Contrast these with the upscale skiing community of Aspen and the street scene along Boulder's Pearl Street Mall. In Denver , downtown professionals march in gray suits and power ties through their days, while on the Great Plains, alfalfa farmers and cattle ranchers congregate at county fairs, livestock shows, and harvest festivals. Boulder's rare blend of whimsy and intellectualism fuels late-night political banter in taverns and coffeehouses. Health buffs in the city can readily find vegetarian meals made with tofu and tempeh. But in the kitchens of Greeley and Snowmass, plates are loaded with Rocky Mountain oysters, pheasant breast, and elk steak.
Mountain goats scale the steep rocks above bighorn sheep, elk, mountain lions, and bears.
The Colorado Rockies slope moderately upward and eastward from the Utah border, then drop dramatically at the Front Range, at about the longitude of Denver. From there, they descend to the flatlands that form the eastern plains of Colorado and extend as far east as the Dakotas, eastern Kansas, and Nebraska. The plains that constitute about 40 percent of the state are marked by expanses of low, rolling hills and yellow-brown fields of prairie grasses. The western side of the Rockies drops much more gradually than does the steep eastern face, and the area from the Continental Divide west to the Utah border is known generally as the western slope. High-elevation flatlands provide pasture for cattle from Craig south to Durango.