Colorado
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.
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