COLORADO

9/15/2021   

A nearly infinite amount of travel stories, brochures, and picture-infested internet postings have been written about our most scenic rectangular state: Colorado. A destination for flatlander hikers that turn into lung coughers once the elevation and steepness kicks in. This State of contrasts boasts 4 National Parks and acres full of State, County, and City Parks to boot, all with something special to showcase. In order to take advantage of this excess, one must move there and hit the highway every weekend to experience all it has to offer. Herein, lies the problem. With all these people utilizing motor vehicles to access the trailheads, campsites, and parking lots, the mountainous parts of the state are a complete traffic jam on the weekends, particularly in the summer months when the uninvited, plains people show up to check it out. The cost of building new highways in steep, hard-rock terrain is prohibitive, as exemplified by the $38 million, 8-mile-long highway that gave gamblers access to the towns: Central City and Black Hawk. Campers have nowhere to park, and casinos are closing rapidly as Covid and uncertainty keep the masses at home due to inadequate social distancing available in the tight canyons. What people need to see is that vast expanse of cheap land readily available for development and profiteering. We’re talking about the easily accessible and huge volume of the State’s eastern plains. Like Vegas, the casino builders will create scenic backdrops mimicking Rocky Mountain National Park and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison without the inherent danger of avalanches, rockslides, blizzards, flashfloods, and treacherous roads to access them. With tons of space to camp and hike in and 3D, holographic scenery supplied by the entertainment industry, the cash flow won’t stop. The only issue out there is water, but by using the tricks of the California hydrologists, they can now steal it from all the eastern flowing rivers coming off the mountains.