Imagine...
a place where the elk outnumber the people. A place where bighorn sheep ignore human intruders in their space. Imagine special trout waters in the very heart of wild mountain splendor. Imagine flocks of birds with eight-foot wingspans sharing the flyways with great V's of geese, ducks and other migratory waterfowl. Imagine snow-capped pink granite skylines, views of forever and the siren call of wilderness. You've imagined the last frontier, the last of undiscovered America: the hinterlands of the the Intermountain Western United States. Come on in and see for yourself...
I began building this site back in 1998 as a chronicle of my own exploration of my "neighborhood." Over time, I've kept on exploring, taking lots of photos, talking to the local folks, posting my findings, and I've slowly turned Sangres.com into an area information site and vacation planner (and now, after 13 years, I'm seriously expanding my coverage). You're liable to find all kinds of stuff here that the "big boys" (and their websites) don't go into. I'm a bit different and I like to check out everything. What you've found here is a personal exploration and travelogue of some of the most gorgeous countryside on Earth, chronicled by someone who's madly in love with the place. So then...
I've got information, maps and photos of National Forests, National Parks, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges, National Wilderness Areas, BLM recreational areas, and unique natural features. I've also thrown in many of the designated Scenic Byways and a lot of state parks and ski resorts... (No, I'm not done yet, there's a lot here and I'm still exploring... and yes, I'm still in the early stages of a major expansion to this site.)
Scattered throughout the site are photo galleries of many of the natural wonders in our area. I also have lots of pannable and zoomable Google maps: flat area maps and satellite images.
I offer demographics, climate data, local attractions and local businesses wanting to serve you (for those of you who are planning vacations or coming in for business reasons). I've also got some data about some of the excursion trains that run through some of the most scenic countryside in our area (places that you just can't see in any other way). A lot of what I cover here is from the "under-served" areas, although there is some data from the cities.
I live every day in a huge, natural, world-class park where most folks who come here only stay for a couple weeks of vacation... after taking a look at some of this stuff, you may want to move to the Real Wild West, too. It's still a great place for raising kids and grandkids... just don't come here thinking there's a shopping mall on every corner: the nearest gas station/convenience store to my house is 23 miles (15 miles just to get to pavement), and the nearest shopping mall is more than 100 miles away. The Western United States is not all like this but a very large section of it is...
Close enough to Paradise for me...
PS: Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy in the directories and demographics included on this website, however, I (the publisher) cannot guarantee the correctness of all information available, or the complete absense of errors, omissions or unintentional inclusions. This especially goes for things like the listings of restaurants: restaurants seem to go in and out of business depending on which way the wind blows.
Update, March 29, 2012: I have been pushing forward with a re-write of the code base of this site into html5. As part of that, I have been expanding on some of the accessibility features, trying to get ahead of the curve a bit. So far, the New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah sections are essentially finished in html5. In the Utah secton, I took the further step of removing all the commercial ads except for one ad per page similar to the ad below - which ad pushes the direct sales of my own ad space. I'd really like to diverge from so much of the rest of the web and go from several ads per page to one ad (or sponsorship) per several pages. And in getting rid of the ads from common ad-servers (like Google), I also get away from personalized tracking cookies and other privacy violations. I still need to monetize this site but that monetization could be more tasteful and less violating, eh? If you are interested in helping me with this, please click the ad below and check it out (the kids in the photo are my grandchildren: I'd like them to grow up with a web that is fit for human use).
