Moto country, trophy-deer hills, a volcano down the road, and the lower Eagle River running through town. Gypsum is the valley's working basecamp, and this is your guide to all of it.
Twenty-four thousand acres of Hardscrabble, a river through town, and a volcano six miles west. No lift lines, no pretense. Use the season switch above, or pick your day below.
Hardscrabble's 44 miles of moto trail, designated side-by-side routes, rock-crawling in the Gypsum Hills, and a 160-acre motocross park. This is the valley's riding town.
Explore riding →
Brown and rainbow water from town down to the Colorado at Dotsero. Wade it, float it from the Gypsum put-in, and watch the live gauge before you go.
Fish & float →
Colorado's only active volcano is six miles west of town. Hike to the rim, look down into the crater, and drive home over its lava flow.
Hike the volcano →
Gypsum sits in mule deer country known for some of the biggest bucks in the lower 48, with healthy elk herds and a town shooting sports park to sight in.
Explore hunting →
Follow Gypsum Creek Road from town to a stocked alpine reservoir with free camping. Trout, quiet water, and the whole valley in between.
Head up the creek →
A 57,000-square-foot rec center, a Pete Dye golf course, local kitchens, and a Costco by the airport. Everything a basecamp needs.
Explore in town →
Gypsum doesn't do cobblestones and clock towers. It does a working main street, the biggest rec center in the valley, a river through town, and public land in every direction: up Gypsum Creek to LEDE, into Hardscrabble's 24,000 acres, and west to a volcano. It's the valley town that still feels like Colorado.
The west end of the Eagle River Valley keeps the things the resort towns priced out: open public land, motorized trails, big-game country, and a real community that works here year-round.
Colorado's only active volcano, Dotsero Crater, is six miles from town
The Eagle River Valley's motorized-recreation hub: moto, OHV, and motocross
GMU 44, home to some of the largest trophy mule deer in the lower 48
A Pete Dye-designed golf course and the valley's biggest rec center
The Eagle runs right through Gypsum on its way to the Colorado at Dotsero, and in a normal water year the lower river fishes as well as anywhere in the valley. Live flows straight from the USGS gauges, in plain language.
Gauge data: USGS Eagle River below Gypsum & Colorado River near Dotsero. Always scout access and obey posted water rules.
These two gauges are just Gypsum's stretch. For every river in the region, flows, temperatures, and turbidity, live on one dashboard:
See the full river report →The rhythm of a working outdoor town: one big hometown weekend, a summer of riding and floating, and a fall that belongs to the hunters.
Town-wide · The hometown weekend, 30-plus years strong: parade, 5K, car show, carnival, and a headline country concert.
Gypsum Creek & Coffee Pot Rd · Snow leaves the upper roads: LEDE camping, alpine fishing, and long moto loops come back online.
Dry Lake Motocross Park · Practice days and race weekends on 160 town-owned acres.
GMU 44 & the Flat Tops · Archery through rifle, the hills fill with camps as Gypsum does what it does best.
Gypsum's backyard stays open because people treat it right. A few habits that keep the trails, the river, and the hunting country worth coming back to.
Ride designated routes only. One shortcut scars this high desert for decades.
Check restrictions before any flame. This valley is dry country, and it burns.
Handle trout wet and quick, mind private land, and use the public access points.
Seasonal closures protect the deer and elk herds. Honor them and they'll be here next fall.
River flows worth fishing, trail openings, Gypsum Daze news, and the best weekends to be outside. One email, sent when it counts.
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Gypsum is the outdoor basecamp at the west end of the Eagle River Valley. Ride 24,000 acres of OHV and singletrack country in the Hardscrabble area, fish and float the lower Eagle River, hike into Dotsero Crater (Colorado's only active volcano), explore Deep Creek canyon, camp and fish at LEDE Reservoir, play the Pete Dye-designed Gypsum Creek Golf Course, and use the 57,000-square-foot Gypsum Recreation Center. The Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) is in Gypsum, and Vail and Beaver Creek are about 35 minutes up the valley.
Gypsum is the motorized-recreation hub of the Eagle River Valley. The Hardscrabble area between Gypsum and Eagle offers roughly 24,000 acres of public land with 44 miles of motorcycle trails, designated side-by-side and ATV routes, and a motorcycle terrain park. The Gypsum Hills just north of town add named 4x4 rock-crawling routes like Tie Rod Bender and Ten Falls, and the Town of Gypsum operates a 160-acre motocross park.
Yes. The lower Eagle from Gypsum down to the Colorado River confluence at Dotsero holds brown and rainbow trout, and in a normal water year it fishes exceptionally well. There is public access in town, including the Gypsum Ponds State Wildlife Area put-in, with the last float take-out at Duck Pond Open Space just west of town. Watch the live Eagle River gauge on this page before you go.
Dotsero Crater, about six miles west of Gypsum, is Colorado's youngest and only active volcano. It erupted roughly 4,200 years ago, leaving a crater about 2,300 feet across and a lava flow that Interstate 70 crosses today. A short, steep trail leads to the rim, and the recreation site is free to visit.
The town is named for the massive gypsum deposits in the white hills just north of it. American Gypsum operates Colorado's largest gypsum mine there, feeding a wallboard plant that ships hundreds of millions of square feet of drywall a year. The town's walls are literally in homes all over America.