The Path Less Traveled – Colorado

The Path Less Traveled – Colorado

By Tom Secrest

The state of Colorado is inextricably linked to its famous mountains, the Rockies, and its famous “Mile High City”, Denver. Denver gets its nickname by sitting on the eastern high plains of the Rocky Mountains at exactly 5,280 feet (1609 m) above sea level. The Rocky Mountains stretch from British Columbia in the north to the Rio Grande River, along the border with Mexico, in the south. Oddly enough, Denver as well as most of the best ski areas share the same latitude as Madrid, although, any similarities stop there.

Of those things lauded, Colorado’s nature surely outranks its cities, but not necessarily its smaller towns. For it is in the smaller towns, deep in the mountains, that the real spirit of Colorado can be found. Most of the beautiful ski resorts and the small towns that grew up around them are a product of the incredible wealth that Colorado has attracted. Names like Vail, Aspen, Steamboat and Winter Park, are synonymous with the rich and famous. If you ski and have money these are the places to be in winter. Even if you don’t ski, these are the place to be seen, which for celebrities is, perhaps, more important than the actual skiing.

Ski resorts, can be divided into three varieties: old money, new money and everyone else. Old money is the proper type, the kind that runs in families and is passed on from generation to generation. The old money goes to Vail, by far the most expensive skiing in Colorado, maybe in America. New money or the nouveau riche, are those that were born into modest or working class families and through hook or crook became filthy rich. But as the nouveau riche are fond of saying, it’s the riche that counts. Everyone else; well that’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. And depending on the extent and the circumstances of your wealth you frequent to the appropriate ski resorts.

Unlike ski resorts, people can be divided into lots of different varieties and if you fall squarely into the group that isn’t particularly interested in the hustle and bustle of ski resorts and tend to favor adventures that take you off the beaten trail and on to paths less traveled, then Colorado is full of places made just for you.

Most likely you will fly into Denver International Airport; once you arrive, rent a car and head straight for the mountains. The airport is located between Denver and the Rockies, along the main east-west highway over the mountains. As you start you ascent you may notice a brown cloud off in the distance behind you. That would be Denver, like most big, high altitude cites, Denver fights a constant battle with air pollution, and in the winter the pollution usually wins. But you’re headed up and to the west, where the air is clean and views are breathtaking. After an hour or so you will come to the exit for Winter Park – take it, don’t let the name scare you, there are no check points where you will have to substantiate the extent and heritage of your wealth. Instead, what you will find is an incredible switch-back road leading high up into the Rockies.

Since you will be passing through Winter Park, why not stop and enjoy a walk-about, do some window shopping at the seemingly unlimited number of designer boutiques, then warm yourself with an expensive cup of hot chocolate. Keep your eyes open, there is no telling who you might see as you wonder around the quaint little Bavarian town. Americans associate everything mountain with Bavaria, so all ski resorts look a lot like Berchtesgaden, complete with cuckoo clocks. After you have roamed Winter Park, it is time to continue to your destination, which, by the way, is Granby. Granby is an old Colorado frontier town and doesn’t look at all Bavarian. As you drive towards Granby you will see some signs you’re probably not used to seeing. You’re now in elk and bear country, so drive carefully.

Granby functions nicely as a base camp for exploring what will seem like an unlimited wilderness. As you explore you will, from time to time, find ghost towns. Once thriving little mining towns, the now deserted buildings stand as the only reminders of places that both people and time have forgotten.

No matter where you’re from, once you settle into Granby you’re a backcountry cowboy. So put on your boots, saddle up your horse and enjoy every second you spend on the path less traveled.

Glossary

* path – trasa, cesta

* inextricably – neoddelitelne

* nickname – prezdívka

* feet above – stop nad

* to stretch – táhnout se, prostírat se

* oddly enough – kupodivu

* latitude – zemepisná šírka, rozsah, svoboda

* lauded – velebený

* to outrank – pretrumfnout

* incredible – neuveritelný

* squarely – prímo, rovnou

* nouveau rich – zbohatlík

* modest – skromný, prostý, nenárocný

* by hook or crook – jakýmikoli prostredky

* filthy rich – desne zazobaný

* be exactly what - být presne to, co (...)

* circumstances – okolnosti, pomery

* to head straight for – smerovat k

* altitude – nadmorská výška

* breathtaking – beroucí dech

* to substantiate – zduvodnit

* quaint – podivný, zvláštní, kuriózní

* elk – los

* to seem – zdát se, praavdepodobne, patrne

* wilderness – divocina

* ghost – duch, stín, stopa

* thriving – kvetoucí, prosperující

* reminder – pripomínka, památka, memento

* backcountry – zapadákov

* to saddle up a horse – osedlat kone