From today's AOL,

by a writer who just returned from Colorado's front range.

The phrase "Big Sky" -- attached to Montana, applicable to the entire American West -- sounds obvious. Of course the sky is big. But get out there under it and see the panoramas and the meaning becomes clear. It's just larger there.It produces some astonishing sights. The sun setting behind the mountains, reflected light staining the clouds with reds and oranges and purples. You can see storms advancing over the plains miles away, lightning splitting the sky, visible from the apex to the ground.
It only takes 10 minutes to escape the "reality" of Boulder and get knee-deep in nature. One morning I went hiking in the mountains near Brainard Lake. It's 10,500 feet high, and I was clambering over snowdrifts. Before noon, I was 25 miles east and 5,000 feet lower, relaxing on a patio in 90-degree heat, looking west at those same mountains. Colorado's extremes seen within a two-hour period.
There's a reason Colorado has been attracting and producing free thinkers of all stripes for decades. The thin air sharpens the mind and at the same time encourages daydreams, flights of fancy. The constant exposure to nature is a constant reminder of forces greater than us. The state draws in the very physical and the very spiritual -- hardcore athletes and mystic gurus live side by side.