Things to do / Travel Guide
It is would be safe to say that the Colorado Rockies region is predominantly Caucasian, well-educated compared to the national average, and largely employed in the service and tourism industries. The tradition of art appreciation (and the tremendous creative inspiration derived from the region's natural beauty) in the Colorado Rockies attracts a large number of professional artists and craftspeople. Ski instructors and professional athletes as well as hotel and restaurant managers and workers spend their winters serving the ski vacation crowd. While many residents of the Colorado Rockies were born and raised in the area (and are proud of it!), there are also quite a few “transplants” who have moved to the region for cleaner air and pastoral views right on their doorstep. These transplants also include some well-known celebrities such Kevin Costner, Jack Nicholson, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, and Donald Trump.
Demographically, places as geographically disparate as Northwest Colorado's Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Grand Junction and the South-Central Colorado community of Salida, all have populations consisting 90% of Caucasians, with the remaining 10% of the population distributed rather evenly among a number of ethnic groups. Grand Junction is the region's largest city, with nearly 42,000 residents, whereas the majority of the other communities, including those aforementioned, have less than 10,000 year-round residents. The demographics of Grand Junction, the Southwest Colorado town of Durango (total population around 13,000), and Salida (pop. 5,500) slightly vary from those of the rest of the Colorado Rockies region in that close to 10% of the residents identify as ethnically Hispanic or Latino, regardless of racial background.
Who are the happy ones who spend their days in the shadows and on the slopes of Colorado's most majestic mountains? Other than the rich and famous, who lives amidst such pristine natural beauty as exists in the Colorado Rockies? Well, there are the dude ranch owners and whitewater kayaking adventure guides, the ski instructors and the dinosaur scientists, the ski lift operators and ecologically-responsible architects. But in the well-manicured yet down-to-earth towns of the Colorado Rockies region you will also find normal everyday (predominantly Caucasian) folks. Notably, Colorado Rockies residents rarely gripe about the place in which they live, as they love the variegated, vastly diverse land. As a general rule, they love outdoor recreation in its myriad forms, and no matter how long they've actually lived in the region, they usually feel a deep-rooted sense of home.
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to Colorado Rockies' local flavor is the ski scene. Walk around the ski resort towns in the winter and you will find the vast majority of the pedestrians either lugging their ski gear around or dressed in colorful, weather-proof togs as if they've just stepped off the slopes. While many Colorado Rockies ski resorts might appear to be the same on the surface, each ski resort area has its own unique sub-culture.
In Northwest Colorado, Steamboat Springs, for example, while decidedly upscale, has managed to maintain a down-to-earth, small-town feeling for its visitors. Ranked the West's friendliest family resort area, Steamboat Springs is known for receiving visitors warmly. Vail, on the other hand, is considered the largest ski resort in the U.S. and it generally attracts skiers and tourists with the biggest budgets and most demanding expectations. Popular with college students and younger travelers, as well as celebrities and champion skiers, Aspen is decidedly upscale, and yet each of Aspen's mountains has a different feel. Aspen Highlands is decidely less high-profile (more frequented by the locals) than the serious ski scene of Aspen Mountain (the world-class experts come here). Buttermilk is more of a teaching mountain, so you will find folks barely fluent in ski-talk or ski-walk, and Snowmass Mountain is decidedly family-oriented.
Telluride is arguably the Southwest Colorado resort town with the most ski pizzazz. The town maintains its down-to-earth feel while at the same time attracting as many wealthy tourists and celebrities, upscale resorts and luxury lodges as Vail or Aspen. Humble and understated, Crested Butte and Durango are perhaps the only Colorado Rockies ski resort towns that remain genuinely demure while at the same time boasting some of the region's best slopes. Their no-nonsense, relatively no-frills approach to skiing keeps the snow at the center of the scene. You won't hear people name-dropping or brand-name shopping in these parts; the people who live in and visit these towns are serious skiiers who are purely interested in the quality of the powder.
Despite the homogenizing power of the ski resort culture and flashy, colorful tourism industry, several Colorado Rockies towns have maintained a sense of distinction. Steamboat Springs, in Northwest Colorado, prides itself on being a Western-style ski resort tied to its ranching and wrangling past (ranching still plays a prominent role in the local economy). Walk around downtown and you will feel that a man in cowboy duds, spats, and spurs will spontaneously saunter on by. Also in Northwest Colorado, Grand Junction is still mostly a farming town, and while art galleries and outdoor recreation companies are growing almost as quickly as the grapes and peaches in Palisade, the town has not yet made a complete transition to tourism. Southwest Colorado's Durango prides itself on its commitment to the arts - the town is home to many theater troupes, two ballet schools, an opera company, and Fort Lewis College, a liberal arts college recognized for excellence in the areas of arts and sciences. Durango also has a large community comprised of retirees who have moved to the area to spend their golden years surrounded by glorious views.
The Northwest Colorado town of Aspen, on the other hand, is a totally different story. The town's tasteful glitz and glamour clamor for the attention of the United States' most pampered personages. Jack Nicholson, Kevin Costner, Oprah Winfrey, Goldie Hawn, and Don Henley have all owned homes in the area, part of the reason why a small, 1,000 square-foot house costs $1.5 million - and many cost as much as $8,000 per square foot.
Wealth all but drips from the clothing racks and display shelves in the town's trendy boutiques. The decidedly upscale Northwest Colorado ski resorts of Aspen, Vail, and Breckenridge have long attracted the wealth and attention of the nation's richest and most famous (many of whom, by the way, have no real interest in skiing), but plenty of “normal” folks have managed to make their lives amidst this bastion of beauty. Aspen locals are writers, scientists, teachers, engineers, architects, photographers, waitresses, and just about everything else you can imagine. They are avid fans of the towns' tremendous rugby club, raise their families, and worry about school systems and curriculums (though they are among the country's best). Nonetheless, many average-earning year-round residents find themselves working two and three jobs to be able to afford the high rent and property values that the wealthy, seasonal vacationers can afford. But when these salt-of-the-earth Colorado Rockies residents see a celebrity, they often simply pretend not to notice. They may not be so fond of newcomers but, they remind themselves with a forced air of generosity, anyone and everyone deserves to live in one of the most gorgeous corners of the globe.