Colorado

Colorado is a state of incredible contrasts. Within its borders lie wide open spaces and dense evergreen forests, modern urban centers and isolated wilderness, endless prairies and towering peaks.

Colorado is twice as large as New York state. Of its 104,247 square miles, more than a million acres (more area than Rhode Island) are set aside by federal, state and local governments for outdoor recreation and preservation. Its topography varies from the 3,350–foot–high bed of the lower Arkansas River to the 14,433–foot summit of Mt. Elbert; the lowest point in Colorado is twice as high as the highest point in Ohio.

Not surprisingly, outdoor recreation is a major attraction to the more than 25 million who visit each year. If you come to raft a river or ski a mountain, remember to give your body a day or two to adjust to lower air pressure and oxygen a mile or more above sea level.

About 4 million people live in Colorado, 2.5 million of them in the metro area surrounding Denver, the capital city. Colorado Springs, south of Denver, is the state’s second largest city, with a population of 473,000; the Grand Junction metro area on the Western Slope is home to 100,000. Between the Plains & Prairies and the Four Corners lie hundreds of little towns, dozens of year-round resorts and three national parks.

Colorado’s varied geography creates a number of climate zones. The state is generally high and arid; Denver receives less than 15 inches of precipitation per year. Even on sunny days, the temperature can vary as much as 40 degrees in the mountains between day and night, and sudden changes in the weather are to be expected. But that’s all part of what makes the Centennial State so incredible.