I am no expert at any of this, but I do have a comment or two on a couple of things in your list. Hopefully, someone who really has a clue will chime in.

The Arctostaphylos should be a really nice ground cover, and should do ok. The leaves, dried, made as tea, are fantastic for chronic or periodic urinary tract infections. Personal experience. The berries, while 'edible', were pounded with dried meats and fats as late-cold-season 'emergency foods'.... But probably not something you would want to bake into a pie.

The pinon pine does grow at high elevations in New Mexico. But I am not sure how it would do in Colorado. Farther north, possibly higher and probably colder. And even in lower elevations and absolutely prime growing conditions in New Mexico, they are **very** slow-growing...... If the trees absolutely thrived in your area, it might be 40 years before you can really harvest pine nuts from even a large nursery-grown tree.

I don't know about your other possibles. But I suspect there are other options, as well. Have you checked with state and local government sites, and gardening clubs/associations in CO? You might find some other possibilities.

By the way, I *truly* envy your cabin in that location!!

I would add evergreen huckleberry to that list.

-Little John

Hello, I was just wondering if you had found the Rocky Mountain forum yet. Link at the bottom. If your frost free season is only a month long, I have trouble believing you would be in a zone 5. Does wild raspberry grow in your area? I know it does at 5,000 feet. Anyway, welcome to the forums from another newbie!
Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocky Mountain Forum