Colorado, Snow in the Middle of Summer

Snow on Road Side

Temperature in this summer, May 2018, is quite warm, especially in the southern states of USA (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas). Hot with 36 C (97 F) degree is a common weather in these states. People just wear simple shirt, and many have sunbathed on the beaches along the gulf coast and Florida. 

Temperature in Colorado is around 15 C (59 F) degree when we visited on the third week of May 2018, and even lower at mountain areas. We need a thin jacket or sweater to encounter unprecedented “cold” temperature. As inhabitants of warmer regions, 15 C feels like at the end of winter. 

Snow on the mountains

As we travel from Texas, we observed snow covered mountains along the way to Denver, a capital of Colorado, bigger city with 682,545 population as of 2015. In addition to permanent snow on the Rocky Mountains, actually, Colorado has other landscapes of river canyon, arid desert and forest.   

There are four well known national parks in Colorado, they are Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Rocky Mountain. Uniqueness of  Rocky Mountain due to its diverse and wonderous scenery: snowy peaks, lakes, streams, evergreen forest and amazing of wildlife. 

A tourist is ready playing ski.

Colorado provides plentiful outdoor activities include wildlife viewing, cross country skiing, camping, auto touring, snowshoeing, fishing, stargazing, mild climbing hiking, horseback riding and kayaking. There are many other options for tourist relate activities which will be a truly meaning experience.

77.7 million tourists poured to Colorado with spending of $19.1 billion in 2015. It was contributed around $1.13 billion to state and local taxes revenue. It is estimated about 7% increase per-year. However, as reported by Blevins (2016), Colorado Tourism office spent $$19 million for promotion to attract domestic and international tourists.

Reference

Blevins, J. (2016, July 20). “Colorado breaks tourism record with 77.7 million visitors spending $19.1 billion.” Denver Post. Retrieved from https://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/20/record-colorado-tourism-2015/