A Trip to Boulder, Colorado

At the beginning of the month, I took a road trip to Boulder, Colorado to support our horned frog

football team. While the game was the reason for the trip, the nature that we witnessed in Colorado

was what made it so relaxing and refreshing. 

Growing up in Wyoming, I became accustomed to the light, crisp air, the cool weather, the mountains,

and the changing leaves. When I moved to Texas, everything I knew and loved about nature had to be

transformed and relearned, since Texas really had none of those things. 

As we arrived in Colorado and got out of the car, the first thing all of us commented on was the air.

Almost every person outwardly exclaimed that the air felt so nice on the lungs. It was refreshing and

light compared to the heavy, humid air we experience in Texas. As Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

says, “we are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe”, and we felt this quite literally in

Colorado, as we were felt at ease the entire trip, simply due to the calming, easy air. 

Another fascinating thing about this little town is that the mountains can truly be seen from every angle.

It is impossible to ignore the nature that surrounds the town, because it can be seen from every

window, at the end of every alley, and through every tree branch. The mountains make the town what

it is, and it is a beautiful thing to witness.

Views of the mountains from a rooftop restaurant and the CU Boulder stadium

Similar to the mountains surrounding the town, Boulder has also prioritized the town itself having

nature spread throughout by planting tons of flower beds, trees, and plants throughout the whole town.

You cannot walk more than a few feet without running into another flower bed, flowers on the tables,

trees in the middle of the sidewalk, fresh grass, and plants lining the sidewalks. It completes the city,

makes it more fun to walk through, and allows for nature to always be seen when a building may be

momentarily blocking the mountains. 

Flowerbeds lining the sidewalk of Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado

One of my favorite things about Boulder, though, was that the students told us they walk everywhere. I don’t mean they just walk to class on campus, but they truly walk everywhere. Whether it is going to a friend’s, a restaurant, downtown, or the doctor, they are walking. One of the students said “it’s just better that way, there is no reason to drive in Boulder”. This reminded me of what Abbey said: “A man on foot, on horseback or on bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles”. 

In Outside Lies Magic, John R. Stillgoe says to “abandon, even momentarily, the sleek modern technology that consumes so much time and money now, and seek out the resting place of a technology almost forgotten”. Boulder is a place that makes me feel like I can truly abandon the technology. They have yet to become so wrapped up in the modern world and have refused to lose sight of the nature around them. While there is obviously development, and the hustle and bustle of everyday life, as there is in any city, they do so while continuing to appreciate and take in the nature around them, and I loved getting to be a part of that, even momentarily.