Col­orado has some of the most beau­ti­ful places to pho­to­graph in the United States. I’ve lived in Col­orado for the past 16 years and have trav­eled all over the state pho­tograph­ing its beauty. I fig­ure it would be nice to share some of my favorite loca­tions with you. There’s so many beau­ti­ful loca­tions in the state to pho­to­graph I can­not list all of him but here are just a few that you may enjoy. If you have a favorite place to pho­to­graph in the state Col­orado please leave a com­ment and share it with all.

Gar­den of the Gods

Since I live in Col­orado Springs I will have to pick my favorite local spots. Col­orado Springs has many great spots to pho­to­graph like Pikes Peak, Queens Canyon and Dorothy falls, Seven falls, Cheyenne Canyon, Helen Hunt Falls, United States Air Force Acad­emy, Pike national For­est and of course my favorite Gar­den of the Gods. This park cel­e­brated its 100th year as a city park on Octo­ber 17, 2009. Most peo­ple vis­it­ing the Gar­den only see a small por­tion of the park like kiss­ing camels, bal­anced rock and the Siamese twins. Liv­ing only a few miles from the park I like to get up early in the morn­ing and pick a spot. And just roam around the area and pho­to­graph a small part of the park. In my post on this web­site about Gar­den of the Gods you can get an idea of what to see in the parts of the park that are sel­dom visited.

Aspen Col­orado and the Maroon Bells

Aspen is best known for its ski­ing in the win­ter time. With ski areas like Aspen Moun­tain, but­ter­milk, Aspen High­lands and Snow­mass. But in the sum­mer­time is when Aspen really blooms. Around the back streets of Aspen you’ll find beau­ti­ful Vic­to­rian homes with incred­i­ble gar­dens and man­i­cured lawns. The areas around Aspen are a photographer’s par­adise. We try to make it up to this area at least once a year. Our favorite place to stay is the Crest­wood con­do­mini­ums in the Snow­mass Vil­lage. Tak­ing the road up maroon Creek you will find the maroon bells. The maroon bells are one of the state’s most pho­tographed areas. Maroon Lake with the moun­tains in the back­ground makes this for one of the best spots. The Aspen area has many great loca­tion for other great pho­to­graphic oppor­tu­ni­ties like the old ghost town of Ashcroft, the ghost town of inde­pen­dence and the grotto ice caves and water­falls along the roar­ing Fork Creek about 8 miles up Inde­pen­dence Pass.

Crested Butte Colorado

Crested Butte is a small ski town in the win­ter­time but in the sum­mer time it becomes the wild­flower cap­i­tal of Col­orado. There’s so many activ­i­ties like fish­ing, hik­ing, moun­tain bik­ing, River raft­ing, art music fes­ti­vals, Fourth of July fire­works show and of course great loca­tions for pho­tog­ra­phy. Just a few of the area like the beau­ti­ful vis­tas of Lake Irwin, Kebler pass with one of the largest Aspen groves in the state and incred­i­ble wild­flow­ers, Slate River Rd with more wild­flow­ers, Wash­ing­ton Gulch Road and did I say more wild­flow­ers, the road to Gothic and the town of Gothic. We like to camp with the group of friends each Fourth of July week­end at the Lake Irwin camp­ground. The camp­ground usu­ally opens around the Fourth of July after all the snowmelts. The camp­ground is located a lit­tle over 10,000 feet above sea level. A cou­ple years ago we wanted to camp but the camp­grounds closed because of too much snow. There’s a small pond at the North East cor­ner of the camp­ground that is one of my favorite pho­to­graphic loca­tions in the area.

West­cliffe Colorado

This is the old West at its best. This is a small Ranch­ing and farm­ing com­mu­nity with the San­gre de Cristo moun­tains in the back­ground. For a short period of Time in the spring West­cliffe has an incred­i­ble wild­flower show just North and West of down­town West­cliffe. On the out­skirts of town there are many small and large ranches with fields of wild Iris. You can drive down any of the coun­try roads out­side of West­cliffe and find many oppor­tu­ni­ties to pho­to­graph old barns and farm­houses with many wild Iris and wild­flow­ers with the San­gre de Cristo Moun­tains in the background.

Rocky Mount national Park

This is one of my favorite places in Col­orado. Since Rocky Mount is such a pop­u­lar national Park we try to avoid it in the sum­mer­time how­ever in the spring and the fall in the win­ter the park is almost empty. In the fall in late Sep­tem­ber the Aspen trees are golden in the elk with their huge racks are fenc­ing even around down­town Estes Park. The pho­to­graphic oppor­tu­ni­ties are end­less. In the win­ter­time the moun­tains are full of snow and the lakes are frozen. The views of the snow-covered Bear Lake with the moun­tains in the back­ground are incred­i­ble. This is a great place to bring your snow­shoes and cross-country skis. In the spring time amounts are still full of snow and the rivers are start­ing to flow. The elk graze by the hun­dreds in Moraine Park.

Lake City Colorado

This is one of Colorado’s hid­den trea­sures. Lake City is a small town about 50 miles south of blue Mesa reser­voir and US High­way 50. Take Col­orado High­way 149 South’s to Lake City. High­way 149 is part of the sil­ver thread scenic byway. Lake City has many activ­i­ties includ­ing four-wheeling, moun­tain bik­ing fish­ing, hik­ing, camp­ing and snow­mo­bil­ing in the win­ter. There are numer­ous old min­ing towns up in the moun­tains along the four-wheel-drive trail called the Alpine Loop. It is a 49 miles round-trip and takes most of the day to com­plete. The trip requires a four-wheel-drive with high clear­ance to go the whole way around the loop, but you can go most of the way in either direc­tion of the loop with a stan­dard four-wheel-drive SUV. If you don’t have a four-wheel-drive you can rent a jeep in town that will eas­ily make the trip. Along the trail there are sev­eral ruins of old min­ing towns, a water­fall, beau­ti­ful moun­tain scenery and wild­flow­ers. All mag­nif­i­cent loca­tions to pho­to­graph the beau­ti­ful back coun­try of Colorado.

Creed Col­orado

On the way south on Col­orado High­way 149 from Lake City about halfway to Creeds you’ll find the incred­i­ble North Clear Creek falls, this is a great place to pho­to­graph. A lit­tle fur­ther down the road is an over­look of the head waters of the Rio Grande River. The town of Creeds is an old min­ing town with great old build­ings to pho­to­graph. At the end of town there is an under­ground fire sta­tion and just passes that the Min­ing Museum. At the end of town there is a dirt road(bachelor his­toric loop four-wheel-drive road) that takes you up into the mountain’s that pass many old minds min­ing shacks and build­ings. On the loop you come across the last chance mine. Stop in and see Jack Mor­ris the owner of the mine. It is usu­ally open on week­ends in the sum­mer and fall. The views from his porch are incred­i­ble. Jack will tell you sto­ries of the old mine and the his­tory of the area. He will also tell you an inter­est­ing story on how he acquired the mine. He also has a small out­door rock shop with many small and large rock sam­ples from the mine and other places for sale. You can also reserve one of the old min­ing shacks for an evening stay.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

The great Sand dunes are not to be missed. Con­trast of the sand­ing was the snow­capped moun­tains in the back­ground and the creek that flows in front of the sand dunes make for the per­fect pho­to­graph. You can climb the sand dunes with the high­est dunes being about 700 feet above the val­ley floor. Spring and fall are the best times to visit this area. Sum­mer tem­per­a­tures can reach 100° or more.

Hang­ing Lake

Just 10 miles east of Glen­wood Springs on inter­state 70 is the trail head to hang­ing Lake. The trail is a steep and stren­u­ous 1.2 mile trek up the moun­tain to hang­ing Lake. The small lake with cas­cad­ing water­falls and crys­tal clear Caribbean aqua marine waters with large trout. When you finally get to the lake you will think you’re in another world. Because of the high con­trast of the Bright water and dark water­falls, be sure to bring your tri­pod as this is the per­fect loca­tion for an HDR (high dynamic range pho­tog­ra­phy) shot.

Mar­ble Colorado

The town is the loca­tion of an old aban­doned mar­ble quarry and mill. Mar­ble from this quarry were used to make the Lin­coln Memo­r­ial , Wash­ing­ton Memo­r­ial and the tomb of the Unknown Sol­dier. Mar­ble from this quarry is almost pure white. You can walk through the old mar­ble mill. This place affords an incred­i­ble pho­to­graphic oppor­tu­nity. In recent years the quarry oper­a­tion has started up again in a small-scale com­pared to what it was in the past. Mostly for artist and stone carvers. The small com­mu­nity has sev­eral artist and gal­leries. Crys­tal mill is also located in this area is about two and three-quarter miles past mar­ble up a four-wheel-drive road. The road requires high clear­ance four-wheel-drive vehi­cle. To get to Mar­ble you head South on High­way 133 from Car­bon­dale. Once you pass the small town of Red­stone con­tinue on an addi­tional 5 to 6 miles till you reach the road to mar­ble on the left. Mar­ble is at the end of this road at about 6 miles.

Con­clu­sion

This is just a small sam­ple of the pho­to­graphic oppor­tu­ni­ties to be had in Col­orado. There are many more fan­tas­tic loca­tions in the state. I invite you to leave a com­ment on your favorite place in Col­orado to pho­to­graph. So if you’re vis­it­ing Col­orado or live in Col­orado let me know what your favorite places are.

Books and Maps

Col­orado Guide, 5th Edi­tion Updated: The Best-Selling Guide to the Cen­ten­nial State [Bar­gain Price] [Paperback]

Col­orado: Lost Places and For­got­ten Words [Hardcover]

Bench­mark Col­orado Road and Recre­ation Atlas 3rd edi­tion (Bench­mark Maps: Col­orado) [Paperback]

Col­orado Atlas and Gazetteer [Paper­back]