Two Green Girls on the Road

Day 19, Denver and Boulder

Use the handy map here to follow Mary Logan's path and view her favorite snapshots.

Now, the Green Guide makes a point not to get tangled up in politics. But since Trish and I had a personal reason to meet with a former U.S. Congressman in Denver with a long history of experience with environmental issues, we decided to get his perspective on things.

Scott McInnis, having served six terms in the House, has created national parks, authored pieces of legislation called things like the Healthy Forest Act, and was named the Legislator of the Year by the Colorado Wildlife Federation. And he has a conservation area in western Colorado named after him: McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area (We drove by it coming from Moab).

But Mr. McInnis doesn't share the view of wilderness that we hear environmentalists championing. His beef is that he doesn't want all federal lands to be preserved as virgin places. He pushes multiple use of federal lands: for water, natural gas, recreation, whatever. And he chalks it up to a fundamental, historical difference between the East and the Rocky Mountain West, which for two girls on the road trying to appreciate the natural beauty unlike what we have back home, made for some good road trip fodder.  

He told us a great, brief history of Colorado and the West, citing the lifeblood as the Colorado River. We felt ourselves sympathizing with his point when he showed us a map of the U.S. with the areas of federal lands mapped out. The East has very few such areas, and the West was all covered in yellow and green ink. We assumed it's because the West, is you know, amazingly naturally beautiful and the East is, well, only so-so (sorry, native land). But Mr. McInnis said historically federal land wasn't put in the hands of the government to be preserved for its beauty, but rather because no one wanted to move to the craggy, farming-unfriendly lands of the Rocky Mountains when the U.S. first acquired the territory. It was a way to give people use of the land--without having to give everyone thousands of acres as incentive--to get some suckers to move out there.

Mr. McInnis said that the West's federal lands makes it tricky for people out there to… live--to get water and gas and power--so he staunchly supports multiple use. We even found that the conservation area in western Colorado was named after him because he created it to prevent the land becoming a National Monument--the most highly restricted type of federal area--and to preserve it for multiple use.  

It's not going to get us to change our votes this November (Patagonia already told us to "Vote the Environment" and we eagerly promised), but it was a new perspective we haven't come across before on this trip. Plus, we had to be somewhat impressed because he gave us some road trip tips and told us everything we'd ever wanted to know about Colorado.

After our meeting, we drove with our Denver hostess up to the college town of Boulder. It was pouring down rain, but we bought two-dollar PVC-full ponchos from the Army Store and toughed it out for some window shopping, which turned into actual shopping at a vintage store called Goldmine Vintage. Downtown Boulder was bustling despite the rain, and we liked hearing that 85 percent of downtown's 350 shops and restaurants are locally owned and operated. Later, we decided there was no better place to hunker down and get dry than a couple of local Colorado breweries: Walnut Brewery and Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery. The rain did however, deter us from our plan of a hike and a campout, so we headed back to Denver for our last night before the long trek to Atlanta.

Money spent: $133--Argh, Goldmine Vintage…
Money spent on gas: None--our kind hostess toted us around--and we're getting bikes for tomorrow
Highlight: Downtown Boulder and people's general disregard for the rain
Lowlight: PVC ponchos
Mood: Dreading the drive back

© The Green Guide, 2008

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