Story by Kathryn Retzler
Photographs © Roger Young

FIRST TIME VISITORS, mistakenly thinking we are more like a suburb of Denver (the “big” city on the Colorado map) are often surprised by the distance and differences when they make the trip from there to here. First of all, the map is flat; the real route isn’t. It covers a lot of high mountain passes, and places that snow, even in July.  But, oh! the wildflowers and waterfalls along the way. The diversity between Denver and the western slope — that’d be where we are — is as night is to day.  Denver is a full-grown city, with all that entails: clogged freeways, screaming sirens, over-crowded subdivisions and cement lawns. Western Colorado is still, thank goodness, open space and open lifestyle. There is room here to breathe, scenic vistas to view and a blessed shortage of stoplights.

If you can’t live here (and frankly, we’d close the gates if we could, before we look like Denver or Phoenix, or Chicago, for that matter), you can visit. And, visit we hope you will, for tourism is the heart and soul of our high country, now that the industrious mining days are gone. With their passing, also went the railroads and much of the ranching as well. We’re doing our best to preserve what we can, a tall order, perhaps, although, fortunately, those times are not too far gone, and many picturesque reminders remain. Our towns here still have the flavor of the Victorian era not too distant. Colorful, lovingly restored homes and commercial buildings invite visitors and welcome old and new families. Ruins, relics and revived remnants of mining and ranching remain, begging to be preserved through photography and stories.

San Juan Publishing, with our various magazines and books we publish, is proud to be a part of the historical and scenic preservation of the western slope of Colorado. We invite you to travel with us to some of our favorite places — soak in a hot spring, enjoy a hike or jeep trip, sample our restaurants and shops and partake of our copious cultural amenities.