UFO Watchtower

The San Luis Valley is one of the largest high-desert valleys in the world, a vast flat basin ringed by mountains with enormous skies overhead. It has a long-standing reputation for reports of unexplained lights, strange phenomena, and UFO sightings, woven into local lore.

Whatever one makes of those stories, the valley's setting explains its allure: dark, clear, expansive skies where anything moving overhead is easy to notice. The watchtower gives visitors a dedicated place to look up and take their chances at seeing something out of the ordinary.

The attraction centers on a modest raised platform, the watchtower, where visitors can stand and scan the horizon and sky. It is intentionally simple and homespun, run independently as a labor of love rather than a slick tourist operation.

Below the tower lies its most famous feature, a garden filled with trinkets, tokens, and mementos left by countless visitors over the years. The owner has long maintained that the spot sits atop an energetic portal, and the garden's growing collection of offerings has become an attraction in its own right, a quirky monument to the many who have stopped here.

Even for the skeptical, the UFO Watchtower delivers a genuine reward: superb stargazing. Far from city lights, the San Luis Valley offers some of the darkest night skies in the country, where the Milky Way arches bright overhead and stars crowd the horizon.

A small campground on site lets visitors stay the night and watch the sky at leisure, whether hoping for a sighting or simply soaking in the cosmos. On a clear, moonless night, the show overhead is spectacular regardless of what, if anything, unexplained appears.

The valley is a place of deep history and striking landscapes, part of the ancestral homeland of the Ute people and long shaped by Hispano communities whose roots here run deep. It holds wonders from the towering Great Sand Dunes to hot springs and wildlife refuges.

This makes the watchtower an easy, entertaining stop on a larger tour of the valley. The high desert can be hot by day and cold at night, and the attraction is seasonal, so visitors plan for the weather and hours. Whether for a laugh, a look at the stars, or a genuine sky-watch, it is a memorable slice of roadside Colorado.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.