Colorado State Parks: Staunton

Our series exploring Colorado’s state parks continues with Staunton! Staunton State Park was the 43^rd park added to the state parks system in 2013, featuring a cross-section of Colorado ecosystems from low grasslands to rocky mountain formations.

Staunton State Park is located in the Front Range just west of Conifer. While the park wasn’t officially established until 2013, planning began in 1986 when Frances Hornbook Staunton donated a 1,720-acre parcel of land from her family’s homestead to Colorado State Parks. The state spent the next couple decades acquiring adjacent land, including a parcel once owned by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Mary Coyle Chase. More information about the creation of the park can be found in the 2010 final master plan.

Rachael Staunton, one of the original homesteaders of Staunton Ranch, was a doctor in Denver and spent her summers in the mountains providing medical care to the locals. The healing legacy of the ranch is continued by Staunton’s Track-Chair program, which provides free motorized chairs to allow visitors of all abilities to enjoy miles of trails around the park. Staunton is currently the only state park in Colorado that hosts a Track-Chair program. See the chairs in action in a video produced by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Staunton’s diverse landscape showcases unique geologic features. The granite cliffs and outcroppings that can be seen throughout the park are part of a large formation called the Pikes Peak bathloliths. Batholiths are large masses of igneous rock that are formed when magma cools and solidifies underground. The Pikes Peak batholiths were exposed after millions of years of erosion removed the softer rocks surrounding the granite. Outcroppings in the park make it a popular destination for rock climbing. Staunton has over 400 sport, trad, and mixed rock climbing routes that can be found throughout the park. To see what climbing is like in Staunton, watch My life outside, a video produced by Colorado Parks and Wildlife about a professional climber’s work bringing disabled veterans on rock climbing adventures in Colorado’s outdoors.