Boulder is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, in the United States. Boulder is the 11th most populous city in the state of Colorado.

Boulder lies in a wide basin beneath Flagstaff Mountain just a few miles east of the continental divide and about 30 miles west of Denver. The large Arapahoe glacier provides water for a number of mountain streams that pass through Boulder, including Boulder Creek, which flows through the center of the city.

One of the most popular sections of Boulder that is home to numerous shops and restaurants is the famous Pearl Street Mall. This four-block pedestrian mall is a social hotspot in Boulder, with dozens of restaurants of all kinds and specialty stores that include artisan shops and unique gadget shops. In the summer and on weekends, many street shows and acts can be found throughout the mall, along with street vendors and henna tattoo artists.

Boulder's traditional Downtown area, including the Pearl Street Mall, is in the western part of present-day Boulder. During the 1950s and 1960s, the city grew to the east, while the west side was (and is) bounded by the mountain front. Downtown is host to a variety of restaurants, bars, and boutique stores. However, it has few grocery, hardware, or department stores and is therefore more of a "shopping destination" than a neighborhood with stores supporting the local population.

The Twenty Ninth Street retail district opened in October 2006, located in central Boulder on the site of the former Crossroads Mall, east of Downtown.

Near the Pearl Street Mall the Farmers' Market opens every Saturday morning and Wednesday evening, April through October on 13th Street next to Central Park. The market was started in 1986 by regional farmers.

Boulder was a setting for Stephen King's book The Stand (1978). Boulder is the gathering point for the survivors of the superflu under their leader, Mother Abagail. King lived in Boulder for a little less than a year, beginning in the fall of 1974. He wrote The Shining (1977) during this period, after visiting the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (the inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel). Stephen White has written a series of mystery books using Boulder as the primary backdrop, featuring lead character Alan Gregory. Marianne Wesson, an author and professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, has also set several of her mystery novels in Boulder.

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