On the map, Colorado is pretty much exactly in the middle of the United States of America. Due to the Rocky Mountains, Colorado is the highest US state. Colorado is particularly interesting for visitors who like to be in the mountains to hike or climb. In addition to the Rocky Mountain National Park, there are a few other parks in Colorado, so that you can spend a lot of time in the fresh air here. Particularly worth seeing among the parks is the Mesa Verde National Park, which contains many relics from the time of the Indians.
The special thing about Colorado are the many contrasts that you can encounter here: you will find wide plains next to it high mountains or clear lakes. This colorful mixture creates a very special atmosphere in Colorado. The vast forest areas that can be found in Colorado and where you can take long walks are also very beautiful. Various museums and other cultural institutions complete the offer in this mountainous state. Incidentally, the soil in this area of the USA is very rich in mineral deposits and contains many different raw materials. This includes gold, which triggered a real gold rush years ago.
Colorado – key data
Land area: 269,837 sq km (8th place of all states in the USA)
Share of water surface: 0.36%
Population: 4.94 million (2008 estimate, 22nd place of all states in the USA)
Population density: 18 residents per square kilometer (37th place of all states in the USA)
Member of the United States since: August 1, 1876
Capital: Denver (598,707 residents, 2008, metropolitan area 2.51 million residents)
Largest city: Denver
Highest point: 4,402 m, Mount Elbert
Lowest point: 1,021 m, Arikaree River
Governor: Bill Ritter (Democrat)
Lieut. Governor: Barbara O’Brien (Democrat)
Local time: CET -8 h. From the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November: CET -7 h.
The time difference to Central Europe is -8 h in both winter and summer.
Postal abbreviation: CO
Colorado geography and map
According to ehotelat, the state of Colorado is located in the western part of the United States of America. The capital is Denver. More than half of the state’s residents live in its metropolitan area. Other major cities are Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.
Colorado covers an area of approximately 269,837 square kilometers. The national territory is on average 2,073 meters above sea level. This makes Colorado the highest state in the USA. The lowest point in Colorado is 1,021 meters above sea level and is on the Arikaree River.
Surrounded by seven other states, Colorado borders Wyoming to the north. To the east are Nebraska and Kansas. To the south are Oklahoma and New Mexico. In the southwest, Colorado meets Arizona at a single point. There is a four-country triangle, also called Four Corners, where New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona meet. It is the only quadrangle of states in the USA and has a memorial, the Four Corners Monument. Utah is to the west of Colorado.
Like Wyoming and Utah, Colorado has no historically evolved borders; the state borders of these territories were aligned with the latitude and longitude.
Colorado is one of the so-called Mountain States, the states through which the mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains run.
The Rocky Mountains extend from Mexico to Canada and Alaska over a length of about 5,000 kilometers. Other Mountains States are New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada and Montana. The highest mountain in the Rocky Mountains is 6,194 meter high Mount McKinley in Alaska, followed by 5,959 meter high Mount Logan in Canada. The third highest mountain of the mountain ranges is in Colorado: the 4,402 meter high Mount Elbert.
The southern mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains run through the state. The most important mountains in Colorado include the San Juan Mountains, the Sawatch Range and the Front and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
In the west of Colorado, the Colorado Plateau joins the Rocky Mountains. The plateau covers a total area of around 337,000 square kilometers and extends over the southwest of Utah, the north of Arizona as well as over the west of New Mexico and parts of Colorado. The plateau is an average of 1,500 meters above sea level and forms the shape of a shallow bowl. The Great Plains are
east of the Rocky Mountains- the Great Plain – a huge prairie landscape that runs through the heart of the United States and covers a total of around two million square kilometers. It stretches across Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana as well as North Dakota and South Dakota and is one of the largest wheat-growing areas in the United States.
One of the most important rivers in the state is the Colorado River. The river is 2,333 kilometers long and has its source in Rocky Mountain National Park northwest of Denver. The Arkansas River, which is just as long, a tributary of the Mississippi, also rises in Colorado, in the Sawatch Range. The headwaters of the 3,034 kilometer long Rio Grande are also located in the Colorado mountains.
Colorado has more than 2,000 natural and some man-made lakes. Many of them are located within Rocky Mountain National Park.
