About 114,000 people visited the National Park Service’s High Plains Group during 2023. The grouping includes Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico, along with Bent's Old Fort, Sand Creek Massacre and Amache National Historic Sites in southeastern Colorado.
The park service's Geoff Goins, who's based in New Mexico at Capulin, said the volcano saw most of the action.
“For thousands of years, what's brought people to Capulin has been the same thing,” he said. “You can see it for a hundred miles, it's a nearly perfect cinder cone volcano in the middle of the prairie.”
A recent report from the National Park Service tallied 88,000 visitors to Capulin Volcano National Monument east of Raton last year. Those folks spent about $3.1 million in communities near the site. That supports about 38 jobs in the local area. These figures did not change much from 2022.
Meanwhile about 19,000 visitors to Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site northeast of La Junta spent $1.3 million in nearby communities supporting 17 local jobs. Those dollars are down about 25 percent from the year before.
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site about a half hour from Eads saw 5,860 visitors in 2023. They accounted for $392,000–an increase over the previous year. That revenue supported five area jobs.
Amache National Historic Site in eastern Colorado near Granada was just established earlier this year, so it isn’t part of these visitation numbers yet.
“Visitation is a measure of the success of a national park. It may not always be the only measure or a very good one,” said Eric Leonard who is based atBent's Old Fort. He's also the superintendent of the High Plains Group, which encompasses the four sites.
Leonard cites Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, who advises people to search out park service locations they’ve never heard of.
“You have to seek them out.” Leonard said. “You have to be intentional in going to them and not everybody knows that they exist and I think that's true of these three parks in southeast Colorado and that fabulous cinder cone just across the state line.”
While bigger parks may be more popular and bring in far greater numbers of visitors, the smaller sites offer a different kind of experience, according to Leonard.
“Especially historic sites, you have this opportunity because you're not dealing with timed entry and you're not dealing with lots and lots of other people,” he said.
Elsewhere in southeastern Colorado, Great Sand Dunes National Park had more than half a million visitors last year who spent an estimated $34.3 million. That supported 427 jobs in the area.
About 63,700 people went to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in 2023 and spent around $4.3 million in nearby communities, supporting 55 jobs.
The Sand Dunes and Florissant Fossil Beds are not part of the High Plains Group, but are among the sites in Southern Colorado managed by the National Park Service.
- Fewer livestock at Bent's Old Fort? These and other changes could come to the national historic site in southeastern Colorado
- On 80th anniversary, Camp Amache families remembered and honored by Sect. of Interior Deb Haaland
- A new Interstate highway between Texas and northern New Mexico could connect to I-25 in Raton
- The Spanish Peaks in Southern Colorado are a piece of the geological puzzle of why the High Plains are so high
- Celebrate the stars, planets and galaxies around Colorado during Dark Sky Month
