Colorado Life Magazine

At first light on Colorado’s waterways, ducks stir, feed, dive and lift from the glassy surface, giving patient photographers a chance to capture more than a quiet bird on a pond.

Photographer Joshua Hardin follows those small moments of motion and behavior, from dabblers tipping tail-up in the shallows to diving ducks resurfacing across open water. His image of a redhead at Fossil Creek Park in Fort Collins captures one of those lively scenes, as the bird rises from the water and shakes droplets from its feathers.

Read the full story in the March/April 2026 issue of Colorado Life.

PC: Joshua Hardin

First thunder echoes through canyons and across the high country, a drumbeat announcing spring. Dark clouds gather, rain sweeps in and the landscape begins to stir. These poems follow the energy and renewal that come with those first rolling storms.

Read the full selection in our March/April 2026 issue.

We’re now accepting poetry submissions:
“Rust and Gold” for the September/October 2026 issue (deadline August 1)
"Gifts" for the November/December 2026 issue (deadline September 1)

Send poems to [email protected]

PC: Grant Collier

South of Eagle, Sylvan Lake State Park’s 42-acre reservoir gives campers a launching point for paddling, fishing, hiking, biking and wildlife viewing. Along Brush Creek, old homesteads, the historic Upper Brush Creek Schoolhouse and the weathered Halfway House stage stop trace the valley’s pioneer past.

With campsites, cabins, yurts and motor-free water, Sylvan Lake offers an easy place to unplug – and a reminder that Colorado’s best camping spots often hold layers of history just beyond the shoreline.

Read the full story in the March/April 2026 issue of Colorado Life.

PC: Dan Leeth

At Greeley Hat Works, Western tradition is shaped by hand, steam and a century-old set of tools. Trent Johnson, the shop’s fourth owner, begins each custom hat by mapping a customer’s head with a vintage conformateur, then wets, steams, blocks and shapes the felt over hours of careful work.

The Garden City shop dates to 1909 and still builds hats around fit, function and the person who will wear them, whether that customer is a rancher, horsewoman, feedlot cowboy, actor or president. Johnson’s hats have reached Yellowstone, Wind River and George W. Bush, but the work remains rooted in the same promise: a hat made to fit a life, not a costume.

Read the full story: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05D7LV0

PC: David Sands

Eldorado Canyon State Park packs a wide range of Colorado outdoor life into its sandstone walls and creekside corridors. Climbers come for more than 500 technical routes, hikers and mountain bikers follow trails to canyon overlooks, and visitors gather along South Boulder Creek for picnicking, fishing, wildlife watching, fall color, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

The canyon’s history adds another layer to the landscape. Ute people once used the canyon for shelter, early visitors were drawn to the area’s warm springs and daredevil Ivy Baldwin crossed a steel cable between Bastille and Wind Tower more than 400 feet above the creek. Today, the park remains one of the Front Range’s most varied outdoor escapes, close enough for a quick trip from Boulder but layered enough to reward a full day.

Read the full story: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05D5WZ0

PC: Joshua Hardin, Eldorado Springs Historical Society/Boulder Carnegie Library

In Pueblo, artist Rick Espinoza builds portraits layer by layer, using colored pencil to create Indigenous figures, cowboys and Southwestern scenes shaped by faith, identity and culture.

Self-taught and drawing since childhood, Espinoza says art gave him peace, purpose and a place to belong. Today, his work continues to grow from the city he's always called home.

Read the full story in the March/April 2026 issue of Colorado Life.
PC: Olivia George, Catie Blickhahn-Waldrep

Rising above Westminster, a green water tower shaped like a giant mushroom can is one of Colorado’s strangest roadside landmarks.

The tower is the last remnant of Savery Savory Mushrooms, a once-booming operation that grew mushrooms in Colorado’s dry climate through improvised humidity systems, dark growing rooms and a company town north of Denver.

Read the full story in the March/April 2026 issue of Colorado Life.
PC: City of Westminster

At a Kebler Pass overlook, photographers Steven and Sylvia Oboler had spent hours photographing the landscape before packing up their camera equipment. As they were leaving, they spotted a stand of red aspens brightening a storm-dark mountainside and used their phones in the rain to capture one last image, a layered view that went on to win Colorado Life’s Colorado Nature award in the 2025 Share the View International Nature Photography Contest.

Read the full story in the March/April 2026 issue of Colorado Life.
PC: Steven and Sylvia Oboler

Our March/April 2026 issue highlights a mix of landscape, wildlife and history through Eldorado Canyon, the return of the mountain bluebird, hat making in Greeley and the story of astronaut Jack Swigert.

Colorado Life immerses readers in the character of the state through striking photography and place-based storytelling in a glossy keepsake print magazine. Each issue explores Colorado’s landscapes, history, culture and communities.

Subscribe at https://na2.hubs.ly/H05l-f70 and bring the spirit of Colorado into your home all year long.

PC: Dawn Wilson

A Colorado license plate can signal everything from a favorite team to an inside joke. With more than 200 designs and about 78,000 personalized tags on the road, each one says something about who’s behind the wheel.

Produced in Cañon City by prison inmates, the plates range from the classic green-and-white mountain design to newer black and specialty options that reflect identity and history across the state.

Read the full story in the July/August 2025 issue of Colorado Life.

PC: Colorado Correctional Industries