US Map / Cities / Aurora

Aurora Map

Aurora is Colorado's third-largest city, running east from the Denver city line out onto the High Plains across three separate counties.

Where is Aurora?

Aurora fills the eastern side of the Denver metropolitan area, in north-central Colorado. It begins at Denver's eastern city limit — the two street grids meet with no gap you could see from the ground — and extends about 20 miles east and southeast onto open prairie. Downtown Denver is roughly 10 miles west of Aurora's older neighborhoods, close enough that most residents work across the line. Colorado Springs is about 70 miles south down the Front Range corridor, and Albuquerque is some 450 miles south along the same interstate. Aurora is a suburb in origin and an independent city in fact: it has its own downtown-scale employment centers, its own water utility, and more people than every Colorado city except Denver and Colorado Springs.

Aurora at a glance

Aurora in Colorado

Very few large American cities are split three ways between counties. Aurora is: most of its population lives in Arapahoe County, a large northern section falls in Adams County, and a small southern tail reaches into Douglas County — all three appear on the Colorado county map. That split is a direct result of annexation. Aurora grew outward in stages after the Second World War, absorbing land in whatever county happened to be next. The state capital is Denver, immediately west, and Colorado Springs is the only other Colorado city in the national top 100; the Colorado state page shows how tightly the state's people cluster along this one strip of the Front Range.

Plains city, mountain view

Aurora is not a mountain town. It sits at roughly 5,400 feet on the western edge of the Great Plains, and the ground falls away eastward from the city rather than rising. The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains stands about 25 miles west, which is why the peaks are a skyline rather than a setting, and the Continental Divide runs roughly 60 miles beyond that. The only significant water is Cherry Creek, which flows northwest through the city to join the South Platte in downtown Denver; Cherry Creek Reservoir, a flood-control dam built in the 1950s, sits in the middle of Aurora. Denver International Airport lies just north of the city on a corridor Denver annexed to reach it, and Buckley Space Force Base occupies a large block inside the Aurora city limits.

Cities near Aurora

The nearest large cities are Denver next door and Colorado Springs down I-25; further out are Albuquerque to the south, Omaha across the plains to the northeast, and Wichita to the east. The Mountain division page puts the interior West in order.