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COLORADO
COLORADO is one of the least geographically
homogenous of the United States, ranging from
the flat, endless plains of the east to the colossal
mountains of the west. In the north, Native Americans
hunted and trapped in lush mountain valleys in
summer, and returned to the prairies for the winter;
in the south, the Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa
Verde grew corn on their isolated mesas and shared
in the great early civilization of the southwest.
Different parts of what's now Colorado accrued
to the US at different times: the east and north
were acquired under the Louisiana Purchase in
1803, while the south was won 45 years later in
the war with Mexico. (Land grants issued under
Mexican rule were honored by the Americans, which
accounts for a still-strong Hispanic influence.)
Gold-hungry Spaniards came through in the sixteenth
century, and US Army Colonel Zebulon Pike ventured
into the mountains on an exploratory expedition
in 1806, but the Native American way of life only
became seriously threatened with the discovery
of gold west of Denver in 1858. At that time Colorado
was still part of Kansas Territory; it became
a territory in its own right in 1861, and a state
in 1876. The distractions of the Civil War gave
the Native Americans the opportunity to fight
back, but they were soon overwhelmed. From then
until the end of the century, Colorado boomed;
the quantities of gold and silver extracted from
the mountains did not really compare with the
riches found in California, but they were sufficient
to fuel a rip-roaring frontier lifestyle. At first,
too, absentee landlords attempted to exploit massive
ranches on the plains, but their disregard for
conservation ensured that the droughts and storms
of 1886 and 1887 swept away the topsoil.
For the modern visitor, the obvious first port
of call is Denver, at the eastern edge of the
Rockies and the biggest city for six hundred miles.
Outside Denver, the northern half of the state
holds the most popular destinations, starting
with the dynamic college town of Boulder and the
spectacular Rocky Mountain National Park. The
majority of the resorts that have made Colorado
the continent's foremost skiing destination snuggle
into the mountains to the west of Denver: Summit
County attracts the most visitors, Vail is considered
best for terrain, and Aspen boasts the glitziest
aprčs-ski scene. The far west of the state stretches
onto the red-rock deserts of the Colorado Plateau.
Pikes Peak towers over the enjoyable city of Colorado
Springs, but the rest of the state's southeast
quarter is mostly agricultural plains. To the
southwest untouched old mining towns like Crested
Butte and Durango stand in the mountains, while
Mesa Verde National Park preserves perhaps the
most impressive of all the cliff cities left by
the ancient Ancestral Puebloan civilization.
Colorado National Monument
Millions of years of wind and water erosion have
gouged out the brightly colored rock spires, domes,
arches, pedestals and balanced rocks along a line
of cliffs to form the COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT,
just four miles west of Grand Junction. This painted
desert of warm reds, stunning purples, burnt oranges
and browns is also home to a high arid vegetation
of pińon pine, yucca, sagebrush and Utah juniper.
The Monument has two entrances ($5, valid for
seven days) at either end of the twisting, 23-mile
Rim Rock Drive that passes through it (a 39-mile
round trip from Grand Junction). The best of many
overlooks along the rim drive is the Book Cliff
View, or the Parade of the Monoliths, just off
the rim road at the sign for Window Rock Trail.
Short hikes include the one-hour John Otto's Trail,
affording close-up views of several monoliths;
longer trails get right down to the canyon floor.
One of the best trails is the Monument Canyon
Trail weaving through a series of scenic spots,
while Unaweep Canyon is another beautiful area,
with excellent rock climbing. You can camp for
$8 in the park's only campsite, the basic Saddlehorn
Campground, or pitch a tent anywhere more than
a quarter of a mile off the road for free. For
detailed information on trails, call in at the
visitor center at the north end of the park (June–Aug
8am–7pm; Sept–May 9am–5pm; tel 970/858-3617.
Isla Barro Colorado
As the waters of Lago Gatún began to rise after
the damming of the Chagres, much of the wildlife
in the surrounding forest was forced to take refuge
on points of high ground that later became islands.
One of these, Barro Colorado, administered by
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, is
among the most intensively studied areas of tropical
rainforest in the world. Though the primary aims
of the reserve are conservation and research,
you can visit it by contacting the Smithsonian
in ANCON (tel 212 8026, fax 212 8148, www.stri.org)
– call well in advance, as visitor numbers are
strictly limited and the waiting list is very
long, though there are sometimes cancellations.
The eight-hour trip costs US$70, which includes
lunch and the boat trip across the placid waters
of the lake. Tours of the island are conducted
in English or Spanish by extremely knowledgeable
guides, and provide an excellent introduction
to tropical rainforest ecology. The island teems
with wildlife – myriad species of bird, monkeys
and tapirs – but as groups are a bit too large
(up to fifteen people) and noisy, you're unlikely
to see much.
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