf ranchers, some of the earliest indigenous inhabitants, and even back to the prehistoric So, Paul, tell us a little bit a Yeah, so one thing that absolute stands out in northwest Colorado is the fact that it covers just every layer thats available, starting of course with the dino even early Native American histo going all the way back to the Cl culture, which is the oldest known culture, curren that we know of in North America But then of course, early trappe early explorers, the outlaws, so it really covers everything fascinating.

This is one of those fascinating artifacts that represents this areas earliest history.

And how old is this?

This is estimated to be in that 75-65 millions years old right there toward the end of th dinosaur period.

And theyre not that uncommon.

You actually hear about miners f these, when theyre in a coal mine, and have to knock them down, because theyre actually a haza I guess technically you could be by a dinosaur today.

(laughs) As far as what were absolutely and what we get a lot of people coming in here to see... is right in this room here.

A highlight of the Northwest Colorado Museum is their antique gun collection, an exhibit that defines the Wild A lot of these are extremely rar this dragoon is considered one o first Colts.

So, this dates back to 1848, and it is massive.

I mean you could do some damage even if you didnt have ammuniti you could probably take care of with this thing.

What makes it so rare is it has the holster still.

You know, this firearm is one of favorites, as well.

This is anot But its factory engraved.

Its actually engraved by Colts factory engraver, and his name w Helfort, and he came from Germany.

And if you notice, its these beautiful scrolls on there... ahh meticulous, the way he could those.

But hes actually credited with the look of the scroll to the Old West.

Paul, thank you so much.

That was fascinating.

My pleasure.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Lincoln, Ill see you around.

Awesome.

Have a good one.

I mean the landscape itself is just so beautiful.

And theres every outdoor activi that you could possibly want to Wide open spaces.

You can see.

You can see as far as you want to.

Its just very close-knit and personal.

Its just a beautiful place to l Moffat County is known worldwide for its original inhabitants from the prehistoric age.

Dinosaur National Monument is just down the road, and the N Colorado Community College is ho to a distinguished laboratory.

Specific to this region, one of the only community colleg paleontology labs in the entire This is quite a lab you have here, Garrett.

No, of course.

This is a special place.

CNCC in particular.

So Community College was granted repository status, which means t we actually get to maintain and hold on to the fossils.

Wow.

So, big charge in the first plac Yeah.

A lot of responsibility there.

We're one of the few community c in the United States that has that repository size, which is very unique.

We actually started the paleo pr during the summer.

So we're taking kids out for two at a time to actually go to scho a fossil site, and they can even earn college c for it.

We could be junior paleontologis Yeah.

All right.

Anything for th And what makes this area so special for dinosaur fossils?

Yeah.

I mean, I could really get in the weeds but honestly, a lot of it is due to the geolog that we have in the area.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And not only that, but believe i it pays to be in a desert because theres not a lot of pla and its a lot easier to see the Tell us more about Walter.

What's the story?

Walter is really special.

Yeah.

He's also one of the big reasons that put us on the map.

We have skin impressions.

We have a ton of bone.

Wow.

He even shows injuries that he's had and recovered from Wow.

And you can see that in the fossils.

Exactly.

And what type of dinosaur was it What species?

Well, so hadrosaur is what he's called Okay.

Hes a type of a plant-eating... Kind of akin to, like, a horse o Thats kind of what you would th modern terms.

He was named Walter after Walter Who actually found the first bon Oh, really?

Yeah.

Just digging in the back.. Yeah, out sniffing around, and then their owners came and s massive bone sticking out of the Yeah.

That's it.

That's.

That's a senior paleontologist right there.

Yeah.

(laughs) Well, I tell you what, if you really want to see the re we got to go out in the field.

Yeah, let's do it.

We love the field.

A trip to the majestic Dinosaur National Monument is a must for anyone visiting Northwest Colorado.

OK guys.

Welcome to the mouth of the Yampa Canyon.

Since were not doing a multi-da river trip today, maybe we can g little lesson from Garrett in ge Yeah, welcome to the field.

I love the field.

Its beautiful because, when you a canyon like this, you get to s of the geology.

Like, its painting a picture wi of the layers that its exposing Thats why we see such dramatic These are such huge deposits of that just make the best canyons.

So, with geology and paleontolog need to know what era of rocks y If you expect to find a dinosaur in something thats only 20 mill years old, thats not going to h So, you need to know where your the geologic timeline.

And where are we in geological t Well actually, what were standi were in the Triassic.

So, more than 200 million years is when all these rocks were lai Thats literally just this secti rock that you see around you.

Every different colored rock is basically a snapshot in time, of a different period.

On our way up through this trail we walked through the Cretaceous we walked through the Jurassic and made our way into the Triass So, we just walked through time, millions of years.

Do you have a favorite period?

Id have to say Im probably a C guy.

Yeah... ya know.

Maybe not even so much T-Rex.

Because everybody knows T-Rex.

B there are a lot of other cool di in the Cretaceous.

(laughs) And so much of this valley is de by the Yampa River, obviously its played a huge his role.

You know, we were talking about erosion and how we rely on streams and rivers and all that stuff to, not only carve that exposure for us, even though that happened over millions of years, this is exactly an environment t have existed back in the Triassi And so we have a modern analog t describe how the environment mig looked back then... in the stuff that were digging.

Definitely going to have to keep out now on the river.

Changes the whole river game.

Yeah, next time youre floating cliff, take a look.

Anything else that visitors shou theyre coming to this area?

Just with anything, be good stewards.

Leave no trace.

Picking up trash.

Being safe.

All those different things.

Also important to be prepared.

Have water.

Have some first aid.

These places, like we talked abo very expansive, theres not a lot of cell phone service.

Theres not a lot of aid out her So, definitely, be prepared for, unfortunately, the worst.

I think we might have to get som shots of the amazing dinosaur armpiece right here.

(Laughing) The best Ive ever seen.

Truly, that is awesome.

(Laughte I am just now somehow noticing i Yeah, so I did get nerdy on it, the sense that when its done, itll be chronologic order.

So I started with demetrodon, and its actually pre-dinosaur.

And then, there will be a brachiosaurus, so thats Jurassi a little later, And then, T-Rex on the forearm.

(Laughter) The Yampa River defines so much of this valley.

In so many different ways.

Visitors come here to fish, hunt the river.

New features being built on the the Yampa are making it all more accessible.

All right.

Getting a little chilly out here Welcome to the new boat ramp her Loudy-Simpson Park.

Yeah.

This is a beautiful new boat ram Yeah.

And a beautiful park, too.

Yeah.

Beautiful weather.

Right?

Definitely time to layer up.

Especially before we get on that Yeah, the river is, the Yampa is running nice and high right n it looks like.

Yeah, high water, good time to be on the river.

Yeah, woo-hoo!

High wind, too!

Comes with the territory, I guess.

Try to make it up over this eddy cruise up a little bit?

Getting out on the water gives you both a sense of zen and exhilaration at the same tim When the water is high during spring runoff, the epic can be deceptively challenging in a kayak.

Great little workout here.

Got anything faster, though?

I was just waiting for you to as (Speed boat sounds) And when the water is high enoug the Yampa supports motorized wat And the new boat ramp in Craig makes launching a boat that much more convenient.

About as good as it gets!

Yeah!

Beautiful!

A new whitewater park, part of the Yampa River corridor project, will bring in rafters as well as competitive k And it's just upstream from Crai OK, so this is the start of the whitewater park.

Oh, all this will be covered.

Yeah.

It's going to be a monster hole here.

Two monster holes there.

And it's quite the little run.

Great to see that project coming Oh, I'm excited man.

Yeah, yeah.

Amazing to see that, you know, that work being done a river still coming down... very the river community here.

Yeah.

Huge big potential economic bene Oh, 100% yeah.

Bring some people out.

Yeah.

All right.

Quick, look around he Yeah, let's do it.

Like, let's grab a quick picture Yeah.

Mike, thank you so much.

Appreciate you taking us out lik And thanks for all the work you Riding to Maybell, because where the hell is it?

(Laugh) Its a short, fun ride, and its a great name.

(Laughs) And I like Maybell.

Its quite chilly.

I have a Mell on, a base layer, and a windbreaker.

Some gloves, insulated hat.

But hopefully, Ill shed it down.

It is 7 a.m. here in Craig.

About 28 degrees.

Beautiful morning.

And we are going to ride with, you know, 15 of our best, closest friends here to Maybell.

Where the, where the hell is May Yeah, we're about to find out.

All right, let's do it.

Beautiful day out here!

The Where the Hell Is Maybell?

Ride covers 31 miles from the outskirts of C west to the tiny town of Maybell population 76, approximately.

Holy Cow!

Ah, we did it!

Yeah, we did it!

Welcome to Maybell!

This is the 38th annual Where th Maybell bike ride, and it seemed like the yuppy thing to do was to ride long distances so we went to the first longest could think of, which was Maybel Maybell was the end of the Earth It might not be the end, but you see it from there.

How you feeling?

I feel great.

Ready for some pancakes.

Yeah, the best part about the ri This is why you do it, isn't it?

Yeah!

This is why.

The free pancake breakfast.

Thank you.

Guys, this looks amaz All right.

Where the Hell is Maybell, has been around for 38 years her Wow, that is a long time running.

Yeah.

Cool local tradition for everybo here.

Yeah.

I think my first time riding it, I was 14 years old.

So you've really grown up with t Yeah.

It's a pretty fun little local event for everybody to get out here and eat some pan Yeah, I'm really getting the real reas So now what?

Oh, maybe we take these bikes out on some dirt.

Yeah.

That's what I mean.

There's a lot of singletrack out you know, from, out here at Deer Lodge Park.

There's a great little trail.

I've heard a lot about Juniper C Yeah, there's a great stretch of that runs through there.

And, some fun singletrack, we sh check it out.

All right.

Sounds good, man.

Let There's more than a million acre of open BLM land in Northwest Co Wooo!

Woo!

There's plenty of space and plenty of trails and challenging terrain for mountain bikers.

The trek to the top of Juniper Canyon provides a rugged climb, but the view is totally worth it And it's a blast riding back dow All right!

Woo!

Oh man, what a ride!

Yeah, fantastic.

I can see why this place is known for these trails like this Yeah, well thanks for letting me take you out, it was a blast.

It was great.

I feel like we did a little bit of everythin in every type of imaginable weat I just feel like I just got such great taste of Northwest Colorad Yeah, well its not over yet.

We still have Maybell Heritage Days Awesome.

Cool.

Ill see you ther Im going to go see Commissioner about the Great American Horse D See you later, bud.

An iconic and picturesque vision of the Old West is alive in Moffat County.

The Great American Horse Drive is an annual event that draws riders in from across the globe.

Here, hundreds of domestic work horses are driven down from the winter pasture on their way to work, their summ at dude ranches and summer camps across the western US.

County Commissioner Donald Broome leads the drive.

All these horses go to different ranches, kids camps and stuff li Throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona.

Some go as far as California.

The horse drive people are invit They come in on a Tuesday aftern and they leave on a Monday.

We set them up with their horses so that they can get used to the And, yeah, we have horses for tw and things like that.

It's a, it's a fun time.

Yeah.

It's good to see people be able something that you don't see eve Yeah.

Truly, truly.

Tell me a little bit, about your vision and, you know, kind of the community' for growing tourism and outdoor recreation in a way that is true and genuine to the and the history of this place.

People in Moffat County welcome don't get us wrong.

But you know, we don't want to c like some of these other towns.

Moffat County is big and wide, y and I think there's a lot of roo and there's a lot of opportunity Yeah, yeah, I think there's a wa for those things to, to coexist.

And I think this, you know, ride you know, maybe an example of th And like I said, these folks that come here, they come from all over the worl we got a couple ladies from Germ you know, we got someone from Io Wow.

We got some from California, we got some from Florida.

So they come all from all over t That's amazing.

And the little town of Maybell, when you come through Sunday, you'll see a lot of people there Partner.

Good to see you, man.

Yeah.

All right.

Hey, Smokey!

How was the ride?

Good.

Thank you.

Brother.

Maybell rolls out the red carpet for the Great American Horse Dri And its population multiplies several times over for the Maybell Heritage Da Lincoln, this has been such an awesome we and I feel like I have a whole n appreciation for Northwest Color Thank you so much for being my g It's been a pleasure.

Anytime you're back in town, let Thank you man, I appreciate you.

All right, gentlemen, take us ho (music) (”Theres beauty all around us.”