While gap intelligence HQ is based in beautiful San Diego, CA, several of our resident gappers live and work remotely in many states across the country including Boston, upstate NY, South Carolina, Utah, and most recently, Colorado! While we would love to keep all of our gappers in office, often times they do have to move away. Luckily, they’re just on the other side of the computer screen and visit home base often. After all, it doesn’t take much coercion to visit America’s Finest City.
Kendra, data specialist extraordinaire, is the most recent gapper to move away and after a 5 year stint in San Diego, returned to Colorado. Like Kendra, I also have my roots in Colorado. While it may seem crazy to leave San Diego for the mountains, there are more commonalities between the two cities than one may think. Here are my personal top 4 reasons to love Colorado:
Photo Credit: all-flags-world.com
Four Seasons
I know the idea of “always 70 degrees and sunny” sounds pretty nice, but trust me, sometimes it can get old. Colorado has intense seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter for those who are unfamiliar. There are major lightning and thunderstorms in the spring. The summers are beautiful and warm with many recreational options to help you spend those months outside. The leaves turn gorgeous colors during the fall and create amazing countryside backdrops. And the winters bring white, fun, fluffy snow for great skiing, snowboarding, or my favorite, sledding! In Colorado it’s not surprising to be snowing or raining one minute, and then the next thing you know, it’s turned into a beautiful sunny day.
Wilderness and Outdoor Recreational Opportunities
Outdoor recreation and exploration is endless in Colorado. You can drive into the mountains, pull off the side of the road and camp almost anywhere you want to. Or take a raft tour down one of the many rivers that flow through the state; or like I prefer, buy a tire tube, throw it in the river with a cooler, and float down as far and as long as you want with a bunch of friends. There are 53 “14ers” (a mountain peak that exceeds 14,000 feet) to choose from for an amazing hike. And, one of my personal favorite things to do in my hometown of Durango, is take a scenic train ride into the mountains on a vintage coal powered steam locomotive.
Photo Credit: 14ers.com
Craft Breweries
A large number of us gappers, myself included, enjoy the amazing craft breweries in San Diego. Leaving such a fun, emerging scene could be hard but craft breweries are also extremely popular in Colorado. In fact, Colorado ranks 3rd among all states on the number of craft breweries per capita, behind only Vermont and Oregon (one article ranked the best beer cities in the US and listed San Diego at #2, closely followed by Denver, CO at #3).
Photo Credit: skabrewing.com
Denver Broncos
Last, but certainly not least, Colorado has an amazing, entertaining NFL team with fans that are second to none. The Broncos have won multiple Super Bowls, made the playoffs the last 4 (soon to be 5) seasons, have the two best quarterbacks to ever play game involved in the team (John Elway and Peyton Manning), and have sold out every game for 31 consecutive years – “blackout” isn’t a term used when talking about the Broncos. While Kendra and I love our Broncos, all of us gappers can probably agree that we want the San Diego Chargers to stick around town! gap loves our local sports teams and are lucky enough to enjoy Padres season tickets and soon the new San Diego Gulls!
Photo Credit: sports-logos-screensavers.com
In Conclusion
People from Colorado are very proud of the fact that they have roots in such an amazing place, Kendra and I can vouch for that. Just writing this is getting me excited to start planning my next trip home so I can experience some weather changes, hike a 14er, drink some great beer, and watch the Broncos tally another win. Until then, I will certainly enjoy a few San Diego craft beers in the 70 degree weather while hoping to catch a Broncos game on local TV.
