Colorado
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237 free Colorado trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Colorado trivia questions with answers. Ready to test your Colorado knowledge? Our comprehensive trivia quiz features 50 challenging questions about the Centennial State's rich history, stunning geography, vibrant culture, and iconic landmarks. Whether you're a Colorado native or just curious about this mountain state, this quiz will help you discover fascinating facts while having fun!
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Q 01What is the highest mountain peak in Colorado?
Mount Elbert
Mount Elbert is the highest summit in the whole Rocky Mountain chain, yet climbers call it the 'gentle giant': marked trails lead walkers all the way to the top with no ropes needed.
Q 02Which of these birds is the official state bird of Colorado?
Lark Bunting
The Lark Bunting male is black with white wing patches in summer, then turns streaky grey-brown like the female each winter, when the flocks leave Colorado's plains for the south.
Q 03Which flower is the official state flower of Colorado?
Rocky Mountain Columbine
The Rocky Mountain Columbine, white and lavender, became the state flower on 4 April 1899, and it is illegal to uproot one on public land.
Q 04What is the official state animal of Colorado?
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep was nearly wiped out in Colorado by the early 1900s through livestock diseases and unregulated hunting, before a century of protection rebuilt the herds.
Q 05Colorado's Latin motto, 'Nil Sine Numine', is usually translated as 'Nothing without' what?
Providence
Providence is the usual rendering, though the state also accepts 'the Deity'. The motto has sat on a scroll beneath the seal's shield since 1861, and wags of the early mining days said it really meant 'nothing without a new mine'.
Q 06Which state meets Colorado, Utah and New Mexico at the Four Corners Monument?
Arizona
Arizona completes the only point where four US states meet. Later surveys put the marker about 1,800 feet from its intended spot, but the Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that the original markers are the legal border.
Q 07What material covers the dome of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver?
Gold leaf
Gold leaf was first laid over the dome in 1908 to commemorate the gold rush that drew settlers to Colorado, and the gleaming cap has made the Capitol a Denver landmark ever since.
Q 08Colorado's 'Centennial State' nickname marks 100 years between statehood and which earlier event?
The signing of the Declaration of Independence
The signing of the Declaration of Independence was 100 years past when Colorado joined the Union in 1876. With no time to organize a vote that autumn, its legislature chose the presidential electors itself, the last time any state did so.
Q 09The name 'Colorado' comes from a Spanish word meaning what, first applied to a silt-laden river?
Colored red
'Colored red' is the Spanish colorado, given to the river for its reddish silt. Congress borrowed the river's name for the territory in 1861, sixty years before the river's own upper reach stopped being called the Grand.
Q 10Which conifer did Colorado schoolchildren choose in an 1892 Arbor Day vote, decades before it became the state tree?
Blue spruce
Blue spruce won the children's vote, but lawmakers made it official only in 1939. Utah shared the tree as its own symbol from 1933 until 2014, when it switched to the quaking aspen.
Q 11Which Pro Football Hall of Famer became the University of Colorado's head football coach in December 2022?
Deion Sanders
Deion Sanders left Jackson State for Boulder and brought his quarterback son Shedeur with him; two years later his two-way star Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy.
Q 12Which song did Colorado adopt in 2007 as its second official state song?
'Rocky Mountain High'
'Rocky Mountain High' joined the state's 1915 anthem in 2007. Some listeners had taken its title for a drug reference, but John Denver always insisted the high came from the mountains themselves.
Q 13On Colorado's state flag, what does the red of the large letter 'C' stand for?
The ruddy earth
Q 21Which inventor built a laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899 to make artificial lightning?
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla threw bolts more than a hundred feet long from the mast of his prairie laboratory, and one experiment burned out the local power company's dynamo and blacked out the town.
Q 22Which U.S. President signed the proclamation admitting Colorado to the Union?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant signed the statehood proclamation on August 1, 1876, about a decade after his predecessor Andrew Johnson had vetoed a bill to admit Colorado.
Q 23What is believed to have pushed the builders of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings to leave by about 1300?
Severe drought
The ruddy earth gives the 'C' its red. The 1911 law left the exact shades and the letter's size vague, so flags varied until lawmakers fixed the colours in 1929 and the 'C' in 1964.
Q 14What is the official summer heritage sport of Colorado?
Pack Burro Racing
Pack Burro Racing has runners cover mountain courses on foot beside a loaded donkey. Legend traces it to two miners who struck gold together and raced to town to file the claim, their burros too laden to ride.
Q 15Colorado Territory was created weeks before which war?
Civil War
The Civil War began in April 1861, six weeks after the territory was signed into being. Secession had emptied Southern seats in Congress, breaking the slavery deadlock that had stalled new western territories.
Q 16What kind of live animal, known as Ralphie, leads the University of Colorado football team onto the field?
A bison
A bison called Ralphie sprints ahead of the Buffaloes at home games. Every Ralphie has been female, chosen for her smaller size and calmer temperament, yet she can still top 25 miles per hour.
Q 17Which Colorado mining town, more than 10,000 feet up, is the highest incorporated city in the United States?
Leadville
Leadville's mines boomed so fast that by the end of 1879 it was nearly the size of Denver and Colorado's second city; at the 2020 census just 2,633 people lived there.
Q 18Which pale blue gem, dug from high on Mount Antero, is Colorado's official state gemstone?
Aquamarine
Aquamarine crystals form in rock pockets near the 14,000-foot top of Mount Antero, where prospectors still work private claims on some of the highest gem ground in the country.
Q 19Which dinosaur is the official state fossil of Colorado?
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus became the state fossil in 1982 by the governor's executive order, after a fourth-grade class spent two years campaigning for it. The first Stegosaurus bones had been found near Morrison, Colorado, in the 1870s.
Q 20What are the two official winter sports of Colorado?
Skiing and snowboarding
Skiing and snowboarding were named Colorado's winter sports in 2008 after a nine-year-old in a fourth-grade history class proposed the idea and petitions carried it to the legislature.
Severe drought is the leading explanation: wood samples record long dry spells in the 1200s. The people migrated south, and their descendants still live in the Southwest today.
Q 24Colorado's last great gold rush began in 1890 when Bob Womack struck rich ore near which town?
Cripple Creek
Cripple Creek was cattle pasture until Bob Womack, a rancher's son who had prospected it for years without finding investors, hit rich ore in 1890 and set off the rush.
Q 25Which colonel led the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of a Cheyenne and Arapaho village?
John Chivington
John Chivington's troops attacked a camp flying a US flag and a white flag, killing mostly women, children and the elderly. A congressional inquiry condemned him, but he had left the army and was never tried.
Q 26What is Denver's official elevation, as marked on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol?
5,280 feet
5,280 feet is exactly one mile, hence the Mile High City. Later surveys found that the step first engraved as the mile-high mark sits at the wrong height, so other steps now carry markers of their own.
Q 27The historical cliff dwellings found in Mesa Verde National Park were built by which ancient culture?
Puebloans
Puebloans, the Ancestral Pueblo people, had lived on the mesa for centuries before they built the cliff dwellings, mostly between 1180 and 1300, and they used them for only about a century before moving away.
Q 28Which of Colorado's professional sports teams competes in the NFL?
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos began in 1960 in second-hand mustard and brown uniforms with vertically striped socks; two years later the team switched to orange and blue and burned the socks at a public ceremony.
Q 29What is the official state fish of Colorado?
Greenback Cutthroat Trout
The Greenback Cutthroat Trout took the title in 1994 from the rainbow trout, long treated as the state fish but never adopted. Mine pollution and stocked rivals had pushed the native greenback close to extinction.
Q 30Which open-air concert venue near Morrison, Colorado, is famous for its natural acoustics?
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Red Rocks Amphitheatre was shaped between two towering sandstone slabs by Civilian Conservation Corps crews, who worked from 1936 until its dedication in June 1941.