4. We Picked Up Some New Habits

1. We started drinking too much.

Because: The specter of a deadly virus hitching a ride into our homes on a box of Cheerios was stressful. And because the state made it legal to order booze to-go along with our takeout. And because alcohol is already less expensive and easier to get here than in many other states.

And that lead to: A 62 percent increase in DUI-related deaths in the state from 2019 to 2022 and a 32 percent increase in alcohol-associated liver disease deaths from 2019 to 2021, placing Colorado in the top six states nationally for alcohol-related liver disease mortality.

2. We started hiking fourteeners like crazy.

Because: OMG, we had to get out of the house—in a safe, socially distanced way, of course—and the mountains were calling us, especially once stay-at-home orders expired.

And that lead to: Roughly 415,000 hiker use days on the state’s highest peaks in 2020, a surge of 44 percent over 2019—a down year, due to heavy snowpack—and noticeably higher than the 353,000 in 2018. Hiker use days have returned to prepandemic levels, even falling to 260,000 in 2023, but those stats are likely affected by closures of some popular fourteener trails and will probably rebound.

3. We started driving like characters out of Mad Max.

Because: Let’s face it, we went kinda feral there for a while, and that untamed attitude translated to road rage, aggressive driving, Formula 1–style speeding, and getting behind the wheel while under the influence.

And that lead to: Ninety-three statewide pedestrian fatalities in 2020 and 91 in 2021. Plus, 2021 saw the highest number of crash-related fatalities—687—since 2002. Early estimates from the Colorado Department of Transportation suggest that fatalities were down markedly in 2024.

4. We started making babies.

Because: Uh…we didn’t have anything else fun to do. And also because ubiquitous opportunities for white-collar remote work allowed the preponderance of college-educated Coloradans to stay at home, a situation that allowed more flexible work hours to accommodate little ones.

And that lead to: Colorado being only one of a handful of states that had more births in 2021 than in 2019. While that’s well and good, the mini baby boom did not make up for the state’s declining birth rate, which has been falling since 2005.