Just a tad south of the very center of Colorado sits the town of Westcliffe, Colorado, at 7,867 feet above sea level. It’s in a broad valley, just to the east of the beautiful Sangre De Cristos (Spanish for “Blood of Christ”) mountain range.
Towards the end of February, I headed out there for a couple of days to hike, explore, learn, and enjoy being outside and away from it all. I didn’t put aside enough time to do all that, but it was sunny, warmer, and well worth the trip. I would very much like to go back and spend some more time there.
The first thing you notice about the town is the truly stunning view of the mountain range. The next thing I noticed was the lack of fast-food restaurants and chain stores. I believe it was all mom-and-pop stores. There also seemed to be quite a few places selling art and sculptures, much like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the art stores outnumber every other kind of store.
There are two drawbacks to this little town: One, the phone service and thus the internet connections were, at best, sketchy. Second, it is over two and a half hours from Colorado Springs, the nearest city of any size.
But perhaps those two things are the very best things about this place?
