Not being from the area, I was quite surprised to find that Boulder was not the hippie enclave (a la Burlington, VT) that people say it is. Vast tracts of shin

Not being from the area, I was quite surprised to find that Boulder was not the hippie enclave (a la Burlington, VT) that people say it is. Vast tracts of shiny new development overshadow the few remaining vestiges (ie, Naropa University) of a more philosophical time. At any given moment you are more likely to be run over by an expensive SUV than to bump into an honest hippie. When you do find an honest hippie, they are generally ranting about the way things have changed. On the whole, it was a nice place to be, but it should no longer have a reputation of counterculture... a 30+ person SWAT team keeps the kiddies in line. Boulder is now best described as a nature oriented suburb of Silicon Valley.