Geologically, the valley is a wide faulted syncline of sedimentary rocks, sitting between the predominantly Precambrian igneous rocks of the Front Range to the east and the Sawatch Uplift to the west. The Mosquito R… See more

The valley is traversed by several highways, including U.S. Highway 285, which enters the valley from the eastern side over the Front Range at Kenosha Pass, providing a vehicle link to Denver. The highway cr… See more

Like much of the mountainous areas of Colorado, the valley was inhabited by Utes before the arrival of European settlers in the middle 19th century. However, from the 1850s onward, the area was increasingly encroache… See more