The Town of Parachute is a Statutory Town in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,006 at the 2000 census. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.2 km˛), of which, 1.2 square miles (3.1 km˛) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.1 km˛) of it (4.07%) is water.

The name comes from the appearance on a map of several streams converging on the town as do the shroud lines of a parachute combined with the arc of the ridge line above the streams which resembles the canopy of a parachute. The town was previously named Grand Valley.

The town was originally named Parachute, after the one creek that flowed into town from the northwest. Parachute Creek was named such when the original surveyors mapped the area. As noted above, the creek has three main branches that converge at a point and a topographical map of the canyon has the appearance of a parachute—but this is several miles northwest of the town. In 1908, the name of the town was changed to Grand Valley to lure travelers on their way to the Grand Valley, which is the Colorado River valley to the southwest known for its fruit production. After the local history "Lest We Forget" was published in the late 1970s (the name was changed in the 1980s), the town voted to return the name Parachute to the town.


It was 101°F (38.3°C) when I was there.