Windy Gap Wildlife Viewing Area

Located west of Grandy, Colorado, at Windy Gap Reservoir, Windy Gap Wildlife Viewing Area is a convenient and worthy stop along Highway 40. The parking area and a quarter-mile trail are lined with informative interpretive signage and species identification information for wildlife viewers both new and advanced. The reservoir and its surrounding wetlands are home to a broad array of waterfowl, birds of prey, song birds, shore birds, river otters, beavers, muskrats, rabbits, elk, deer and coyotes. In fact, during the summer months more than 100 different species of birds can be found at Wind Gap Reservoir including Canada goose, mallards, cormorants, cranes, heron, pelicans, bald eagles, osprey, kestrel, turkey vultures, loons and mergansers.

The area surrounding the reservoir and along these stretches of the upper Colorado River is also home to some of the oldest discovered remnants of Native American artifacts. One of the chief discoveries was evidence that the natives during the Archaic Period (5,500 B.C. through 500 A.D.) actually had much more permanent dwellings (of wattle and daub/stick and mud) than had been previously assumed.