ALL POINTS WEST

The past is within easy reach in Colorado's Moffat County, where wild horses roam and canyons conceal dinosaur tracks. But, as Elaine Glusac discovers, all eyes are looking toward the future.

- Elaine Glusac

I WAS BARELY 75 miles west of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and its mountainchic restaurants, art galleries, and hot-springs-fed swimming pools when I reached Maybell, a blip on Highway 40. WHERE THE WEST IS STILL WILD, read a roadside marker. Just beyond the town's Depression-era general store, I swung north onto County Road 318, where green pastures gave way to sandy mesas. NO SERVICES FOR 120 MILES, another sign cautioned. If you want to get lost in America, Moffat County, the northwesternmost corner of Colorado, is a good place to go.

But there are attractions within those 120 miles, including my destination: Sand Wash Basin, about 158,000 acres of sagebrush-clad hills, dry creek beds, and clay buttes, all overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency in charge of much of the undeveloped land in these parts. It's a refuge for wild horses-344 grays, bays, and sorrels-which attract camera-toting pilgrims ardent for the open range.

"It's magical out here," said Cindy Wright, a rancher who runs the nonprofit Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin, which raises money to support improvements in the habitat. She served as my guide to viewing the horses, as well as other wonders on the reserve, including petrified wood, ancient turtle shells, and rock walls striped in fossilized algae like prehistoric bath rings. "There's a lot to offer here, a lot of open space."