Dan31702
I can only hazard a few guesses as to why African Americans don’t take advantage of Colorado’s outdoor recreational opportunities. First, you might not see many blacks doing ‘outdoorsy’ things in Colorado because there aren’t many blacks in Colorado. Aurora is a stable, racially integrated middle class suburb of Denver, but most of the Denver area is lily-white. Secondly, I would guess that the vast majority of blacks in Denver/Aurora are ‘transplants’ to the area, moving from areas that don’t have the mountains and ski resorts and trails and so on. They move here because of the booming economy – I’ve never met any black people who moved here for the mountains or powder. (I would imagine that the same thing would be true of Hispanics and Asians – they want a better life, regardless of fourteeners and singletrack.) However, I know many whites who have moved here specifically for the mountains – they voluntarily gave up jobs in Minneapolis, Des Moines and Kansas City just to be closer to the slopes.