Colorado is one of those places I haven’t been to in years, and not going to lie, haven’t really thought about or wanted to go to during those years. Not for any reason in particular, but the popularity of everything Colorado was kind of a turnoff for me.  Everyone wanted to move there or go there, or still does maybe, I don’t know. Marijuana is legal there (yay!), hipsters and hippies commune…some native-born citizens get mad at influxes of transplants…whatever, it’s a “free” country. I guess it comes down to the whole Leave No Trace thing where some places are now being loved to death due to popularity. I guess I wanted to give it all some space?

So anyways, we decided to have a little family vacation and fly out to Breckenridge for a few days of just hanging out in cooler weather and the beautiful scenery of Colorado’s high country. Well, after those years of not really paying attention to Colorado, I gotta say that state has my attention now and stole a chunk of my heart. This week I found all sorts of new places to explore. Not to mention, after successfully reaching the summit of Quandary Peak at 14,265′ (my first 14er), I caught the bug and want to bag some more peaks. The aspens were changing. I had the summit to myself for 10 minutes…ya it was good. So now I’ve got some new life goals and new places to explore and photograph.

I hope you enjoy the following photographs from Colorado.

—Jake