Rocky mountain high
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
My husband comes from Turkey, a macrocosm of ancient cultures and "dag," Turkish for mountains. We haven't traveled extensively in the U.S. together, something we wish to rectify. Something he hasn't seen is our magnificent "dag" - the Rockies.

Thus began my research into Colorado.

I started, mind you, in the Canadian Rockies, but after perusing summer (indeed, Calgary Stampede time) hotel rates of places where I wanted to stay (and, yes, I know it's Canadian money), I decided $500 in any currency was just more per night than any hotel in Calgary ought to charge. I headed south for prices at an altogether lower altitude.

I found cabins in Glacier National Park in Montana for about $20 per night. My thoughts turned to the solitude and beauty of a mountain field in bloom, home to herds of nomadic elk, moose, deer and bear.

This was one of those reveries that started out so well that I could hear the crisp, cool trickle of a mountain stream at our cabin door and see the cornflower blue sky ablaze with a hot sun overhead. The bees droned, followed by the hum of mosquitoes, gnats and other air creatures, a wilderness that populated so quickly in my reverie as to virtually drown out the well-intended solitude I sought.

All manner of animals knocked at my cabin door; the rains came; there was no phone, TV, Internet nor nearby ranger station to assist in the event of an inevitable and horrible accident. So I snapped out of it and decided perhaps something a little more civilized would be rational.

After this reality check, another on our mutual likes and dislikes, and the acknowledgment that we'd likely turn on each other if left out in that much wilderness for a week alone, I sought some place that mimicked said wilderness while delivering one of those more urbane pleasures upon which we have come to rely.

Colorado, the Rocky Mountain state, always surprises me in that it sits so much farther south than I think. Just look at a map. Denver is a breeze to get to by air, and that cost is reasonable any time of the year. A stop in Denver lends credibility to any foreigners' itinerary (you ought to have name-brand cities on any such itinerary, in order for the family back home to recognize where you've been) and provides a gradual slowdown.

Our fly/drive itinerary will likely include lots of driving in the Rockies, a trip on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, an overnight stay at a very Western saloon-style hotel, a visit to Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners, and an excursion through the magnificent San Juan Mountains to the old mining town of Ouray. That this all smacks of a Western movie isn't lost on me. The in-laws (in Turkey) love old American Western shows, and I suspect we'll be shipping a real Stetson off to Istanbul before our Western adventures conclude. It's the best of so many worlds, and it's all in Colorado.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)