Colorado is synonymous with
the Rocky Mountains. Even though a third of the state is
actually prairie, the mountains dominate the scene. The state has 54 peaks that
rise higher than 14,000 feet, and over 1,140 peaks are over 10,000 feet. If you
long for mountain playgrounds, then you have come to the right state. Between
the Southwest and the Northwest, Colorado
combines its mountains with one of the sunniest climates in continental North
America. Skiing and other winter sports are perhaps the state's
biggest draw in terms of tourism. But there is much more to Colorado
than snow. In the summertime, the mountain meadows and national forests offer
superb hiking, mountain biking, river rafting, four-wheeling, horse packing,
trout fishing, and golf. On top of this, the summer wildflowers, up in the high
meadows, are worth traveling thousands of miles to see. Just as people travel
to New England to view fall foliage, they come to the Rockies
and their outlying ranges to see summer flowers.
Then there is wildlife. Every fall the mountains echo with the bugling of
rutting elk bulls and with the crash of their antlers as they fight for the
favors of the cows. Bears snuffle for berries in the high meadows, and mountain
lions watch from the heights as mule deer and bighorn sheep graze nearby. Down
on the wide prairies, pronghorn antelope drift across the grasslands watched by
canny coyotes. The national parks and state parks all offer great opportunities
for wildlife viewing.
But Colorado is about more
than just nature. Many of its towns Telluride,
Cripple
Creek, Crested Butte, Durango, and Leadville are like
picturesque Western movies sets. Life after dark can get quite raucous in the
mountain resort towns of Aspen,
Breckenridge, Vail, and Steamboat Springs. In Denver,
Boulder, and
Colorado
Springs, city life takes over as these cities continue
to boom. With the rise of the high tech industry more and more business
travelers visit without ever going near the mountains, and nightlife and
entertainment are reaching world-class level, especially in Denver.
In short, Colorado is the kind
of state everybody wants to live in. Indeed, the number of people relocating to
Denver and the surrounding area
from other states has increased to almost alarming proportions in the last few
years. Many long-term residents are wondering how much more development the
area can take. Certainly it has come a long way since the gold-rush days of the
1850s that first put Colorado on
the map.
