Outdoor Life magazine loves Colorado’s great outdoors, listing seven towns among it top 200 best for hunting and fishing in America.
Colorado’s top town, according to the magazine’s most recent issue, is Fort Collins, which ranked 14th on the list nationally.
In compiling the list, Outdoor Life looked at towns across the country that offer top-rate hunting and fishing with close access to public lands and waters.
The magazine also considered the economies of the towns, including affordability, and the hospitality town’s folk offer visitors.
“We’ve all visited those towns, the ones with the river running through them, the woodlands nudging the outskirts and the cafe that’s crowded at 5 a.m. with duck hunters and trout guides,” writer Andrew McKean says in the magazine article. “Maybe it’s a Western mountain town tucked into drop-dead scenery … On the way out of these bergs we’ve fantasized about moving to these places where life seems simpler, the people friendlier and where the economy is nourished by postcard-perfect vistas.”
Colorado towns joining Fort Collins on the list include: Rifle (17), Durango (28), Craig (41), Grand Junction (44), Evergreen (45), and Gunnison (84).
Overall, the magazine ranked Mountain Home, Ark., as the No. 1 one spot, followed by Lewiston, Ind.
Two Wyoming towns, Sheridan and Cody, ranked third and fourth nationally.
Towns considered had to have more than 4,000 residents, and the magazine also considered crime rates, housing prices, and cultural opportunities within an easy drive as part of its formula.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
