Colorado information
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 US 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 US 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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