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Lyons,
Colorado
- We’re based in Lyons, Colorado. It’s a small town
tucked in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. At 5,374 feet above
sea level our elevation is modest by local standards, where some
mountains break 14,000 feet and a few towns perch above 8,500. Nevertheless,
Lyons is every inch a mountain town, with a little bit of Mayberry
and some Northern Exposure thrown in.
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| We're located 12 miles
north of Boulder. It's an exciting city with many distinctions.
Those plaudits
are a bit over the top, but Boulder is undoubtably eco-sensitive,
environmentally passionate and creature-friendly - so much so that
there are "DEER CROSSING" signs on the main drag. Deer comfortably
grazing in backyards may seem to be an attractive little quirk. Keep
reading – and you'll find out how Bambi has become the lure
to life-threatening danger in Boulder and environs, including Lyons. |
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Our locals
are sturdy, laid-back hardworking people; ranching and rock quarrying
have been family occupations for generations. Lyons is also home
to artists, writers and musicians. We have a yuppie or two. Plus
a few ex-hippies who made it this far during the California migration
of the sixties, but couldn’t figure out how to get over the
mountains.
Lyons is also home to
Planet Bluegrass, sponsor of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on
Colorado’s Western Slope and thee annual events in Lyons:
The Colorado Folks Festival, the RockyGrass Festival and the Festival
of the Mabon (Moon). Check out http://www.planetbluegrass.com.
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This
sign welcomes back road travelers to a nearby former mining town |
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For a few
weeks each summer, our town is taken over by “festivarians”
attracted by talent the caliber of Joan Baez, Greg Brown, Nora Jones
and Emmylou Harris. Beyond these events the local music scene is
burgeoning, enriched by festivarians who fall in love with Lyons
and stay for a while – or permanently.
Main Street, our address,
is a three block mix of antique shops, art galleries, and outrageous
restaurants. A few doors away is South Creek Limited, home of Mike
Clark, who makes arguably the best custom bamboo fly fishing rods
in the world.
Through town runs the
whitewater section of the North Saint Vrain river, a short but exciting
kayak run. The town abuts two former ranches now in the Boulder
County Open Space inventory – offering nearly 10,000 of locally-owned wilderness recreation area to townies and tourists. After
that, moving westward, you come the Roosevelt National Forest and
Rocky Mountain National Park.
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 Tourists
and music fans aren’t the only visitors. Mule deer wander into
town. Elk and bighorn sheep graze on the ridges above. Coyotes work
the rabbit and prairie dog populations at the edges of town. Eagles
circle overhead. Black bears occasionally visit a local dumpster or
bird feeder. Footprints in the snow indicate another mountain lion
passed through town during the night. |
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Photo
of Janice Gavan, VisABILITY president, taken on hiking trails behind
her house in the Boulder County Heil Ranch Open Space. |
That last
comment leads to an endorsement: read The Beast In The Garden
by NPR reporter David Baron! David’s book, as exciting as
Jaws was back in its day, is a thoughtful non-fiction exploration
of a growing problem. We have a predator knocking at the door. We
always knew mountain lions lived in the foothills and mountains.
But they were “out there” someplace. Unseen, they had
been long considered unthreatening. No more! Mountain lions follow
the deer – in the high country for summer, in the foothills
for winter – and now wandering through residential developments.
Analyzing recent occurrences in the Boulder/Lyons area, Baron’s
amazing book recounts how lions; following deer herds into Boulder
County population centers, are losing their fear of humans. |
Now our
cats, our dogs, our kids and our careless neighbors can become the
lion’s entrée. It’s your story too, because the
lessons apply everywhere – all wild species adapt when their habitat
is absorbed for shopping centers and suburbs. And they adapt for
their own survival, not for human convenience – or safety.
This book is fun, a bit unsettling – and important. Read ten
paragraphs and decide for yourself: http://beastinthegarden.com/Excerpt.htm
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Lyons is known
by the self-applied distinction “Double Gateway to the Rockies.”
That’s because to get to the high country you have to drive
up one of the canyons that interrupt the wall of mountains every few
miles. Lyons has two! A few feet from our offices two beautiful highways
leave town, heading up and west. They travel through different canyons,
each spectacular in its own right. They’re called, with typical
Western reticence “the south” and “the north”,
those being references to the North Saint Vrain and South Saint Vrain
creeks which run snowmelt down to the plains. |
| About twenty miles up
the canyon via the north or thirty miles via the south is
the town of Estes Park. The roads join together at the edge of town
– and across the valley is the famed Stanley Hotel. That collection
of white clapboard buildings is where Stephen King began to wonder
what might happen if an unstable man got snowbound in a mountain hotel
for a long, dark winter.http://www.stanleyhotel.com
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| On the other
side of Estes Park is the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park,
an awesome national treasure with dozens of peaks that soar more than
14,000 feet. To get to the park, twenty five minutes earlier you would
have driven right past our two buildings in Lyons. (Pretty close to
a million cars do that each year.) |
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Four hundred fifteen square
miles of rock-ribbed wildness, Rocky Mountain National Park truly
is a land of superlatives, with more than 110 peaks that soar above
10,000 feet and at least 60 that exceed 12,000 feet. It’s our
geologic cathedral, topped off at 14,255 feet by the football field-sized
summit of Longs Peak. |
We’re not bragging,
just stating the facts. With all this natural beauty and more hours
of sunshine than San Diego or Miami, Lyons is the perfect location
for us to live, work and keep things in perspective. We’re
Type A people - determined always to exceed client expectations.
Pursuit of this standard is realistic in environs that help us stay
content, mellow, productive – and grateful.
The old adage says:
Location. Location. Location!
If you want more about this blessed place, check here: http://www.lyons-colorado.com
And here: http://www.townoflyons.com
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