4 Best Sights in Steamboat Springs and Northwest Colorado, Colorado

This museum elegantly displays an eclectic collection of everything from arrowheads to a fire truck. The upstairs of this restored county courthouse holds the largest privately owned collection of working cowboy artifacts in the world. Bill Mackin, one of the leading traders in cowboy collectibles, has spent a lifetime gathering guns, bits, saddles, bootjacks, holsters, and spurs of all descriptions.

The Museum of the West relates the history of the area since the 1880s, with a time line, a firearms display, and a Southwest pottery collection. The area's rich mining heritage is perfectly captured in the uranium mine that educates with interactive sound and exhibit stations, and the museum also oversees paleontological excavations. The museums of the Grand Junction area have banded together as the Museums of Western Colorado, which comprises the Museum of the West (this one), the Dinosaur Journey Museum ( 550 Jurassic Ct., Fruita), and the Cross Orchards Living History Farm ( 3073 F Rd., Grand Junction).

In a restored Queen Anne–style house, the Tread of Pioneers Museum is an excellent spot to bone up on local history. It includes ski memorabilia dating to the turn of the 20th century, when Carl Howelsen opened Howelsen Hill, still the country's preeminent ski-jumping facility.

This museum is housed in a long building that served as a barracks for U.S. Army officers. Inside are exhibits such as a collection of guns dating to the Civil War and the plow used by Nathan Meeker to dig up the Utes' pony racetrack.