With the setting sun casting a colorful glow on Pawnee National Grassland,
a male swift fox surveys the prairie from a grassy ridge.
Dawn Wilson

Bumping along the maze of gravel roads, vehicles kick up plumes of dust and dirt that look like columns of smoke from a distance. At first glance, newcomers to this remote prairie land of northeast Colorado might describe it as flat and featureless. However, they realize their error as they round that last corner, dipping down slightly into a valley, where, as if by magic, the two pinnacles of sandstone known as Pawnee Buttes rise up majestically from the valley floor.

The buttes and surrounding shortgrass prairie are preserved as part of Pawnee National Grassland, which stretches across a 30-by-60-mile swath of land roughly 35 miles east of Fort Collins and 25 miles northeast of Greeley.

The landscape of Pawnee National Grassland has captivated humans for centuries: the Arapahoe, Pawnee, Cheyenne and Kiowa, who hunted bison here; the fur trappers and traders, who arrived in the 1820s; and the hopeful settlers who arrived after that to farm the land.

Pawnee National Grassland also caught the attention of author James Michener, who experienced firsthand the raw beauty of the area in the early 1970s while researching his sweeping historical novel about Colorado, Centennial. The author spent part of that time living in the tiny town of Keota, situated on Pawnee National Grassland about 50 miles east of Greeley. In Centennial, Michener described the thrill of seeing Pawnee Buttes for the first time.

“I was affected by the strange allure of sweeping prairie and lonely vista,” Michener wrote. “I was east of the deserted village when I saw before me a sight of compelling interest: twin pillars rising a sheer five hundred feet from the surrounding land. For miles in every direction there was nothing but empty land, then these twin pillars of red and gray rock shooting skyward.”

That the buttes are actually closer to 300 feet in real life make them no less impressive. They’re the jewels of Pawnee National Grassland, yet they can’t take all the credit for the area’s allure. There are surprises waiting to be discovered around every corner.


Morning breaks over Pawnee National Grassland, which preserves a 30-by-60-mile stretch
of shortgrass prairie starting 35 miles east of Fort Collins.
Joshua Hardin

For all its austere beauty, the grassland is a hard place to make a home. An influx of white settlers in the 1860s forced out the tribes who originally inhabited the area. Farmers soon started homesteading here, and by the 1880s, small towns like Keota and Nunn had sprung up along the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

Yet the harsh winters, the never-ending drought, the relentless, drying winds and the 1930s Dust Bowl eventually chased many of the farmers and ranchers away. Selling their land to the federal government and starting new lives somewhere else was just too tempting. With their newly acquired land, the U.S. Forest Service established Pawnee National Grassland in 1960.

One of 20 designated grasslands in the United States, mostly on the Great Plains, Pawnee National Grassland includes 193,060 acres of federal land, broken into two administrative units, the Crow Valley unit to the west and the Pawnee Unit to the east. The rest is a patchwork of private property and state-owned land.

The grassland is open to all, and there’s no fee to enter. Besides being an internationally known birding destination, it also draws wildlife viewers, photographers, campers, bikers, hikers, archers, hunters and target shooters. It also attracts those just looking to get away from it all, to wander and explore with nary a chance of seeing another soul for miles.

Amid the timeless expanse of Pawnee National Grassland are occasional reminders of modern life. Large wind turbines dot the land along the northern edge. There’s fiber-optic cable, even part of a pipeline. Minuteman missile sites administered by the U.S. Air Force create an air of intrigue straight out of a movie, with their sternly worded warning signs, security cameras and tall chain-link fences topped with barbed wire. Oil and gas sites dot the land, too, somehow looking strangely out of place and right at home at the same time.

Inexplicably, the missile storage and fracking sites coexist peacefully with hiking trails, camping sites and prairie dog towns. Meandering through the grassland, you can be on federal land one second and private the next, then back to federal in the blink of an eye. It’s easy to be a trespasser without realizing it, so Vern Kohler advises picking up a map first.

Not that Kohler needs a map himself. He doesn’t reside on Pawnee National Grassland, but he practically lives there, since it’s been his job for nearly 15 years to, in his words, “keep an eye on things.” As a staff officer in the Ranger District (his official title is biological scientist), one of his main duties is creating and administering permits required for conducting research, commercial filming, driving off-road, and oil and gas development.

It’s while making his regular rounds through the grassland that Kohler gets to experience the best parts of his job, like searching for rare plants; observing wildlife; making sure cattle are where they’re supposed to be; estimating forage use during grazing season; and talking to visitors about recreational activities, from camping and shooting to bird watching and hiking.

Even on his busiest days, he takes time to appreciate the sights and sounds, like the “amazing clouds, rainbows, scary storms, flowers and birds,” as well as the mud and rain that make the roads so slippery that he’s forced to slow down and just look around.

“Getting to work on the Pawnee National Grassland is the best form of therapy,” Kohler said. “The long, long views and the wide-open skies remind me of how small I am, and that’s oddly comforting. That’s where the emotion of working out there has been for me. Peace and calm and wonder and awe.”

 

Nansi crom has been experiencing the same wonder and awe since moving to Pawnee National Grassland in the early 1970s with her husband, Rick, a grandson of homesteaders who were founding inhabitants of the town of Pierce. Rick had moved to Texas yet was anxious to return home, so when he heard that one of the town’s original 1904 Victorian homes was for sale, he couldn’t resist. While working as a builder and carpenter in the area, Rick has spent five decades lovingly restoring the home to its original condition.

Nansi admits the move was a bit of an adjustment for her at first. “The drier and colder climate, the distance from larger communities where services are located, and the much slower pace of life were challenges for me, not unlike for the early settlers,” she said. Yet it didn’t take long for her to learn to embrace it; she worked for the local school district, served as a town council member and was recently Pierce’s mayor. She was also a Pawnee National Grassland volunteer for many years, so she knows exactly what to tell people who might wonder what the fuss is all about.

“I say just slow down a look at what is right there in front of you,” Nansi said. “So many of the plants and animals blend into the landscape,” like long-eared, short-eared and great horned owls, whose unique coloration perfectly mimics tree bark. Or pronghorn fawns, who typically lie alone, motionless on the ground, while their mothers graze a distance apart to lure predators away from their young. Or the birds that stake their claim to tiny, 3-inch swaths of shade next to fence posts, seeking relief in the midst of summer’s blistering heat.

Training your eye to look for the shapes and silhouettes of the animals, learning their feeding preferences and knowing their behavior habits is essential to spotting the numerous species that inhabit the grasslands, Nansi said. “It takes time to see and experience all the wonders that hide right before your eyes, so just pack a lunch, grab your binoculars and find a good vantage point to just sit, watch and listen.”

Especially listen, for the dominant sound out here is birdsong. With more than 300 identified species of birds, Pawnee National Grassland attracts birders from all over the world who are keen to spy the warblers, tanagers, sparrows, finches, blackbirds, orioles and more. A self-guided Pawnee Birding Tour takes visitors along a 21-mile driving route, with informative signs stationed along the way. At Stop 4, for instance, watch for burrowing owls perched on a fence, scanning the nearby prairie dog town.

“Our plant and animal special diversity is even greater here than it is in the mountains,” said Kohler, explaining that the grassland is also popular for the many wildflowers, like prairie evening primrose, wooly plantain, white penstemon, tansy, sundrop, milkvetch and prickly pear.



East Pawnee Butte is one of the twin sedimentary promontories that rise 300 feet
above the surrounding prairie, forming the most iconic image of Pawnee National Grassland.
Joshua Hardin

Michener’s Book Centennial was published in 1974, a couple of years ahead of Colorado’s own centennial of statehood in 1976. It was adapted into a TV miniseries in 1979, primarily filmed in the small town of Orchard, northwest of Fort Morgan. The book and the miniseries offered a seldom-seen look at the history, wildness and beauty of Colorado, and some believe that both may have contributed to the state’s population boom in the late 1970s – even though Michener was brutally honest about conditions in that part of the state.

“Unpredictable winds whip over the prairies, exhausting the land and everything that grows upon it,” he wrote in the book. “Dust storms greater than hurricanes and more persistent can sweep the region for months on end, filling all openings with grit.”

Yet curious visitors continue to flock to the grassland, for all the outdoor experiences it offers, and to catch their own glimpse of the majestic buttes. The west butte is on federal land; about a half mile east, the other sits on private land. The hiking trail to the west butte isn’t a direct route, as it must skirt the boundaries of other private property; it’s about a 1.5-mile trek. Climbing the buttes is discouraged, as the sandstone is unsteady and crumbling. Fossils are abundant along the route, but collecting them is not just discouraged, it’s prohibited.

Rancher Butch Deporter, who has lived on the grassland for all his 80-something years on earth, sounds especially proud when he speaks of the buttes.

“There’s not a greater view in this area,” he said. “I know a lot of people who are envious of me living on the grasslands. I just want people to help care for it as they should.”

It’s clear that Kohler, as a true steward of the land, is just as proud. “The amount of sky is overwhelming, and it’s a landscape that has transfixed many,” he said. “Most people don’t think of the Plains when they think of Colorado, but our version of
Colorado is no less Coloradoey.”