I checked out this mountain metropolis recently. All six days I was there were spectacularly sunny and nice. It was my first flight since the very beginning of the covid pandemic. It felt great to be fully vaccinated and subject to zero quarantine requirements or pretty much any other restrictions. I found the city appealing. It is one of several cities where I’d be happy to spend my days hiking, biking, birding, and eating.

What we saw

• An excellent mezcaleria. A book (and film) called Under the Volcano gave me a fascination with mezcal. I try out this smoky tequila-like spirit whenever I can. Mezcalerias are popping up everywhere but sipping it is still a novel experience.
• RiNo arts district. The opening game of the baseball season had people out in the streets carousing. It seemed wonderfully normal after so many months of pandemic lockdown. We took in the murals in this section of town. We appreciated that nothing really has to be ugly in a city. Even a vast wall in a back alley can be a template for an artist’s imagination.
• Ouzel Falls trail. We took this snowy hike to its terminus, which was a waterfall buried under snow. A family walked right past it and left without knowing they had seen it. We enjoyed Colorado cannabis (taxed much higher than in Oregon) and survived punching through the deep snow accidentally. 
• Mount Sanitas trail. This was a beautiful hike outside Boulder. The red oblique rock formations, speckled with ponderosa pine, are very different from what I see in Oregon. We watched magpies and got some great drone footage.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. We saw bison and some migratory birds on the sparse ponds here. It was so damn dry, it was hard to imagine life springing back in the summer. I suppose snowmelt sustains life here. There were bison and there were many scraggly-looking mule deer.
• The Denver Selfie Museum. This was fun. I got good photos in the banana room and with a glowing orb.
• The Paint Mines. We drove at the buttcrack of dawn to see the sunrise here. I was rewarded. These formations are like nothing else on earth. It did however remind me of the Black Hills of South Dakota. I saw western meadowlarks, a first for me. They are hard to see but their melodious song alerted me.
• The Royal Gorge Train. This was a great way to see the Arkansas River valley up close. I enjoyed watching the turkey vultures and ravens make a hardscrabble life in the dry valley. I also saw an American dipper, a first for me.
• Garden of the Gods. This place is truly unique. Red rocks and spires seem to emerge from the earth like they were strewn about by Titans. My friend got amazing drone footage. 
• Red Rock Canyon. We saw two sunrises here. Watching the sun rise over the distant plains and over the awakening city puts daily human striving in perspective. 
• The Denver Art Museum and the Denver Botanical Gardens were disappointing. Only half of each is actually open because of their idiosyncratic covid restrictions. In the botanic gardens I did enjoy the southwestern landscape exhibit. And it was there that I identified my first-ever Townsend’s solitaire.
• Pike’s Peak. We drove up and saw this amazing summit. The Rockies are spectacular.

Denver has better looking people than Portland

In Denver, people wear pants when they step outside the house instead of sweatpants, pajamas, or whatever they happen to have on. Instead of dirty looking beards and ugly tattoos, the men shave and pursue fitness and health. The women are not as fat and don’t look ironically frumpy and like they’ve given up.

There are fewer shitty diesel trucks polluting the roadways. Drivers display legitimate license plates instead of temporary tags or nothing at all. Cars are in a better state of repair. There seemed to be few traffic snarls and the neighborhoods are good for walking. They probably have actual large employers to go to instead of everyone just being a bartender or server.

There are also fewer fucked up people walking the streets. Homeless mentally ill drug addicts are there, but they have not annexed entire parks, trails and highway ramps like they have in Portland. Not seeing drug binges, psychotic breaks, and trash everywhere presents less of a psychological burden to someone just going about their day.

My friend wants to move there and take me and her boyfriend but I am reluctant

I transplanted from Minneapolis to Portland in 2018 and it was one of the best decisions of my life. I have met amazing people and explored coasts, mountains, rivers, forests and deserts I never imagined.

I encourage other people to move to a place they desire, after they do their research and several visits and a lot of planning and preparation. A new city, a big change in your life, is a great thing. Such transplantation is getting rarer in America over the decades. Strangely, compared to previous decades, people are less mobile.

However I recognize that there is no “there” there. Once you arrive at what you’ve sought, you still must live with yourself and with your met and unmet aspirations in life. If you’re unhappy sipping coffee and reading a book in one city, you’ll be the same in another city.

My friend, a dynamic, vibrant person, once looked around while we were exploring Seattle and sighed, “I wonder if every place is the same…” This restlessness and pursuit of contentment struck me deeply. She is continually surprising me, seeking novelty and excitement. Yet what she wants is something ineffable. It can’t be attained by moving to a new city. Moving might help, but there is something else that’s needed, such as a personal reinvention or a re-centering on what one already values in life.

The trip was too pricey for me

We followed an itinerary and hit up a hike and then a cultural spot and then a restaurant and then a bar, and then a sunset, one after another after another. It was expensive, intense, gasoline-powered consumptive travel.

If I had planned the trip I would have done it a LOT slower. I would have walked the city, rented bikeshare bikes, made more food at the airbnb, and so on. Slow travel gives you a feel for the city and the people and saves a lot of money. It’s ideal for when you have a month off and are on the other side of the globe in a place where the cost of living is low. But this trip provided a good sample of how richer people than me do travel.

Portland, Denver and Austin: three peer cities with an undeniable draw

Each of these are great places to live (I’ve never been to Austin but so I’m told). There is movement between all three. I met a young woman in Portland who left Austin just before covid. Some people are leaving Portland because they are fed up with the trash, crazy people and smallness. 

I think I would be happy in any of them. But Seattle has a special draw for me. Portland seems small but what I want out of life is big. Seattle has the Pacific Northwest landscapes along with an impressive cityscape and high-paying jobs. The state of Washington is doing many things right and they have good governance. Also there are fewer lifted diesel pickup trucks there. 

Denver is too dry. There were vast fields of brown dead nothingness. The nearest metro is hundreds of miles away and also dry. In 20 years the region will have even less water. My poor cuticles looked haggard. It would be sad to have so few lakes and swim holes around. I imagine Austin is even drier, plus there are fire ants.

I saw new birds

New to me

• Townsend’s solitaire
• Black billed magpie
• Western meadowlark (I had only seen the eastern previously)
• American dipper

Not new but still great

• Mountain chickadee
• Peregrine falcon
• Red breasted nuthatch
• Ravens