About Colorado

Colorado is a land of almost anything you want, from the mountaintop of snowy and cold Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet in elevation to the southeastern plain that grows acres of Rocky Ford cantaloupe in the sweltering heat and sandy soil. The Rocky Mountains, with the Continental Divide running down its backbone, cuts the state in two. To the east are the high plains, where irrigated and dry land farming eases into cattle grazing nearer the Kansas border.

The Western Slope of the Rockies is famous for its peaches. Ranches are common along the foothills where hay fields are lush and green and streams are rocky and cold. Farther to the northwest, Dinosaur National Park fascinates visitors. Rough and rugged country gives way to stretches of high, semi desert plains again and again as one travels south on the west side of the state. At the far south corner, an area where the four states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet, called Four Corners, is Mesa Verde, home of the Anasazi. The pueblo homes of these ancient Native Americans is a popular tourist treat.There are many, many other sites to see in Colorado. Some of the most famous are the Great Sand Dunes, where a shallow stream shifts the sand continually, the Garden of the Gods north of Colorado Springs, and Grand Mesa, the largest mesa in the world.

The geography of Colorado is not the only thing about the state that is extreme. Temperatures can plummet 40 to 50 degrees within hours and bring snow, rain or high, hot winds, depending on the time of year and other conditions. Summer daytime temperatures on the eastern plains are commonly in the nineties, with cool nighttime temperatures in the sixties and even fifties. Temperatures overall are moderated by elevation more than latitude, with the plains to the north as hot as those to the south. Mountainous areas have lower temperatures overall. Snow, which falls on the mountains in the winter, is diverted to towns and farms on the plains in the summer.The state has a decidedly western flair for the most part, but is still diverse in culture. The earlier Spanish occupation left its mark, with many towns and counties named in that tongue. Indeed, Colorado was named after the Colorado Rio, Spanish for red river, so called because of the silt carried from the mountains each spring. Today, many Hispanic citizens carry on their traditions and celebrations.

Written by Lyndsey Morgan