Table Mountain overlooks the entire town:
A paraglider:
A display farm with chickens, whom you could feed for a quarter:
I was told that those cabins had been brought down from the mountains. They reminded me of Alaska.
The bustling metropolis of Golden:
Bridge over Clear Creek:
Here are some photos of the National Renewable Energy Lab's new campus. It's very energy efficient and generates all of its own electricity.
For some reason, my favorite part is that they generate almost no waste at all. Even their food service "plastic"ware is made of corn starch, so it's compostable. They recycle or compost almost everything:
The buildings were designed to make abundant use of natural light:
Even the garage is covered with photovoltaic solar panels. They said that each array is about 0.5 MW, for a total of 2.5 MW from the arrays on all of the garages and buildings. That's enough to power almost all of bush Alaska North of the Brooks Range!
Thermal reflectors inside keep heat in:
Golden at night:
Golden has a lot of HUGE bronze sculptures. I sat on a bison:
The National Wind Technology Center in Boulder:
Are those turbines not beautiful? I am awestruck that these turbines are designed solely for function, but that their forms are nevertheless so elegant and pleasing to the eye. It makes me wonder how our brains might have evolved to define beauty. We have learned to identify what is good, and so we are programmed to think that good=beautiful.
This turbine test site was kind of funny-looking. One is used to seeing wind farms that resemble a highly disciplined army, with rows of identical turbines facing the prevalent wind. The test site, in contrast, has turbines ranging in diameter from a few to over a hundred meters, from 100's 1000's of kW, some facing into the wind, some angled to it, and some facing out of it. It looked more like a cocktail party than an army. And interspersed among all of the turbines were huge met towers:
And if that isn't enough, they also have leased some of the land to the local utility company, which spread huge PV arrays all over it:
No doubt about it; Colorado is a great place for renewable energy, what with the clear skies and blowing winds!
Another photo of picturesque Clear Creek:
I met up with my ex, Dan, who now lives in Wyoming, whom I guess I need to stop calling my ex and start calling my friend :) :
The Coors Brewery, which was closed for tours the days I was there. SO disappointing! I wanted to see the giant machinery behind "the world’s largest single-site brewery"! Dagnabit!
A pretty oak tree:
A skwerl:
Canadian geese:
Another photo of the creek:
Ice is nice:
Mt. Rainier from my window on the way home:
Phew! Now I'm done with my Colorado report!
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