It’s the reason we moved here. It’s the reason we stay. It’s the reason we kind of wish some other folks would move away.
Colorado’s outdoors is awesome!
And all the activities we can do it in that Colorado outdoors also are awesome.
A reminder of this recently came in the form of the 2021 Adventure Index released by Outforia.com, a site that connects outdoor enthusiasts with resources related to the outdoors, adventure and survival.
Outforia’s study ranked all 50 states in 10 categories from rock-climbing routes and hiking trails to hang gliding locations.
Colorado’s overall score put it in second place, sandwiched between California, which took first, and New York, which came in third.
So right there you might have wanted to dismiss the 2021 Adventure Index because, of course, we know this neck of the country is the best. But hang on.
The study still has some interesting data and could shed light on where other amazing, out-of-state places could be (before you come back to this more-amazing place, of course).
Colorado was given the top spot for the most mountain biking trails available: 1,323 trails based on the count at singletracks.com/mountain-biking-trails. It’s a number you may or may not agree with, depending on the number of trails you find at your favorite mountain biking website.
Colorado also had good numbers in the study in the categories of rock-climbing routes (29,006 according to mountainproject.com/route-guide), and hiking trails (4,121 according to alltrails.com).
However, neither Colorado nor California nor even Utah were close to taking the top spot in the ski resort category. That went to New York, which has 50 ski resorts.
That’s just the number of resorts, not a measurement of vertical or technical terrain or even the size of those resorts. But … Lake Placid, New York, has hosted the Winter Olympics twice (1932 and 1980), so there’s that.
Colorado also received a zero in the category of surfing spots. Being landlocked admittedly presents a sizable issue to overcome in this regard.
However, Colorado has much to offer in the way of stand-up paddleboarding, or SUP, and that was not part of the study.
In fact, there was plenty that wasn’t part of the study: camping, backcountry skiing and Nordic skiing, fly fishing, ice fishing, hunting, snowmobiling and OHV trails, windsurfing, snowkiting, paragliding, wilderness areas and the list could go on and on.
Perhaps the point isn’t what the adventure entails, but simply to have an adventure.
To that end we say, “get out there! Colorado’s outdoors is awesome!”
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