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| where I went this month |
Nonetheless, maybe you can tell I missed enormous chunks of the state - the whole southwestern corner and just about everything west of Denver, except between Grand Junction and Colorado City. I was really sorry about those misses and I'm blaming it on the combination of snow and mountains.
Because it snowed when I'd only been in CO a few days, I didn't know what driving in the mountains would like if there were snow. I had a route and reservations made for traveling west of Pueblo down to the Four Corners region and got stopped by what really was trip-stopping snow, even with chains and 4-wheel drive, neither of which I have. So that section got missed. And when I tried to come up with driving routes to - say - Aspen, I found roads that the AAA map said were closed seasonally, which I decided might well mean I could get in trouble there. Sure all the snow melted, but I had no way of knowing that. And now that I've driven on some of those mountain roads, I'm really glad I didn't attempt more than I did.
Colorado's land
Despite this state's reputation as the Rocky Mountain state, most of it is pretty flat. Not having been in either Kansas or Nebraska, which it borders, I can't say eastern CO looks like them, but it looks like what I think they may look like - flattish land, rolling hills, and all the land used for farming of one kind or another (cows grazing come under the heading of farming). Towns are few and far between, and pretty small when you find them.
The part of western CO I've been in is something like that too, but with the difference of amazing ancient river valleys, like in the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. The Rockies and affiliated mountain groups stretch the length of the state just off its center, and I don't think it's possible to get from one side of the state to the other without going over a mountain or two.
And these really are mountains, unlike those in the eastern US that now seem somewhat cozy in comparison. I'd think if you lived here, you'd need a reliable vehicle with front-wheel drive, a solid center of gravity, and real maneuverability. Which isn't exactly what I'm driving at the moment.
It's beautiful country, though. While I was driving on the mountains, I was too worried to enjoy them. But once I could see them in the distance, I had no trouble seeing their beauty. What surprised me is how much I enjoyed the beauties of the western side. I've never been a fan of desert that isn't attached to an ocean and called a beach. But western CO has a lot of fascination about it, and I can understand now what puzzled me before I went about why people would settle in Grand Junction, because its setting has a lot to offer in many ways.
Colorado's people
Everyone I met in Colorado, without exception, said they liked where they lived. The complete opposite of the reaction I found in Oklahoma, which made it striking.
People were usually friendly and helpful when I asked.
I guess I got the impression people were proud of themselves for living in Colorado - including those who had been there all their lives. Odd sort of impression.
Many of those I talked to were irritated that their town/area was growing rapidly. Apparently, Colorado is one of those states that's experiencing lots of folks moving in from other states, and current residents don't like it one bit. One person complained about dramatic increases in crime in her town and blamed it on rapid growth. I even saw one bumper sticker that said, "You came to CO and got high. Now please leave." I took that to refer to legal pot use here, but it may just have been about the "Rocky Mountain high" John Denver sang about. Still, folks here seem to be ready to pull up the drawbridge.
Surprisingly (to me), CO has one of the US's highest percentages of Hispanics, but only 4% of the population is Black, which I'm guessing is well below the national average.
CO has the lowest rate of obesity in the country, making me think all those folks I saw out doing one form of recreation or another weren't entirely a result of the weather or about being fed up with the quarantine. The campgrounds were consistently full, any day of the week. People were doing any of a long list of sports: fishing, rafting, canoes and kayaks and sailing and waterskiing, climbing, hiking, bicycling, soccer, horseback and motorcycle riding. And that doesn't even touch on the winter sports. Did you know that it's easier to hit a home run here than in other places? Comes of thinner air at higher altitudes. Whod-a-thunk-it?
Although many see CO as a lean-Democrat state, my impression is that it's a vigorous 2-party state. I think, as in so many states, the cities (and 60% of CO's population lives in the Denver metro area alone) are likely predominantly Democratic, while rural areas are much more Republican. An example of how that's playing out this election year is the US House district in the west and southwest that had a Republican incumbent. Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush, who's served for years in the State House, is running against political newcomer Republican Lauren Boebert, who beat the incumbent in the primary. Mitsch Bush's stated positions, like Joe Biden's, are moderate to liberal; Boebert, who owns a restaurant and is known for her waiters openly carrying guns, is strongly pro-Trump, anti-Pelosi and is walking back earlier comments supporting QAnon. That's another race I'll be interested in seeing the outcome of.
Driving in Colorado
I was really surprised to find that the drivers here - the ones with CO license plates, not the out-of-staters - were pretty rude. Several times I heard horns honking at intersections, which isn't something I've encountered in a long time. Drivers tried to cut me off, wouldn't let me merge into a lane the highway was forcing me into, and a few even tailgated me. Why bother being in the beautiful western US when you can get this kind of behavior back east?
And I can't throw bouquets at the highway department either. I realize building and maintaining roads attached to very high mountains isn't an easy task. And I realize these folks have entirely different challenges than do their counterparts in West Virginia. But I quickly learned not to trust these road designers. For instance, I agree I may have missed a few details about the state of the roadway when I was traveling back east over Monarch Pass, but I'm nearly sure there were some areas where guard rails were either low and inadequate or missing entirely. I ask you, what's reasonable or trustworthy about a mountain road like that? In my memory I can still drive part of that road and still feel the terror of those curves with no protection for me.
To be fair, away from the mountains and other drivers, CO's roads were pretty good. While many of them are 2-lane, most of those have lots of passing lanes and signs saying a passing lane is coming soon, which probably prevents a lot of accidents. In general the highway signs are adequate, and most towns have above average street signage.
What I didn't see that I wanted to see
A long list.
* In the southwest, I really wanted to see the Hovenweep National Monument ruins in the Four Corners area and now have to look forward to whatever of that culture is in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
* Similarly, in the northwest, is Dinosaur National Monument, which CO shares with Utah. But it would have meant a long drive to get there, and I'd still have had to be ferried into Utah to see the bones, and I wanted to stay in CO. Just something I'll need to be sure is on my list for visiting UT.
* The Colorado School of Mines in Golden is the location of the National Earthquake Information Center, which I'd wanted to visit. But tours were available only by reservation, and that would have been more organization than I was ready to pull off. But if I'd had a longer visit, it would have been on my list.
* Of course, I missed Estes Park and Winter Park (which has a major program of skiing that's geared for disabled people) and Aspen and Gunnison and Telluride - all places I've heard of and still never seen.
* I missed Grand Lake, Colorado's largest natural lake, which has the highest altitude yacht dock in the US.
* Mount Evans has the highest paved road in North America.
* I would have liked a tour of the Denver Mint, where there's the largest gold supply outside of Ft. Knox. Stupid virus. And Denver has several museums I'd have liked enough time to visit.
* Boulder is the home of Naropa Institute, the only Buddhist university in the US. I intended to go by but that was a victim of my getting lost there.
* When the snow knocked out my route in the southwest, I missed the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, which includes some of the world's highest sand dunes - some up to 700' high.
* West of Colorado City near the Garden of the Gods are the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, which sound interesting to me. Also in that area is the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, where I understand there are fossils of tropical plants, including palm trees. Just think of what this world must have once looked like.
* I would really have liked more time in Colorado Springs, where I felt comfortable for at least the brief time I was there. There's something called Miramount Castle there; built in 1895, it has 9 different architectural styles (and they say it's only in modern times we can't compromise with each other).
* I'd have liked to see the USAF Academy's A-shaped chapel, which I understand is world-famous.
In other words, I missed enough to make another trip worthwhile - preferably when there's less risk of snow (though that means more risk of too many other people).
My conclusion
I thought at first I'd like Colorado, because I assumed its fairly liberal social decisions (e.g. statewide mask mandate) would make me feel comfortable with the people. But while this state has broad policies that are left-of-center, its actions don't always match its words.
For instance, I still can't believe I had so much trouble finding recycling facilities around the state. I'd have thought a place with major interstates cutting across it would have little trouble sending recyclables to be processed. Maybe so, but that means a lot of places could be recycling that weren't.
In summary, although I'd very much wanted and expected to like Colorado, I found it hard to get comfortable here. It was almost as if I never knew where I was putting my foot when I took a step, because conditions I expected to find weren't there and things I didn't expect were there instead. You might even see the mountains as an illustration: because I'd grown comfortable with those in West Virginia, I thought I'd be fine here too, even though these were substantially higher. But I was far less comfortable, even than I'd allowed for because of the differences. I just never seemed to be able to hit my stride here, and I'm very sorry about that.
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