Browns Canyon comes to Denver

Check this out: On a beautiful October evening, a crowd gathered in downtown Denver to watch Browns Canyon come alive on the façade of the McNichols Building, in an eye-popping display of light and images. The Oct. 17 event, called “Browns Canyon Live,” was sponsored by Sportsmen for Browns Canyon, a grassroots coalition of hunters and anglers committed to preserving Browns Canyon as a national monument.   Here’s a recap video of the event: 

The group also recently bought billboards along I-70 as part of a larger campaign to raise public awareness in Denver about Browns Canyon and the need to protect it.

“We just want to keep Browns Canyon the way it is—pristine and wild,” said Kyle Perkins of Trout Unlimited, who is coordinator of the group. “Our goal with the video event was to visually bring this amazing place to the heart of downtown Denver.  We wanted urban residents to experience some of the grandeur and awe of Browns and to support our efforts to protect it for future generations.”

The group approached Ghost Pixel Visuals, a Denver group of 3-D visual artists, motion designers, and music dj’s that create cutting edge, one-of-a-kind live “projection mapping” events. Ghost Pixel’s multimedia artists combined video and images of Browns Canyon with other light and music effects and digitally mapped the exterior of the McNichols building to create the live performance.

Browns Canyon, on the Arkansas River between Buena Vista and Salida, has long been a favorite destination for hunters and anglers. The rugged granite cliffs and backcountry provide critical habitat for elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer, mountain lion and black bear. And each year, thousands of rafters and anglers float the upper Arkansas River through Browns. The canyon section is an outstanding wild trout fishery that was recently designated Gold Medal status by the state of Colorado—part of the longest stretch of Gold Medal waters in the state.

Colorado Sen. Mark Udall has introduced legislation that would designate Browns Canyon a national monument and protect—for all time—the 22,000-acre backcountry area and its current mixed uses, which include hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, mountain biking, off-highway vehicle use, grazing, and horseback riding. Besides preserving vital fish and wildlife habitat, the monument designation would also be an economic boon for the Arkansas River valley and the state, which depend on tourism and recreation dollars.

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Monumental: Browns Canyon billboard along I-70 corridor in Denver

The group also paid for two billboards along I-70 through Denver from early September until the first week of November. One billboard features a striking image of an angler fishing in the canyon, and another shows the canyon awash in a starry nightscape, with the message: “Monumental: Protect Browns Canyon.” The billboard messages will reach an estimated 180,000 people a day who travel this major east-west corridor.

“We’re getting the word out: We have to protect this place or risk losing it,” said Perkins.

For more information, go to www.sportsmenforbrowns.com.