What do you LOVE about Colorado (only what you love) (Canon City: live, shop)

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

I live in COS. I love:

Seeing mountains everytime I wake up
Clean air
No mosquitoes or fleas.
No humidity
endless amounts of stores to shop at
places to ride my atv
the best gun oriented facility in the country (Dragonmans)
many groups or affiliations to join
much bigger selection of single women

I could go on for days....

Wow. Seriously? No fleas????

What about roaches?

If there are no mosquitoes, no roaches, and no fleas, I think I just found heaven!! (and my dogs and cats would agree!)

[vegaspilgrim]

Dry, fluffy white powder from the heavens.

The day after a snowstorm when the sun comes out INTENSE.

The Colorado license plate-- colors have swapped a couple of times, but basic design hasn't changed since 1960.

The Denver Broncos!

The fact that I have three generations of family there-- it's home.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

Wow. Seriously? No fleas????

What about roaches?

If there are no mosquitoes, no roaches, and no fleas, I think I just found heaven!! (and my dogs and cats would agree!)

Not to rain on the parade, but the statement simply is not true. There are mosquitoes in Colorado--plenty of 'em in some places. There is West Nile Virus. There are ticks--and tick fever. There are roaches--both the little German cockroach, and the American cockroach--admittedly not in the numbers one finds in more humid climates. There are fleas--also "No-see-um" gnats (yes, that is their name) that are just plain obnoxious. Horseflies and deerflies, too--the later being especially obnoxious if you get into a bunch of them. Black widow spiders are common, and the very dangerous brown recluse spider can be found occasionally. Also, scorpions in some of the desert areas.

Colorado is definitely less "buggy" than many places--and I really do like that--but to say that there are "no" obnoxious or dangerous insects here is an absolute untruth.

[Terri722]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Not to rain on the parade, but the statement simply is not true. There are mosquitoes in Colorado--plenty of 'em in some places. There is West Nile Virus. There are ticks--and tick fever. There are roaches--both the little German cockroach, and the American cockroach--admittedly not in the numbers one finds in more humid climates. There are fleas--also "No-see-um" gnats (yes, that is their name) that are just plain obnoxious. Horseflies and deerflies, too--the later being especially obnoxious if you get into a bunch of them. Black widow spiders are common, and the very dangerous brown recluse spider can be found occasionally. Also, scorpions in some of the desert areas.

Colorado is definitely less "buggy" than many places--and I really do like that--but to say that there are "no" obnoxious or dangerous insects here is an absolute untruth.

I sure was hoping the no fleas thing was possible...SE Texas humidity
offers a lot of fleas for my poor dogs...and that's even with using the
Advantage from the vet.... As for mosquitos...after hurricane Ike,
those darn things are as big as hummingbirds now...sheesh

[breaksraver13]

Ok, Where should I start, I live in Summit County so I am surrounded by numerous mountains that many of them exceed tree-line.

First of all....Colorado has been a personal lifelong dream that I made come true and it also taught me that I was a lot stronger person than I thought I was.

and second the SNOW......I am a snow fanatic and Colorado is heaven for a snow lover.

--NO HUMIDITY!!!!! Coming from SC, Colorado is heaven when it comes to humidity
--Wildlife
--The people here are amazing (everyone kinda has their own personal story)
--No bugs...also coming from SC where we have Palmetto Bugs ....I can leave my windows and doors open all day *with no screens* and really not see but maybe 1 fly.
--Great Hiking/Biking/Skiing/Camping...just about anything "-ing"
--Cleanliness....I have never seen water as clear as the water in the lakes up in the higher mountains

I will also share some favorite pictures.

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Not to rain on the parade, but the statement simply is not true. There are mosquitoes in Colorado--plenty of 'em in some places. There is West Nile Virus. There are ticks--and tick fever. There are roaches--both the little German cockroach, and the American cockroach--admittedly not in the numbers one finds in more humid climates. There are fleas--also "No-see-um" gnats (yes, that is their name) that are just plain obnoxious. Horseflies and deerflies, too--the later being especially obnoxious if you get into a bunch of them. Black widow spiders are common, and the very dangerous brown recluse spider can be found occasionally. Also, scorpions in some of the desert areas.

Colorado is definitely less "buggy" than many places--and I really do like that--but to say that there are "no" obnoxious or dangerous insects here is an absolute untruth.

Well in this case I'll "settle for less". Scorpions in your house in the Hill Country here (my mom has been bitten 3 times, each time in the living room), brown recluse spider sightings are fairly common (I am very careful every time I go to the shed), Texas fleas are resistant to many products (and what's supposed to last 30 days rarely protects your pet for more than 2 weeks), and one summer we had a tear in the window screen of a rental place we lived in... but the evening was actually nice and we didn't realize there was a tear so we opened the windows up. We killed five huge flying cockroaches in under 30 minutes! So yeah, if it's a "there are bugs but not as many" sort of situation I'm happy!

What about fire ants?

[PokerMunkee]

Snow skiing is awesome. That's why I'm here =)

Also, the climate is just right. Not too warm, not too cold (most of the time!).

Gas isn't too expensive. Up here in Woodland, unregular (85) is 3.29. Could be worse!

[DressageRider]

You can definitely say significantly LESS fleas and mosquitoes! We do not use flea meds on our pets (dogs or indoor cats). I've never seen a roach here, but that isn't to say they don't exist. (I lived in a roach infested apartment building just outside NYC and it was a horrible experience.)

We do have lots of spiders. Lots of ladybugs too.

[ryanek9freak]

Jazz, I have been here for almost a year now, and have not seen one single flea on any of my dogs or my gf's dogs. Back in Ohio, I had to have my dogs on flea medicine year round, or they'd get eaten alive.

The only mosquitos i've encountered were at 9000 ft in leadville.

[katie_c_s]

As far as the flea question is concerned: I worked at a vet's office in Salida, CO for about 5 years, my family has 8 dogs all together, and I NEVER saw one case of fleas. I can't vouch for other parts of the state, but in the higher altitudes there are definitely no pet fleas, but you do have to watch out for ticks. There are also still some counties in CO that don't have heartworm outbreaks either because of the high altitude. So if you move to Chaffee county and don't take your dogs out of the county, you don't need to worry about heartworms!

Other bugs are prevelent in some places and at certain times though. This summer in Crested Butte was almost unbearable with the amount of flies and mosquitoes. We had a really wet winter and the bugs had a hay day. On one hike, we couldn't even stop to eat lunch. We walked 11 miles without any real breaks because there were so many annoying flies. Even with Off on, we couldn't stand it. But that was the only time they have been like that in all the hikes I've been on in CO.