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Hey, Colorado Sunday friends!

If it’s not immediately evident to you from reading this newsletter each week, I’ll say it clearly: I love to wander around. I’m a believer in maps, but am not especially good at planning a cohesive journey. I believe in the joy of discovery, especially when I’m not expecting to be awed.

This set of characteristics has let me stumble upon so many amazing things — as recently as last week, when I walked a (mostly) diagonal route, plotted by a friend, from the statehouse to a park in northwest Denver. Tomorrow, I’ll ramble around my neighborhood for a while, with the goal of observing a Memorial Day service at the cemetery a few blocks away, but knowing that nature will serve up a few thrills along the way.

That’s what I love about this week’s cover story by Parker Yamasaki. We sent her out to find eight great places to visit this summer, and she delivered. But she also gave us permission to stop along the way for an entirely different experience.

The Mishawaka’s Song Confessional at the venue in Poudre Canyon allows patrons to record an anonymous confession that musicians then record a song from, which is then featured on the Song Confessional podcast. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

When I was in middle school my mom and I started taking road trips based on an obscure theme.

One year it was the “bottle rocket Jesus” trip, loosely organized around Southwest scenery (the backdrop for the 1996 Wes Anderson film “Bottle Rocket”) and folk art displays of faith. That trip included memorable stops at Salvation Mountain in Niland, California, and the beautifully thematic Sanchez’s Beer Bottle Chapel in Riverside. Another year we hit the open road for an “aliens and trash tour,” which, without going into too much detail, entailed a lot of driving through vast desert landscapes.

My mom had a lot of fun planning these trips, too. She’d scour magazines, travel guides and random Southern California blogs in search of an itinerary that would elicit her favorite compliment: How did you find this place?

With summer road trip season officially upon us, it was really fun for me to compile a list of destinations in the spirit of bottle rocket Jesus. Places that are just as quintessentially Colorado as Longs Peak and the Great Sand Dunes, but require a little more curiosity, creativity or just all-out effort to visit.

Hopefully you find some inspiration for a trip toward the unexpected. And when someone asks you: How did you find this place? I hope you’ll answer: I saw it in The Colorado Sun.

READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE

In case you missed something, we’ve curated our own visual feed of reporting to catch you up. Here are a few of our most noteworthy snapshots of everyday places, people and moments from every corner of Colorado this month.

Heidi Rowher, left, her sister, Ashley, and her nephew, Zackery Berg, take a moment to pray at the dinner table after a day’s work on their farm near Cortez on May 9. The family returned to the Durango Farmers Market for the first time since a head-on fatal crash that killed the sisters’ mother and seriously injured other family members on their way to the market in 2022. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
Dennis Dougherty, who leads the Colorado AFL-CIO, speaks at a rally outside the state Capitol on Thursday, criticizing Gov. Jared Polis for vetoing bills that were priorities for the labor movement. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
Wildfire smoke fills the Uncompahgre River Valley Wednesday upstream from Ridgway. The Spruce Creek Fire, located 11 miles northeast of Dolores in Montezuma County, was sparked by lightning May 14. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
A teenager, preparing to have a formal portrait taken, descends the rotunda staircase Wednesday in the Colorado Capitol. The staircase is a popular location for girls about to celebrate their 15th birthday, or quinceañera, to be photographed. (Dana Coffield, The Colorado Sun)
The 468-foot-tall Morrow Point Dam spills water into the Gunnison River, the fifth largest tributary to the Colorado River. All four gates are open for the first time since 2017. The release, which will last at least through the weekend, is intended to simulate historic flows in the Colorado River that benefit five endangered fish species. (William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun)
(Peter Moore, Special to The Colorado Sun)

My news aggregators have been buzzing with alarming and alluring stats concerning life (and death, and dismemberment) in Colorado. Evidently, we live in the third most dangerous state in the Union. At the same time, we imperiled citizens also populate the fittest state. It’s not a coincidence, of course. As the prominent Colorado philosopher and competitive snowboarder Frederich Nietzsche once wrote: “That which doesn’t kill us makes us Coloradans.”

You could look at these Colorado perils as a reason to buy property in New Hampshire — the safest state in the country. Forget it! They call that skiing? More like Ice Capades! We simply need to put our Coloradoawesomeness to work as we outpace all the critters, roadways, cornices and financial trends threatening to drive us toward Colorado’s scary funeral homes. If that’s death, we need to choose life!

I propose some strategies to avoid our mile-high risks in Ecotopia.

Red Rocks ticket prices are scary. But that’s why God made general admission. Use your outdoor skills to occupy the cheap seats!

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CHECK OUT THE OTHER STRATEGIES

^PeterMoore^2

EXCERPT: Asthma made author Luis Benitez a “boy in the bubble” during his childhood. But once he learned that the first American to summit Mount Everest also battled asthma, his drive to literally follow in those footsteps was sealed. And that was just the beginning of a life devoted to the outdoors.

READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT

THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: The excerpt’s compelling narrative of Benitez’s childhood struggles leads to his broader discussion of his reason for writing this book (with co-author Frederick Reimers), which is to examine the growing power and influence of the outdoor industry in our rapidly changing world.

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

Benitez: …The book evolved out of a very clear realization that while this industry has been historically seen as “not that impactful” and “just seasonal fun stuff that doesn’t represent much,” the reality is, this economy represents nature as infrastructure in the United States. When you look through the lens of heat sinks in our urban corridors, parks play a critical role in addressing temperature gradients.

The pandemic showed us that our trails are vital corridors for public health and equitable access to the outdoors. We wanted to explore how the industry’s political voice and power is evolving and use personal stories to drive that narrative.

READ THE INTERVIEW WITH LUIS BENITEZ

A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.

Tammy Brener, plant growth facility manager in Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, measures Cosmo on May 22. (Provided by John Eisele, CSU Photography)

🌞 Not that we ever advocate sniffing a package of raw chicken that you accidentally left in your car for a long time, but the person in charge of looking after Cosmo, a corpse flower, says that’s what she thinks it will smell like when the huge plant blooms today or tomorrow in Fort Collins. Olivia Prentzel caught up with the good-humored keeper at Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, to find out what it has taken to nurture Cosmo to this thrilling point in its life. (And yes, you can go sniff for yourself.)

🌞 Ed Dwight waited so long to get to space, he started thinking he didn’t really need it. The Denver sculptor’s attitude changed last Sunday morning during a quick out-and-back flight on a Blue Origin space craft. The flight was more than 60 years after Dwight was nominated to an astronaut class. Justin George took a look at what kept Dwight from being the first Black astronaut way back when.

🌞 Gov. Jared Polis has been unusually active with the veto pen this year, and Jesse Paul and Brian Eason have the details on why the labor movement is particularly angry about it.

🌞 The statehouse made some progress on behalf of people who rent housing in Colorado. Brian Eason untangled the knot of legislation to explain what passed and why it matters.

🌞 Some of Colorado’s most favorite outdoor brands are disappearing from the state. Jason Blevins reports on big-deal departures of homegrown gearmakers and what that signals as our outdoor entrepreneurial economy matures.

🌞 Can it really be that the density of real estate agents in the Pikes Peak region is three times higher than elsewhere in the nation? Tamara Chuang has the details about this weird phenomenon and what it means to the housing market.

🌞 Here’s a sweet little story about how resilient the charming Rocky Mountain chickadee can be in the face of a changing climate. Michael Booth explains that their survival depends on their ability to forget.

Thanks for hanging out with us. We hope the rest of the long weekend is great for every one of you and that you’ll join us back here again next Colorado Sunday.

— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun

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Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

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