Factory tours, hatcheries, and open studios in Colorado
Factory tours, hatcheries, and open studios in Colorado, each compiled from its own sources: tour times, fees, and what you can watch. No ratings; every entry carries its status.
Point at a dot to see the place.Tap a dot to see the place. Road map of Colorado.
- Chalk Cliffs Trout Rearing UnitNathrop · Cold water fish hatchery (trout rearing unit)A Colorado Parks and Wildlife trout rearing unit near Nathrop, below the Chalk Cliffs of Mount Princeton, where a quarter buys feed for trout bound for Front Range lakes.
- Crestone Artists Open Studio TourCrestone · Annual open studio tourA free October weekend in Crestone, Colorado, when members of an artist-run group open their working studios across town, continuing a tour Deana Wilfong began in 2005.
- Dave Sipe's Folk ArtMancos · Open studioA chainsaw carver's open studio, sculpture garden and museum on U.S. 160 outside Mancos, Colorado, where hundreds of grinning wooden figures spill from house, sheds and trailers.
- Durango Open Studio TourDurango · Free self-guided working studio tourA free, self-guided fall weekend of open artist studios across Durango, Colorado, where yellow yard signs mark the doors and ten 2026 stops share the historic Smiley Building.
- Georgetown Energy MuseumGeorgetown · Energy museum in a hydroelectric generating plantA free museum inside the hydroelectric plant at the east end of Sixth Street in Georgetown, Colorado, where water off South Clear Creek has turned generators since 1900.
- Hotchkiss National Fish HatcheryHotchkiss · National fish hatcheryA federal trout hatchery on the North Fork of the Gunnison near Hotchkiss, Colorado, fed by a 56-degree spring that an earthquake near Salt Lake City created in the 1930s.
- Leadville National Fish HatcheryLeadville · National fish hatcheryFederal trout hatchery founded 1889 at 10,000 feet below Mount Massive near Leadville, Colorado, housed in an 1890 red sandstone building and now breeding Colorado's greenback cutthroat.
- MouCo Cheese CompanyFort Collins · CheeseryA family cheesery in northeast Fort Collins, Colorado, making Camembert and other soft-ripened rounds since 2001 on a Bavarian model, with weekday morning tours by appointment.
- Mt. Shavano HatcherySalida · State fish hatcheryA state trout hatchery on spring water north of Salida, Colorado, occupying the old Frantzhurst farm, which once shipped fresh trout on ice by rail coast to coast.
- Open StudiosBoulder · Free self-guided tour of artists' working studiosUpwards of 8,000 art lovers attend the Studio Tour each year, visiting more than 120 local visual artists to learn about artistic inspiration, mediums, techniques, and to purchase one-of-a-kind works of art.
- Pitkin Fish HatcheryPitkin · Cold water brood and production facilityLocated on Quartz Creek just outside Pitkin; raises rainbow trout and kokanee salmon and keeps a Rio Grande cutthroat broodstock.
- Rifle Falls Fish HatcheryRifle · Cold water hatcheryColorado's largest state-owned trout hatchery, fourteen miles north of Rifle beneath 300-foot limestone cliffs, where rare Uncompahgre cutthroat rescued from a wildfire went into isolation tanks in July 2026.
- Roaring Judy Fish HatcheryAlmont · Fish hatcheryA state fish hatchery on the East River north of Almont, Colorado, where the state's largest kokanee salmon run ends each fall in a Friday giveaway of spawned fish.
- Shenandoah-Dives MillSilverton · Gold millThe Shenandoah-Dives Mill, known locally as the Mayflower Mill, is a 1929 flotation mill near Silverton, Colorado, whose machinery stands as it was when the final whistle sounded in 1991.
- The Fleece Factory Of The RockiesLa Salle · Textile companyAn artisan fiber mill, boutique and alpaca barn on Sandwalker Ranch outside LaSalle, Colorado, where a carder feeds straight into a rug yarn machine.
- Tour of Yamcolo and Stagecoach ReservoirsOak Creek · Dam and hydropower plant tourSummer tours led by the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District go inside Stagecoach Dam near Oak Creek, Colorado, a concrete dam built in 37 days of round-the-clock work.
- Western Museum of Mining & IndustryColorado Springs · Interactive museum of mining and industryWorking machinery, a model mining drift and gold panning stations in the 12,200 square foot exhibit hall, plus historic buildings and machinery on a 27 acre campus.
- Yampa Valley FiberworksCraig · Wool millWe mill natural fibers for customers all over the world. Our small batch processing is done with care and craftsmanship. We're universally referred to as a wool mill, but we specialize in wool, alpaca, llama, mohair, and angora natural fibers.
Factory Tours in all eleven states; next door in Utah and Arizona.