"Colorado" a Colorado Travel Page by traveldave

Even though I currently live in Indiana, Colorado stills holds a special place in my heart. I lived in the state on two different occasions, and I still dream of eventually returning and settling permanently in Colorado.

When I was about three years old, my family moved to Boulder, where we lived for several years. Even after we left to live in Connecticut and then Vermont, I always remembered the beauty of Colorado and wanted to return.

We did return after about a ten-year absence when my father took a new job in Denver. We lived in the city of Arvada, which is a suburb northwest of Denver. I graduated from high school there and later went to college at the University of Colorado at Denver. It was during this time that I really came to love Denver and Colorado. I moved out of the state in 1991, but I try to visit Colorado about every three or four years.

Colorado is characterized by three major geographical areas: the high plains in the eastern half of the state, the Rocky Mountains, and the red-rock desert in the extreme western portion of the state.

Most visitors do not visit the high plains unless driving into Colorado from the east and in fact, there is little of interest to attract tourists to this area.

Most visitors go to Colorado to spend time in the Rocky Mountains. The Rockies provide some of the most spectacular and awesome beauty in the world. Colorado is the loftiest state in the union, with 53 peaks higher than 14,000 feet (4,267 meters). Many people travel to Colorado in the winter to ski at some of the best ski resorts in the world, such as Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain, and Arapahoe Basin, to name but a few. However, visitors who go to the Rockies in the summer will be rewarded with almost perfect weather and a profusion of colorful wild flowers. In the autumn, the mountains are covered in gold when the aspen leaves turn.

A visit to the red-rock areas of the west can be rewarding as well. Mesa Verde National Park contains the most extensive and best-preserved cliff dwellings in the nation. A visit here will provide a glimpse of life as it was long before the Spanish and Anglos arrived in this part of the world.

Finally, travelers should not visit Colorado without spending some time in Denver. Situated one mile (1.6 kilometers) above sea level, the "Mile High City," with 3,050,000 people in the metropolitan area, is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Denver area has pleasant weather with over 300 days of sunshine per year--more than such sunny cities as Miami and Los Angeles. A recent renaissance has brought about a vibrant streetlife to the downtown area, with many fashionable shops and boutiques, microbreweries, restaurants, and outdoor cafes. There are other attractions as well, such as the Denver Mint, where coins are minted; Coors Brewery in nearby Golden, where visitors can see beer being brewed (and then sample some of the beer after the tour); a new aquarium; and professional sports teams, such as the Denver Broncos (National Football League), the Denver Nuggets (National Basketball Association), the Colorado Avalanche (National Hockey League), the Colorado Rockies (Major League Baseball), and the Colorado Rapids (Major League Soccer).

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