NatureI’ve said many times over that Colorado is a second home to me. Even though I was born in Kansas, I’ve spent so much of my life traveling through Colorado. I was taken on my first ski trip when I was about 6 months old (obviously didn’t ski) at Winter Park. In my first five years, much of my family would load up and head to Colorado for a ski trip – whether it be Breckenridge, Vail or somewhere else. It wasn’t just winter, but also summer, that we traveled to Colorado. Some of my earliest memories were camping somewhere up near Cripple Creek in my grandparents RV. As I got older, Estes Park became our travel destination – visiting Rocky Mountain National Park on at least a yearly basis. By college, we were taking hiking and camping trips out to that area, along with Idaho Springs to go up Mt. Evans (now Mt. Blue Sky) or to Summit County. This is when I started bringing along a disposable camera to document my trips, which was certainly the beginnings of my career as a landscape photographer. Eventually I bought a “real” camera and started learning how to actual photograph. It was around this time that I started exploring further into the state. Aspen and the Maroon Bells. Ridgway, Ouray and Telluride. Mostly all in the fall to witness the fall colors. All of these mountain towns are part of a wonderful history in Colorado. I have personal connections to many of them. From amazing memories with family and friends, to solo photography adventures, photographing the seasons each year.
History of the Mountain Towns of Colorado
Many of the mountain towns in Colorado, such as Telluride, Crested Butte and more were founded as mining towns. They all had similiar trajectories. When mining dried up, many of these towns pracatically became ghost towns until they turned to tourism to save them. Sadly, many other towns didn’t have that good fortune and now lie as remnants of the past. Just a few buildings in a remote region of Colorado, such as Ashcroft, Independence and Capitol City have a few scattered cabins, houses and buildings that stand as a historical marker to their mining past. I hope to write another article just about these old ghost towns at some point, but for now, I wanted to make a list of all of my favorite mountain towns that did survive and currently thrive in the playground that is the Colorado Rockies! This list will continue to grow and I will add more to this list as I explore the remaining areas I haven’t spent as much time at. But many of the most famous mountain towns from Colorado are listed in this article. Some of them, I will link to larger articles dedicated to that specific town or area. Hopefully this will inspire you to visit some
