Central Colorado is truly lofty and getting "high" is easy there.

I tend to forget just how high altitude Colorado is. Example: I enjoyed the panorama at the top of Vail's Eagle's Nest in late June at an elevation of 10,300 feet. Also, ate a great lunch there (for just an extra $5).
In the afternoon of that same day, I visited Leadville, the nation's highest elevation incorporated city, at 10,200 feet above sea level.
So, here's a town and valley only a 100 or so feet lower than that Vail mountain summit was!
Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, Colorado's two highest summits, loom southwest of Leadville.
(The Colorado towns of Alma and Montezuma are even higher at 10,335 feet.... but are not cities.)
Even the freeway, I-70 in Colorado, tops out at 11,158 feet in elevation and the paved parking lot at the top of the paved Mount Evans Highway is 14,110 feet.
The paved Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park goes over a 12,183 foot-summit.
Independence Pass, southeast of Aspen, another paved road climbs to 12,095 feet.
The not completely paved Pikes Peak road reaches 14,110 feet and is also easily reached by cog railroad.
It's simply so easy to get high elevation in Colorado. You take a gondola or just drive there.
Of course Mount Elbert required a 9-mile roundtrip hike to reach 14,433 feet, when I hiked it a few years ago, but even that was so much easier than climbing Kings Peak or even Mount Whitney.