The Simple Way To Tell A Colorado Mesa From A Butte Or Canyon

Hit the road in Western Colorado, and it will only be a matter of time before you see mesa, butte, and canyon on road signs, trail maps, town names, and even in neighborhoods.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service, Western Colorado is one of the best places in the country to see mesas, buttes, and canyons up close.

What Is a Mesa? (And Why Western Colorado Has So Many)

Read More: The Dolores River: 13 Cool Facts About Colorado's Hidden Gem

Flat on Top, Steep on the Sides…sounds like my haircut in high school. Nope. That’s a Mesa. In Colorado, we have lots of them. Encyclopedia Britannica defines a mesa as a broad, flat-topped landform with steep sides and a harder caprock on the top.

Our Grand Mesa, within the Grand Mesa National Forest, is known as the largest flat-topped mountain in the world. It’s our most famous local example. It towers over us in the Grand Valley, illustrating exactly what a mesa is on a giant scale.

What Is a Butte? (The Smaller, Skinnier Cousin of a Mesa)

The National Park Service says a butte is what’s left after a mesa’s erosion shrinks it down to a smaller, isolated formation over time, with steep sides and a narrow top. Once the rock layers of a mesa have worn away, the butte is what’s left. You can find buttes hiding among the Book Cliffs and high desert areas on the Western Slope, and scattered around Colorado’s Four Corners region. Famous buttes are also found in Colorado’s eastern plains, like the Pawnee Buttes in the Pawnee National Grassland.

What Is a Canyon? (And Why Rivers Are the Real Sculptors)

Canyons are deep, narrow valleys with steep sides, which are almost always carved by water. It’s water, time, and gravity that carved deep canyons all over Colorado. The National Park Service says Western Colorado’s major rivers, the Colorado, Dolores, and Gunnison Rivers, cut dramatic canyons through layers of rock, creating places like Glenwood Canyon, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and the Colorado National Monument along the way.

Read More: Gunnison River: Navigating Colorado's Scenic Landscapes

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