This past May, Miles debuted Colorado Roots, a brand-new guide for local-food eaters, craft-beer lovers, scenic-byway drivers, fresh-fruit pickers, history-museum browsers, tiny-lamb petters and dude-ranch fanciers.

In the guide, state’s rural areas are brought to life as retreats for travelers whose appetites for these kinds of trips are ever increasing. Ideas within include touring an artisan distiller who’s crafting spirits from famously sweet peaches grown just down the road; staying overnight at a farmhouse B&B that invites guests to help with the grape harvest and make friends with the babydoll sheep that graze among the orchard and “keep the alleyways mowed;...