What’s so great about Colorado?
The short answer: plenty, and it’s not all about the weather. It’s the unending sense of daring and discovery that makes living here unique for people in search of adventure and a state that can deliver surprise after surprise. Today, five of the best reasons to live here and how to make the most of them.
1 Our state’s history is an open book.
We don’t have to work too hard to get a glimpse of the history – or even the prehistory – of the West here. Want to walk in dinosaur tracks? Got it. Want to see a stegosaurus coming out of the ground? Done. Want to stand in the Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts? No problem.
A great way to enjoy it:
On a tour of historical sites in the rarely visited Ute Mountain Tribal Park south of Cortez. The tribal park is contiguous with Mesa Verde National Park and contains similar cliff dwellings and important archeological findings. The tribe will run a special tour of the recently stabilized Porcupine House, a remote dwelling deep in the 125,000 acre park, on Sept. 17.
utemountainute.com/tribalpark.htm 970-565-3751, ext. 330, or 800-847-5485
2 All that big sky fuels big ideas.
Sometimes it feels like you can’t swing a Denver Boot without hitting someone with entrepreneurial aspirations. The telecom bust forced us to hit the restart button a few years back, but now the economic creatives are back at it full steam. They aren’t afraid to marry good business ideas to our love for the great outdoors.
A great way to enjoy it: On your new front porch at South Main River Park in Buena Vista, a development that could actually emerge as a new tourist site. The streets are finally starting to take shape in this mountain-town interpretation of New Urban development linking historic BV to the Arkansas River with a 315-unit community that has the world’s longest whitewater kayak park as its centerpiece. Better hurry, though, if you’re looking to buy. Phase I of the neighborhood sold out in six weeks; phase II hits the market in September.
southmainriverpark.com 719-395-4714
3 No such thing as a bad-weather day.
It may be urban legend at this point, but most Coloradans have grown up thinking the sun shines here more than 300 days a year. While National Weather Service records may beg to differ, it’s a warm feeling we’re just not willing to let go.
A great way to enjoy it: On a Western Slope golf course. Start with the Golf Club at Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction, where the sky is clear or only partly cloudy about 242 days a year.
Rated the 17th-best public course in America by Golf Digest this year, this par-72 course designed by Jim Engh takes golfers from one spectacular view of the Grand Mesa, Book Cliffs and Colorado National Monument to another. And on a clear day, you can see all the way to Utah from some of the tee boxes.
redlandsmesa.com 970-263-9270
4 We actually are a food state. Downtown Denver restaurant churn notwithstanding, Colorado has a thrilling culinary life. All over the state, chefs and bakers and growers are working hard to infuse cuisine with art again. Coils of sweet dough lovingly twisted into cinnamon rolls at far-flung truck stops; fragrant bowls of green chile in tiny hole-in-the-wall cafes; rustic pies filled with fresh fruit and crimped closed with love.
A great way to enjoy it: During drop-in hours at Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, Tuesdays and Saturdays, from noon to 2 p.m. Located in the shadow of Haystack Mountain west of Niwot, the dairy’s handmade, raw-milk cheeses are considered among the finest artisanal cheeses in the country. You can meet the goats and see how the soft ripened Haystack Peaks and Queso de Mano cheeses are made, and someone’s always around to give you a taste or sell you a cheese.
To arrange a tour: haystackgoatcheese.com 303-581-3777
5 There’s plenty out there that’s new to you. Although sometimes it feels like every square inch of Colorado has been discovered and tromped through, we can safely say there’s still lots of opportunity to experience the joy of discovery.
A great way to enjoy it: Take a pass on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. While everyone else is fighting traffic to reach the Continental Divide – and to be fair, it really is a gorgeous drive – try the Fern Lake trail, off Bear Lake Road, on foot instead. Press on beyond Two Rivers Lake to a place where the sight of the pure white sand beach that anchors the arctic green waters of Odessa Lake may take your breath away. The Colorado Mountain Club’s Fort Collins group will lead a more difficult route to Odessa Lake on Oct. 2.
To register: fortcmc.org 970-223-0914
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Round Trip
For more than 100 years, the grounds where American Indians hunted and collected colored clay for pot-making were on private property, the ancient labyrinth of narrow canyons carved through pebbly lavender, pink and apricot stone topped with lumps of bright white rock kept safe from all but the most foolhardy fence- jumpers. But El Paso County recently threw open the gates on the Paint Mines Interpretive Park, and now wanderers can stroll along a 3.5-mile trail system that loops visitors through sandstone-topped spires and massive hoodoos.
Getting there will take you out beyond where the ponderosa pines stand guard at the edge of the Black Forest, to the place where the high plains begin their long, rolling run east to the horizon.
Peyton to the Paint Mines: 15 miles
For the best results, start at U.S. 24 in Colorado Springs and head northeast.
