Colorado's Eastern Plains (Pueblo, La Junta, Crawford: place to live, club, airport)

[vegaspilgrim]

Just saw your pictures, and they look great! Do you have any ground level pictures you're going to post?

A few questions I have about La Junta:

1- How far from La Junta are these mini canyons ToekneeR is talking about? Is he talking about Picketwire, Vogel canyon? Any pictures of those? Are those canyons accessible to the public? I heard the air force was going to expand their bombing range out there-- is that going to close off access?

2- I heard SE Colorado was devasted by the blizzard two years ago with thousands of cattle lost-- has the region recovered since then?

3- How do SE Colorado towns like La Junta and Lamar compare to towns further down the Arkansas River in Kansas, like Garden City and Dodge City?

[Summerz]

Eastern Plains......

Well my adopted family originated in Last Chance, and we ended up having family in Hillrose, Greeley, Denver, Sterling, Pueblo, Longmont,(and some I am probably forgetting....) so am familiar with those areas and miss them fondly.
Course it took HOURS sometimes to get from A to B lol.

After a couple years in California finally landed in Colorado Springs near the Academy, all beatiful places.
Thanks for the pics!

Oh yes I forgot...I went to the 1st grade in Ovid..another quaint town.

[la junta econ devel]

Thanks for asking, Vegaspilgrim.

There will be ground level pictures coming, just had these aerials in a folder that was easy to access. Am working on getting Bent's Old Fort Historic Site, etc. to mix in, but for now had to put up the aerials.

#1 I am assuming that ToeKneeR was talking about Picketwire and Vogel and they are about 25 miles south of La Junta....easy, pleasant drive. I will be getting some pictures of those from the Comanche Grasslands office of the US Forest Service here in LJ to post.

They are accesible to the public, but the best way to tour the dinosaur tracks is to schedule a guided tour in May/June or Sept/October throught the Grasslands office.

A lot of that land is included in the proposed Army expansion of their Pinon Canyon Training site. That is not as bad as the number of family-owned, active ranches that are included in the expansion proposal. (Air Force had a SAC electronic scoring site in LJ, but closed it in the 90's).

#2 This area was hit hard by an atypical blizzard two years ago and the ranching community took a serious hit, losing thousands of cattle. These are the people that Tina Griego referred to in the Rocky Mountain News from the livestock sale. If you haven't seen it check it out...it speaks volumes about their character.[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/06/griego-economys-down-but-la-junta-isnt/
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/09/griego-limbo-is-a-touch-place-to-live/

#3 Lamar, Las Animas, La Junta, Rocky Ford, Fowler and the St. Charles and Vineland Mesas in Pueblo are still more agriculturally based than Dodge City or Garden City. The Arkansas River Valley has many acres of irrigated farmland and supports many acres of livestock feed crops as well as vegetable crops for consumer consumption. Once you get out of the irrigated farmlands you find those vast ranches that raise the cattle that allows La Junta (Winter Livestock and La Junta Livestock ) to comprise what is thought to be the largest cattle market west of Oklahoma City.

At one time, sugar beet production allowed most of the cities in the Valley to have large sugar factories, but when the beets "left" the valley in the 60's and 70's, the larger communities of Lamar, La Junta and Rocky Ford have turned to some form of manufacturing to help support the population. This has produced an up and down economy...down in 2006 when Neoplan in Lamar and Bay Valley in La Junta shut down and cost the area about 400 jobs....but on its way back up!!

[wade52]

Thanks to all of you for the great information.

[la junta econ devel]

Originally Posted by wade52

Thanks to all of you for the great information.

Wade....

Thanks for opening the thread....I am contacting other individuals in towns in Eastern Colorado to jump in, too.

[McGowdog]

I don't know what treedonkey is talking about the saturation. To some extent, it is a bit greener along the Ark Valley because of irrigation and the River. But isn't there a good bit of fertilization in that area too? Just the cattle "dust" that floats around would seem to turn things greener, right? I know what it smells like driving from just west of Swink to the other end of La Junta! Smells like money, right?

Thanks for all the info again, and the aerial pics too, LJ! I saw your other ones, but not these yet.

So tell us city folk where to get some good Rocky Mountain Oysters when we're passing through there? We like em' medium well!

Add to Joss: yeah yeah, we all know what they're made of; but you say you ate them nonetheless! So, if you're from Colorado or Wyoming and someone turns them down, we all say, "That's more for us! Step aside, kid! Go have some pop tarts."

[Josseppie]

I agree great pics, as far as Rocky Mountain Oysters, I had them at the State Fair and they were ok but I could not get over what I was eating lol

[la junta econ devel]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I don't know what treedonkey is talking about the saturation. To some extent, it is a bit greener along the Ark Valley because of irrigation and the River. But isn't there a good bit of fertilization in that area too? Just the cattle "dust" that floats around would seem to turn things greener, right? I know what it smells like driving from just west of Swink to the other end of La Junta! Smells like money, right?

Thanks for all the info again, and the aerial pics too, LJ! I saw your other ones, but not these yet.

So tell us city folk where to get some good Rocky Mountain Oysters when we're passing through there? We like em' medium well!

Add to Joss: yeah yeah, we all know what they're made of; but you say you ate them nonetheless! So, if you're from Colorado or Wyoming and someone turns them down, we all say, "That's more for us! Step aside, kid! Go have some pop tarts."

I am not sure about the "saturation" either. I sure didn't turn it up......it took me two weeks to figure out how to post the pictures. There is no way I want to learn to saturate.

The Arkansas Valley is a very fertile area. We have rich and productive farmlands on the irrigated lands and huge, productive cattle ranches on the non-irrigated lands. The towns are not barren and desolate; in fact quite the opposite...many beautiful homes in the towns with well kept yards and gardens.

Hopefully that "money" smell stays in the air. It means a lot to all of us in the Valley.

Plus....without it...we wouldn't be able to get Rocky Mountain Oysters at The Frontier Diner in Cheraw, The Cafe at La Junta Livestock or at The Copper Kitchen in downtown LJ (featured on Alton Brown's show on the Food Channel). And as they say to those that don't like where they come from...."taste just like chicken"!

[treedonkey]

I've worked in the visual arts field and engineered digital imaging products for over a decade now and I can tell immediately that those colors are way over saturated. Also, I've been to the eastern plains of CO and I know that that the spring and early summer grass is a beautiful shade of green, not a garish one. I'm not accusing la junta of photo doctoring, but if you like posting images on the web, you might like to know how to manage your color for more accurate results...

Part of the problem is the browser - most browsers (especially IE and Firefox) tend to increase contrast which in turn effects saturation. If you're not specifically saving for web on each image, it is likely that your colors will be blown out once you post them.

Furthermore, if you're using some sort of freebie imaging software that came with your computer, camera or scanner, those things often try to be 'smart' and 'fix' your images for you, thereby blowing out the levels and saturation for you.

So, if you want to increase the accuracy and qyuality of your onlline photos, I'd recommend not running them through any sort of editing software between capturing them and posting them. If you want to make them best-quality for web, then you should run them through Photoshop's save for web feature set. There's actually a pretty good set of free, onlne editing tools at photoshop.com.

or, If you like really highly saturated photos, you can just ignore my input and post them however you want. No law against that.

[la junta econ devel]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

I've worked in the visual arts field and engineered digital imaging products for over a decade now and I can tell immediately that those colors are way over saturated. Also, I've been to the eastern plains of CO and I know that that the spring and early summer grass is a beautiful shade of green, not a garish one. I'm not accusing la junta of photo doctoring, but if you like posting images on the web, you might like to know how to manage your color for more accurate results...

Part of the problem is the browser - most browsers (especially IE and Firefox) tend to increase contrast which in turn effects saturation. If you're not specifically saving for web on each image, it is likely that your colors will be blown out once you post them.

Furthermore, if you're using some sort of freebie imaging software that came with your computer, camera or scanner, those things often try to be 'smart' and 'fix' your images for you, thereby blowing out the levels and saturation for you.

So, if you want to increase the accuracy and qyuality of your onlline photos, I'd recommend not running them through any sort of editing software between capturing them and posting them. If you want to make them best-quality for web, then you should run them through Photoshop's save for web feature set. There's actually a pretty good set of free, onlne editing tools at photoshop.com.

or, If you like really highly saturated photos, you can just ignore my input and post them however you want. No law against that.

Tree Donkey....

Thank you for the clairification. I simply took them off of a cd that the photogaphre made for me. I will get in touch with him and see if he can do the photoshop save for web feature set. I will dm you with a couple of more questions, but wanted to post a public "thanks" for the advice.