Hey Richard (and anyone else interested),<br><br>
I live near Boulder (about an hour NW of downtown Denver), which is located in north-central Colorado where the plains meet the mountains (rather dramatically I may add). The economy is doing pretty well here but the cost of living in Boulder is completely absurd (which is why we live in a smaller town about 8-10 miles away). Boulder's median home price is about $550,000 (and that is skewed by the small cheap houses!). Severe restrictions on development since the 60s and 70s have helped insulate the immediate area from the housing crash (at least so far) but it's driven up the price of real estate.<br><br>
Our climate is usually pretty nice. This has been a really cold winter, but it's not unusual to have nice days all winter long (with periods of really cold when fronts move through). 300+ days of sunshine helps keep things warm and keeps people outside on the trails. Spring/Fall are nice and it's possible to run in shorts for much of the year (April-Oct and much of March and November). Summers are warm to hot. The climate in town and to the east (on the plains) is semi-arid desert with few trees and mostly grassland prairie. We get about 12" of rain equivalent per year, including about 50" of snow. Afternoon thunderstorms are a common occurrence in the summer, but they don't last very long (a few minutes to an hour usually). The mountains to the west create the storms. The mountains are primarily pine forests with some aspen. Mountain regions get much more moisture, with the San Juans in the southwest part of the state getting 500" of snow a year and a very wet monsoon season during August.<br><br>
One of the great things about living here is that you can "change" your weather very easily to suit your tastes. If it's 95F in town in June you can just drive up to the mountains and hike in the snow!<br><br>
This is a great place to be a runner, rock climber, skier, mountain climber, or cyclist! Our local trail running club has 1400 members (in a town of 102,000 people)! The Boulder Road Runners club is probably bigger. Our trail group has 5-7 group runs a week. Dozens and dozens (hundreds?) of world champions and olympians live and train here. The altitude, abundance of like-minded athletes, healthy atmosphere, open space, and good climate makes for a great place to live and train.<br><br>
Boulder county has somewhere around 75,000 acres of city and county open space with hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails. That doesn't count National Forest, BLM, and state land in the mountains to west (millions of acres). The Indian Peaks Wilderness is 45 minutes west of town and you can run hundreds of miles of mountain trails over 13,000' in elevation and be home in time for lunch.<br><br>
This is a really cool place to live though it's definitely a weird place. It's a highly educated and VERY liberal town, which makes things interesting. It's a lot like Berkley. People say it's "nestled between the mountains and reality". <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> The rest of Colorado is much more conservative and generally more affordable (not counting the resort towns in the mountains, like Aspen, Vail, etc... forget about living there).<br><br>
I moved here from the midwest (Indiana) about 4 years ago and I'll never go back...<br><br>
Feel free to drop me an email if you have any more questions.<br>
chris <at> chrisgerber.com<br><br>
- Chris<br><br>
This shot is of the CU campus and the southern end of town. The mountains just west of town are Bear Peak and Green Mountain. They hold the famous "Flatirons"... the rock formations you see. This land is all open space and the trail running around this area is incredible.<br><img alt="" src="http://away.com/images/outside/200608/boulder-colorado.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br>
This webcam is pretty close to my house (less than a mile away):<br><img alt="" src="http://boulderflatironcam.com/camera0.jpg" style="border:0px solid;">
