Cortez Municipal Airport — Cortez, United States

High on the mesa country of southwestern Colorado, Cortez Municipal Airport gives travelers heading toward Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners region a quicker alternative to the long drives across the canyon lands. Subsidized commuter flights connect the field to Denver, a lifeline for a rural county built on ranching, archaeology tourism, and oil and gas work. Sitting close to six thousand feet in elevation, the airport experiences the thin air and wide temperature swings typical of the high desert, and pilots must account for reduced aircraft performance on warm afternoons. A single runway handles Cortez's modest daily traffic.