Boulder: zen and now

This is a community that in recent years has evolved from a small Mormon ranching town into a very different place, says Gutting, who bought property on the Black Boulder Mesa with a partner and is developing the land.

In the 2004 presidential election, for example, 90 percent of Garfield County voted for Republican candidate President Bush. In Boulder, where about 95 people voted, 50 cast votes for Bush and 45 voted for Democratic challenger John Kerry.

"That's the transition that's occurred," said Gutting.

This evolution is illustrated in everyday snapshots around Boulder.

One day in late summer, Boulder Mayor Bill Muse makes his way to the organic farm operated by the owners of Hell's Backbone Grill to help clear land and do some planting. A grizzled Boulder old-timer with steel blue eyes to match the sky, he has developed a strong collaboration and friendship with Spalding and her colleagues.

"They've done a lot of good for this community," he says.

After helping at the farm, Muse and Spalding travel the back road toward town. Spalding's Subaru, with its "Free Tibet" and "Support Organic Farming" stickers, follows behind Muse's chugging tractor, which he says with a smile is "the prettiest" in his cadre of land-tilling equipment.

It's one in many contrasts in this area of deep Mormon roots.

What looks like a regular Sinclair gas station and mini-mart on Highway 12 is called Hills & Hollows and has natural foods, homemade breads, vegetarian soup and organic burritos.

A resident with extra squash will swap for an eggplant with a neighbor.

"Boulder is not normal" reads another local bumper sticker.

Indeed, some Boulder residents are living significantly off the grid.

There is a house made entirely of straw bales plastered with adobe. Another house is built out of lava boulders and runs on solar power. One family lives in a cave home that has been under construction for nearly 20 years.

Ten years ago, Vargas and her husband bought property in this remarkable community and eventually moved here. Having lived in Boulder for eight years, she is still considered a relative newcomer, although she owns the Burr Trail Grill & Deli, one of a few restaurants in town, and the outpost next door.

She built a mostly "green" home near the Navajo sandstone of the Durfey Mesa a few miles from her store and restaurant.

And it is the land itself that drew Vargas, Gutting and others like them to the area.

Although her business is a de facto gathering place, Vargas says she is not a big "Boulder booster."

"I didn't move here to make money, I moved here for the landscape," she says. "It's powerful. Very evocative. It makes people feel something. We're a little outpost on the brink of a great big wild landscape."