Entry No. 5 — the Pueblo file — filed under: outdoor-weird
Crestone Ziggurat
“In 2001 he sold the whole 60 acres to Tibetan Buddhists for ten dollars. They leave it open.”
The man who ran Pan Am and the FAA — and whose daughter became Queen Noor of Jordan — built himself a Babylonian ziggurat on a foothill outside Crestone in 1978, a private prayer tower in the one American town where that's unremarkable. Thirty feet of ochre-stuccoed concrete, a left-spiraling ramp with no railing, fourteeners in every direction. In 2001 Najeeb Halaby sold the whole 60 acres to Tibetan Buddhists for ten dollars. They leave it open.
The move: Time your climb for sunset — take the railing-less spiral ramp slow, sit on the worn bench at the top, and watch the light leave the Sangre de Cristos together.
📍 Before you go The ziggurat stands at the end of Cordial Way in the Baca Grande subdivision just south of Crestone; the dirt lot below fits about three cars, and a short sandy footpath climbs the hill to the base. The spiral ramp has no railing and the hilltop catches serious wind, so wear real shoes and skip it in a storm. It is free, open to the public, and kept up by volunteers from the local Tibetan Buddhist center — treat it as a sacred site, not a jungle gym. From Pueblo it is roughly a two-hour drive into the San Luis Valley, so pair it with Crestone's stupas and temples or the Great Sand Dunes.
- 📍 Crestone
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: End of Cordial Way, Baca Grande subdivision, Crestone, CO 81131
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11