Caitlin Ricci's Top 5 Reasons To Love Living in Colorado

I was an east coast kid for most of my life and going to the beach nearly every weekend and driving past the ocean on my way to school was a normal part of growing up for me. Then the Navy transferred my mom to Colorado and I was pretty heartbroken at first. But I slowly learned to love it and now this place feels like home more than anywhere else I've ever lived. Here's my top 5 reasons that I fell in love with this state.

1. The mountains are amazing. In Centennial, where I live, the mountains are always visible and they're pretty but actually going into them and finding those old forgotten towns and seeing the silver mines that have been left abandoned that's fun. Driving an hour west gets me into the mountains where there are high mountain lakes and elk and little black bears and it's so easy to just escape the city life here by going just a little out of the way. Jumping in the Jeep for a day of off roading is the perfect way to clear my head.

2. I love how open everything is. I grew up where one city was right against the next and there were houses everywhere and the only open space were the parks and historical sites where no one could ever build on them but they were sure trying to build everywhere else. Out here there are huge stretches of highway where there's nothing but cattle ranches and open space. It's slowly being built on as well but this will take years and even then some of it will never be touched because our open spaces aren't an acre or two, we're talking hundreds of acres dedicated to just being there forever.

3. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It's a mouthful and most people just call it the Arsenal. We have a huge herd of bison in the middle of an industrial city. That's right. Bison only a twenty minute drive away. And not bison at a zoo. Bison like you drive into their area and if you catch them in the morning or at sunset they'll come within feet of your vehicle and you're just staring in awe at them. It's this huge nature preserve that is now a haven for all kinds of wildlife and it's free to go to whenever we want. We go a lot.

4. Wild horses. Yes, they still exist and if you drive a few hours southwest of Denver you can still see them. That area is all open scrub brush and they've made a home for themselves there. That land is probably going to stay open for a while too. There isn't much water there and the trees are pretty lacking as well and it's so far outside of Denver that not many people want to move there at all. So land is cheap and the horses run through it.  

5. The raptors. Before moving here seeing a hawk or a bald eagle just out in the wild was something I would have never imagined being able to do. Now I go to the bookstore down the street and there's a hawk who made a nest in one of the parking lot lights. I've been driving down the highway and caught an eagle flying beside me. One of my best friends is a falconer. They're everywhere because we have so much open space here for them to hunt in and make their homes in. At Denver Pride Fest there was a red tail hawk standing on a statue eating a rat before the event opened. We were setting up our booth and he's just eating away, not minding us at all. It's moments like that where I fall in love with this state all over again.

So that's it for me and Colorado.
What are some of your favorite things about living where you do?