Explore Colorado: Dog-Friendly Hikes with State Park Pass

National parks are America’s best idea – state parks are a dog’s best idea. National parks may have been called “America’s best idea,” but for dog lovers, they often feel like the nation’s biggest tease – epic trails and grand vistas, yet dogs are restricted to paved pull-outs and campgrounds in all but a handful of parks. Enter state parks: America’s second best idea, and arguably the best idea of all for those who hike with four paws in tow. With hundreds of hidden waterfalls, forest loops, seaside trails, and historic landscapes that welcome dogs as fellow adventurers, state parks offer an affordable, wide-open alternative to crowded national parks. That’s the promise of the Hike With Your Dog State Park Pass Guides—a roadmap to the trails, cabins, and quirky treasures where America’s natural wonders aren’t just admired from the parking lot, but experienced side-by-side with your best friend.

State parks are America’s democratic idea – affordable, welcoming, and dog-friendly. They preserve local pride and natural beauty while inviting everyday use, from a Saturday morning hike to a week-long family vacation. The National Park Service, created in 1916, saw its role as protecting landscapes and sites of national wonder. In the early days few qualified; even today there are only some five dozen. Over the years another 400 or so national monuments, historic sites and seashores have been placed with the park service.

Today there are over 10,000 state parks across 18 million acres – a patchwork quilt of lakes, beaches, forests, and historic sites with roughly one billion visits annually – far surpassing the attendance at national parks. It all began with Niagara Falls in 1885. America’s greatest natural attraction of the 19th century was becoming tawdry with sideshow attractions and industrial development so New York created the Niagara Falls State Reservation, the nation’s first true state park.

By the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s there were still relatively few state parks. Many states had no state park system at all and the parks that did exist were largely undeveloped. Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps to put young men to work and between 1933 and 1942 more than 700 parks were constructed in 40 states. Since the federal government was footing the bill, these new natural playgrounds could easily have been absorbed into the National Park Service system. But the NPS wanted no part of running these “picnic parks.” Washington’s logic was: wonder and grandeur belong in the national system; recreation belongs to the states.

And America’s dogs have been wagging their tails ever since.

Pick a state. Now go build your next doggie dream vacation around state parks.

Colorado’s diversity shines through its state system:

Alpine lakes at Sylvan and State Forest,Canyons and cliffs at Eldorado and Castlewood,Prairies and birds at Highline,Southwest pine country at Mancos and Navajo,Foothill overlooks at Lory.

Together, they give dogs and humans the full sampler of Colorado landscapes without the restrictions or crowds of the national parks.

For a hiking dog, that’s the real gift: from pine to prairie, from desert red rock to alpine reflection, Colorado’s state parks let us go everywhere together.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CW1H5R3R
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2025
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1.0 MB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 22 pages
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Part of series ‏ : ‎ Hike With Your Dog State Park Pass