I’ve lived in Colorado for over sixteen years. In that time I’ve come to appreciate a lot of things about the place, from purple mountains majesty to fruited politicians. I’ve seen quite a lot of the place, too, because I like to travel. I’m not the first person to like visiting the nooks and crannies of this state, of course. People have been coming here for thousands of years. They come now, as they always have, for the scenery, for the game, and for the waters.
Yes, unlike Casablanca, Colorado really does have waters. Very hot waters in many cases, that smell suspiciously like that Easter egg your four-year old never found last year did along about the middle of June. Still, those waters have been a magnet for tourists for as long as anyone can remember. If you come to Colorado, be sure to bring your swimsuit (although you don’t need it everywhere, but that’s another article entirely) and plenty of sunscreen, towels, and insect repellent. Unless it’s winter, in which case skip the repellent. There are an incredible number of springs in this state. Do a search for “Colorado hot springs” if you want to know what some of them are called and where they are, exactly. As an indication of how important these resorts are, consider that a Navajo warrior was killed by a Ute over possession of the springs at Pagosa Springs in Archuleta County. That wasn’t all that long before some treaty or other put the area squarely in the possession of real estate developers, but that, too, is another story. (You can learn the story at the Ute Cultural Center in Ignacio if you’re interested. It could be worse, it’s true, but it isn’t pretty.)
The Utes were early travelers in Colorado. They didn’t call it Colorado, of course. I don’t know what they did call it, in fact, but at least six distinct bands of them lived here for a long, long time before the first European tourists arrived. That would be the Spanish, who, amazingly, didn’t bother the Utes at all, and even, I’m told, allowed the Utes to steal horses at night, keep the best ones, and sell the rest back in the morning. Needless to say, the Utes never had a serious dispute with the Spanish, whom they must have looked upon much as a carnival barker views a gaggle of rubes walking up to his peep show. Of course, that was too good a deal to last forever, and eventually the Americans rode in.
One of the first was a poor lost soul named Zebulon Pike. Besides inventing a famous fighting device (hey, he has the name, doesn’t he?) he was sent to explore the southern border of what was then called Louisiana. That would be the Arkansas River, which is a way south of the peak where he and his company almost succumbed to winter storms. He estimated the mountain to be eighteen thousand feet high, at least, which shows you the effect of thin air on a man’s judgment. (For the record, it’s just over fourteen thousand feet.) Doubtless Zebulon and company went on to distinguish themselves in surveying the territory, but everybody knows him because of that mountain. It’s near Colorado Springs, and you can get there in your car, up a road that amazes even natives, or on a cog railway, which will also let you hear a spiel from a trained guide. The first time I was there a woman from somewhere considerably lower said, “It’s breathtaking!” As I was just up from the lowlands myself I wasn’t sure if she meant the scenery or the fact that there didn’t seem to be any air.
People of European descent really started trooping into the state after gold nuggets were discovered, first in what is now Denver, shortly after near Pike’s Peak. A lot of them proved their determination by painting “Pike’s Peak or Bust” on their wagons, and then proceeding to bust. The first four or five people did find a bunch of gold, but most of the gold in Colorado has come from subdividing sections and selling to newcomers. That’s still a good way to get rich today, and I’m surprised that I’ve never gotten into it.
As I said above, the waters in Colorado have always been a big draw. That’s why there’s a city named Colorado Springs. There aren’t any springs there (there are some a few miles up the foothills, in Manitou) but the developer (who subdivided sections and sold them to newcomers) thought the name would bring in more tourists, and he was right. Today the city is famous for the Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family, the Broadmoor Hotel, now over a century old, and a nice zoo on Cheyenne Mountain. Underneath Cheyenne Mountain is the headquarters for the military operation that is charged with protecting North America. They used to give tours, but lately, well, you don’t want to know. You can’t see a trace of it from the zoo anyway.
Colorado tourism got a big boost when the people of Denver, at least those who still had some money after the gold bust, built a railroad from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Denver and then south and west to points all over. That was the Denver and Rio Grande Western, commonly known as the Rio Grande. That railroad allowed all sorts of people to travel to and around in Colorado. There are a couple of pieces of the original lines still operating: one in Durango and one in Chama, New Mexico. Amazingly, the one from Chama to Antonito, Colorado still gets some “real” use in hauling cattle up and down mountainsides. I guess the cows are just too lazy to walk any more.
Colorado is a big state, blessed with beautiful scenery and some amazing roads to use to get to see it. There is, for instance, a phenomenon in Colorado that is simply a guardrail made of air. I mean that you can be driving on a road next to a five-hundred foot drop-off, and there will be nothing on the outside of the curve but a narrow strip of gravel. When I first moved here I found that unsettling, but now I adhere to the locals’ dictum: don’t drive off of the road and you won’t fall. It’s so simple! And, interestingly, while people do fall off of the road in Colorado, it’s usually an Interstate (with lots of guardrails) or some flat road surrounded by fields. Virtually nobody ever falls off of those five hundred foot cliffs. Maybe the highway people should reconsider their use of guardrails in every situation. It seems like it’s guard rails that drive people off the road, not narrow strips of gravel.
Seriously, Colorado is a beautiful state with lots of wonderful things to see and do. Chaffee County is one of the most beautiful places on this planet, for instance. Rocky Mountain National Park is simply spectacular. The Denver area is a cosmopolitan, clean, good-looking city. There are national parks all over the place, including a couple of national grasslands. You can ski, raft, tour the mint, hike, ride a horse, eat a buffalo, stroll quaint historic districts, visit ancient home sites and shop upscale malls, all without leaving the state. (Hey, I can’t just make jokes, now can I? If it weren’t for Colorado I wouldn’t have a theme here!)
So, I think you should give Colorado a try. Sure, you may end up, as do so many in this distinctly “un-level” state, with one leg shorter than the other. But, hey, it’ll be worth it. I’ll close with a quote from a young boy my wife and I once saw in a scenic overlook near Buena Vista (Byoonie to locals.) He looked at the majestic Sawatch Range spread out before him, snow capped and glistening in the sun, then up at his mother and asked, “Where are the Rocky Mountains?”
I think he was a native.
Real Travel Adventures 