Rocky Mountain High
Frommer's 500 Adrenaline Adventures:
Top
Rocky Mountain High
Hang Gliding in Colorado
Location: Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Adrenaline Adventures > In the Air > Gliding, Coasting & Floating
Information: Airtime Above ☎ 303/674-2451; www.airtimeabove.com
Airport: Denver
Lodging: Brown Palace Hotel 3 stars 321 17th St. ☎ 800/321-2599 or 303/297-3111; www.brownpalace.com The Timbers Hotel 2 stars 4411 Peoria St. ☎ 800/844-9404 or 303/373-1444; www.timbersdenver.com Innkeeper of the Rockies 1 star 1717 Race St. ☎ 303/861-7777; www.innkeeperrockies.com
Airport: Denver
Lodging: Brown Palace Hotel 3 stars 321 17th St. ☎ 800/321-2599 or 303/297-3111; www.brownpalace.com The Timbers Hotel 2 stars 4411 Peoria St. ☎ 800/844-9404 or 303/373-1444; www.timbersdenver.com Innkeeper of the Rockies 1 star 1717 Race St. ☎ 303/861-7777; www.innkeeperrockies.com
Imagine flying like a hawk, gliding over the landscape as thermals lift you and move you along. And imagine that landscape is some of the most dazzling on earth—the Rocky Mountains, to be specific. This is how it feels when you're soaring for miles in a hang glider high above the mountains of Colorado, some of the most breathtaking in the Western hemisphere. It's just you and the earth, with only the sound of the wind for company. This is a singular and solitary thrill—an experience that will linger in your memory.
read more offers hang gliding experiences in Colorado. While the company is based near Denver, arrangements can be made to learn at several training sites along the Front Range and the Western Slope. When hang gliders are soaring off Lookout Mountain, you can see them from downtown Denver, about 20 minutes away. Other popular spots are on Kenosha Pass, where you can glide over the vast South Park, and on Williams Peak by Green Mountain Reservoir.
Hang gliders have a frame structure that holds the wings in a rigid configuration, so they won't collapse. The pilot is suspended below the frame in a harness. You can foot-launch hang gliders off a hilltop or mountainside, or get an aerotow by an ultralight plane. Once you're airborne you can glide or soar for up to 400 miles (644km) riding the ridge lifts and the thermal lifts.
If you're uneasy about hang gliding solo, sample the sport during a tandem ride. You and an instructor will share a hang glider. The two of you and your craft will be towed by an ultralight plane up to about 2,000 feet (966m), and then let loose. As you soar through the skies, the instructor may let you handle the controls yourself. Meanwhile, enjoy the quiet and the views of the earth below you.
If you like the experience, start taking lessons. First you learn what's involved on flat ground, then progress to a small hill and finally to a hill with a 600- to 1,000-foot (180–300m) drop. It can take several months to be properly trained, but experienced hang glider pilots say there's nothing like the feeling when you take advantage of the wind—a gliding flight can become a soaring flight that can last for hours.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Rocky Mountain High
| "Rocky Mountain High" | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by John Denver | ||||||||
| from the album Rocky Mountain High | ||||||||
| Released | October 30, 1972 | |||||||
| Format | Vinyl record | |||||||
| Recorded | August 1972 | |||||||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||||||
| Length | 4:12 | |||||||
| Label | RCA | |||||||
| Writer(s) | John Denver (lyrics)/John Denver and Mike Taylor (music) | |||||||
| Producer | Milt Okun | |||||||
| John Denver singles chronology | ||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
"Rocky Mountain High" is a folk rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor about Colorado, and is one of the two official state songs of Colorado.[1] Recorded by Denver, it went to number nine on the US Hot 100 in 1973. (The song also made #3 on the Easy Listening chart, and was played by some country music stations.) Denver told concert audiences in the mid-1970s that the song took him an unusually long nine months to write.
|
Contents
|
Background and writing
"Rocky Mountain High" is primarily inspired by John Denver's move to Aspen, Colorado, United States three years earlier and his love for the state. The seventh stanza makes a reference to destruction of the mountains' beauty by commercial tourism. The song was considered a major piece of 1970s pop culture, and became a well-associated piece of Colorado history.
The song briefly became controversial that year when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was permitted by a legal ruling to censor music deemed to promote drug abuse. Numerous radio stations cautiously banned the song until Denver publicly explained that the "high" was his innocent description of the sense of peace he found in the Rockies. In 1985, Denver testified before Congress in the Parents Music Resource Center hearings about his experience:
This was obviously done by people who had never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains, and also had never experienced the elation, celebration of life, or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseid meteor shower on a moonless, cloudless night, when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight, and you are out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the first time.[2]
In popular culture
In 2005, the song was performed by a soloist at the NBA all-star game in Denver. After years as an unofficial anthem for Colorado, on March 12, 2007, the Colorado General Assembly made "Rocky Mountain High" one of two official state songs, sharing the honor with "Where the Columbines Grow".[1] The song was also used in an advertisement for Colorado-based Coors beer.
In late 2007, the John Denver Sanctuary drew some controversy after the last lines of the song were removed from the 'Rocky Mountain High" stone[clarification needed].[3]
The song was used as a warning for death in the 2000 film Final Destination, referencing John Denver's death in a plane crash and leading the main character to believe that "the plane's gonna explode!"
The song is mentioned in passing in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber. After driving for several hours in the wrong direction, the two main characters mistake a desert for the Rockies, mentioning that they "expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little 'rockier,'" and that "John Denver was full of shit."
Snowmass ski resort, near Aspen, named a run "Rocky Mountain High" in honor of John Denver.
Chart performance
| Chart (1973) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 9 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 3 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 8 |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks | 2 |
References
- ^ a b Brown, Jennifer (March 12, 2007). "Lawmakers OK 'Rocky Mountain High'". The Denver Post. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_5418736. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ Eric D. Nuzum, Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America, Harper (2001). ISBN 0-688-16772-1
- ^ "It's 'Rocky Mountain (expletive deleted), Colorado'". The Aspen Times. October 13, 2007. http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20071013/NEWS/71012028/0/FRONTPAGE. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Frommer's 500 Adrenaline Adventures
Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Live
(1997 Album by John Denver)
Rocky Mountain High/Back Home Again
(2008 Album by John Denver)
The Best of John Denver Live
(1997 Album by John Denver)
The Best of John Denver [Madacy]
(1998 Album by John Denver)
16 Biggest Hits
(2006 Album by John Denver)
» More