DENVER -- You'll see it soon after leaving the freeway heading east toward Ault. The small towns and farmlands of state Highway 14 fade away and for a while, so does the paved road.

There's bridge work being done on Weld County Road 77 right now, but a 2-mile detour on gravel will get you around it and back on the pavement to Grover, Colo.

Grover's a small town but it's the only one left in these parts. It is quite a town.

It had an opera house, four or five bars and an old hotel built in 1909 at the center of town. The hotel held wrestling matches in the basement, and had a wooden floor for a roller skating rink.

Now that hotel is the Plover Inn, a bed and breakfast restored and run by Joyce Held. The stained glass that are here are the original windows. There are no bullet holes from the wild west days.

Trudy's Cafe on the edge of downtown Grover is the place to go for the map that shows you just how to get to the Pawnee Buttes.

The map's inside on the wall but stick around for a cup of coffee and a burger. It's your last chance for a good meal and there's lots of gravel road ahead.

There are no billboards out here, only a few signs of any kind to guide you.

And nothing can prepare you for the climb that takes you into eagle, falcon and hawk country. The Nature Conservancy considers it one of the 10 best birdwatching areas in the nation.

At the heart of the Pawnee Grasslands are the buttes -- two spires that stand hundreds of feet above the valley.

It is a spectacular sight amidst the isolation of this part of Weld County.

The Pawnee National Grasslands are a combination of public and private property. You can hike all the way down to the foot of the buttes on public land but you can't climb them because then you're on private property.

The Pawnee Buttes are a 2 1/2 hour drive north from Denver. That's a tankful of gas and a world away from anything you could imagine.

Bill's Notes From His Trip: Travel Tips

It's about a 90-minute drive to the heart of the Pawnee National Grasslands, and another 45 minutes to the Buttes. Take Interstate 25 north to exit 269A east, past Ault on Colorado 14 to Briggsdale. That's about 100 miles from Denver.

Grover is another 22 miles north on a paved county road.

But once you leave Grover, it's all gravel and dirt roads; nothing brutal, but enough to make their mark on a new paint job.

In Grover, there's a grocery store, Trudy's Cafe, and the Plover Inn. Trudy's is just off the main road and you can get a pretty good burger or sandwich plus a dose of history and a makeshift map to the Pawnee Buttes.

Grover was once a railroad town, along the Burlington Route into Southern Wyoming. But when the railroad pulled out, the area went into an economic decline.

Today, Railroad Avenue is the main road northwest into Cheyenne and southeast toward the Pawnee Buttes.

When you leave the Buttes, you've got any number of routes that'll get you through some amazing country. If you go back the way you came in, Railroad Avenue will take you past some almost-ghost towns.

Look for deer. Look for the remaining Minuteman missile silo sites. And ultimately, look for Colorado Highway 14, which will lead you back to Briggsdale, Ault and eventually I-25.

To contact Joyce Held at the Plover Inn, call (970) 895-2275. Or you can reach her at ploverinn@aol.com.

More Information:

Official Site: Pawnee National Grassland
Cyberwest: Pawnee Buttes
GORP: Pawnee National Grasslands