The City On The Plain

Okay, rant time. (If you ask The Lovely Marianne it’s always rant time with me. That’s unfair and in another post I’ll mount my soap box and deliver a vigorous harangue in my defense. )

The City of this blog post’s title is Denver and these words triggered my rant: “The lure to Denver comes from the desire to reach its majestic peaks…” The writer was moving across the country and gave the above as one of the reasons for his move: Denver’s “majestic peaks.” Over the course of my life, I have heard countless talk about moving to Denver to be in the mountains and it drives me nuts because while if you squint real hard from Denver you can kind of make out what are possibly mountains on the distant horizon, being in Denver is no where close to being in the mountains.

Now, contrast that with the view from my home. I live in Sandy, Utah a suburb of Salt Lake City. I took the photo at the head of this post a five minute walk from my home. Don’t believe me? Here’s another one.

That park in the foreground is a five minute walk from our house. A twenty minute drive takes us into the mountains.

And with an hour and a half hike from such a drive we can be here:

From Denver, you’d have to drive hours, just to find a trail head for a hike like this. Grrrr.

Look, I wouldn’t describe my house as being in view of “Sandy’s majestic peaks.” Other places in the country can more credibly claim to have majestic peaks than my home. I’m just saying that Denver’s marketing department has gotten away with some serious misdirection here.

Okay, end of rant. The Lovely Marianne had threatened to take my keyboard away so I’d best stop. Just remember when you hear the name Denver think of plains not mountains.