I love to visit this magical little lake every Fall. It is just so beautiful, and it is just one of the many colorful spots for adventure in the Fall. If you ever wonder what you should do when you visit Colorado....just take a drive. Colorado is packed full of scenic byways that will not only get you to where you’re headed, but will also showcase some of the best views in the state along your journey! You can find enchantment very near Beaver Lake as you traverse to the top of McClure Pass! You will not be disappointed if you take time to leaf peep in Glenwood Springs! Colorado backroads are never boring! And Colorado is amazing no matter the season, in fact, you might experience 90 degrees and snow in the same day!

BEAVER LAKE, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Lisa Downs

Last July the wildflowers at Caribou were absolutely...wild! I've never seen anything like this when my husband and I have hiked here in the past! I delayed our hike quite a bit because of all the photographs I was taking and was rewarded with light that took my breath away.

Though I am primarily a portrait photographer, I love capturing moments on my camera when I am wandering outside too. Those images always sustain me during life's darker moments.

The evening, and this photograph, could be a love letter to Colorado.

I came to Colorado from the Boston area for good in 2010. Though I had spent summers in Buena Vista as a child (my father is a geologist), I resented being pulled away from my friends from age 9-13. I hated summers here when I was a child. My home was on the east coast I thought. But then something pulled me back west in my late 40s. I was newly divorced and craved a place with wide open spaces where I could learn to breathe again; where I could figure out who I was. I knew I didn't belong in the suburbs.

After 18 years of marriage and two children, I needed a place where no one knew me to explore. Hiking was an activity I had enjoyed for many years in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, so I knew I wanted the mountains, trails and trees to help unwrap my new life. I decided to take a two-week vacation in Colorado in the summer of 2008 and the pull was magnetic. I didn’t want to go home. I made the decision to move to Boulder after my younger daughter graduated from high school.

I made the move in 2010 knowing only two people, but my life here blossomed. The lack of density and opportunities for time alone on mountain trails, opened my life and I thrived. I made new friends who loved the outdoors as much as me. I had the inspiration for lots of writing and in 2012 was awarded an Artist in Residency at Rocky Mountain National Park. My love affair with Colorado had been pretty passionate before this, but after my residency Colorado became a part of me.

I spent most of my time outdoors, sometimes at a coffee shop writing, maybe on a bike ride or hiking near Brainard Lake, but almost every day ended with an evening hike at Chautauqua. I was happy.

Then I met the man who would become my husband. We met through a friend and began a friendship that eventually grew into much more and we got married in 2016. He is my best friend.

This photograph has all the elements of the gifts Colorado has given me. From the space to roam and find myself and begin a new life, to the comfort of the mountains, trails, rivers, alpine lakes, and wildflowers, and of course, my life partner, my entire being has been soothed and strengthened.

Rob and I love to take pictures of our shadow on many of the trails we hike. This photograph, Caribou Connections, is my favorite out of those images.

CARIBOU, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Robin Salcido

I call Colorado my home, my homestead, my playground and my muse. The endless sky, and enormous palate of nature, every color we have ever seen, can imagine, and more, I am endlessly in awe at the beauty of the world I live in. The same tree looks different every day, if only I stop long enough to notice. If I capture the day, when the uniqueness of today reveals itself in just the right light.

And when I get complacent, about another sunrise, sunset, singing bird, or horses in the distance, I have the reflection of the awe of nature reflected in my son’s eye. And my insatiable desire, to pick up the camera, and capture what I see.

One of my favorite things to do is go on a photo adventure with my son. We like to take pictures of animals, birds, farms, old things, new things. On this particular day, the sky was moving, it was a bit moody and just beautiful over this barn. It spoke to us.

IN BETWEEN ERIE AND LONGMONT, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Bari Gisin

When I was a young boy growing up in Kansas, I dreamed of living in, as my hermit uncle called it, the High Country. Uncle Arnie lived, with scurrying Chipmunks, in a sod roofed, 1880s cabin near Tincup and his stories of life in Taylor Park in the 1940s and 50s were the source of those dreams. He never owned the cabin, he simply appropriated it and made it habitable for his summers in the High Country. He scratched out a little gold from time to time, did odd jobs when he could, but mostly lived a subsistence lifestyle until the fruit was ripe on the western slope and he could earn some money picking apples and peaches. Then he would return to Kansas to spend the winter with my grandparents, doing it all over again when Spring arrived and he could get back to the cabin.

I first came to Colorado around 1957. While still on the eastern plains, my grandfather, Arnie’s dad, asked me if I saw those clouds that were just coming into view on the horizon. My six-year-old, flatlands-of-Kansas eyes told me that they kind of looked like clouds, but there was something different about them. Then, with a chuckle, he told me, “Those are mountains!” By the time I was old enough to drive myself in the late 1960s, I spent all the time I could in the High Country, often at Arnie’s cabin. He taught me many things, not the least of which was how to catch Browns and Brookies. Better yet, how to fry them with cornmeal, sizzling in bacon grease in a cast iron skillet over an open fire.

Finally, more than thirty years ago, and long after Uncle Arnie’s spirit took flight to soar amongst the peaks, I got the opportunity to move to the High Country. Today I live in the shadow of Mt. Antero and time and again, I watch it change, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, season to season.

In this image, Spring winds come with a vengeance to the High Country in a timeless battle with the warming rays of the sun. The winds will have their way for another few weeks before the sun prevails and the spindrift no longer dances on the jagged, rocky ridges. Flake by flake the snow will begin to melt and drop by drop, trickle through the cracks and crevices as icy cold, crystal clear water rushing down the slopes on its way to the sea.

CHAFFEE COUNTY, COLORADO

Photo Credit: Dan Downing