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Colorado, the Red State
by Kalarad Bergen
http://www.coloradomountain.com
Colorado is one of the most beautiful states situated in
the Midwest. It has extreme weather, i.e. very cold in the
winters and very hot and arid in the summers. Despite this
it is very beautiful. It has a great reputation for winter
sports. It is ideal for skiing and snowboarding. In summers
too there are a lot of activities like hiking, camping,
rafting, caving and mountaineering. Climbers enjoy the
canyons and revel in the beauty of the diverse rock
formations. It is situated in the middle of seven other
states.
The permanent residents of Colorado do not find the
situation so lovely as the tourists. The reason being that
the extreme climates in the state cause great hardships to
its residents. Such combination of scenic beauty is quite
rare in other places indeed. The winter presents a
difficult time when people have to do a lot of shoveling
outside their homes to be able to drive their cars out
besides the dangerous conditions for driving caused by
incessant snowing. Colorado's people retiring to such
milder climate states as Georgia and Florida are quite
common.
Colorado might be a difficult place to live in but the
people take pride in their state. They try their best to
protect the beauty and purity of Colorado. They refused to
hold the Olympics in 1976, as they feared that there might
be harm to their state. They realized that there might be
contamination, population boom and a financial load on the
state.
Colorado means 'colored red' and indeed the land and many of
the rock formations are a rich terra cotta color. It has a
rich history and mixture of cultural influences - from the
original native Americans to the Anglo-Europeans who settled
in the north of the state to the Hispanic Europeans who
settled in southern Colorado. Indeed many of the place
names are Spanish - Pueblo, San Luis and the name of the
state itself Colorado, which means to blush in Spanish.
This state has been the locale for many Western films. In
the 1800s it attracted a lot of prospectors who came here
in the hope of striking it rich in the fabled gold mines.
The ghost towns of the settlers can still be seen there.
There are still quite a few gold and silver mining towns.
The atmosphere is very romantic and one can relive the
excitement of the people who lived here with dreams in
their heart and emotions on their sleeve. It still has the
Wild West atmosphere.
But it is not all mountains cowboys and wild west. The Rocky
mountains are located in the west of the state. In the
North-west there is cattle country, and the east is
more urban - Denver, the state capital is situated here.
Denver is a city of some 500,000 people (within city limits)
but more than 2.1 million people in the metropolitan area.
It's a relatively young city being established as a result
of the gold strike but is known for its great restaurants
and museums. Denver is home to the longest street in
America - Colfax Avenue and Denver also claims that one of
its citizens, Louis Bellast, invented the cheeseburger in
1935.
A visit to Colorado gladdens everyone as it appeals to the
sophisticated people as well as the adventurous ones who
cannot resist the call of the Wild West. One cannot forget
the haunting beauty of the big open skies and the wild
craggy mountains.
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