Founded in 1993, 5280 is the largest local magazine in Colorado. The magazine's stories often make national headlines, and since 2005 5280 has been nominated for four National Magazine Awards. Get 5280 Magazine digital subscription today.
I think about my grandparents’ old house by the Cherry River a lot: We called it “the camp” since the dwelling, in Richwood, West Virginia, was more of a dilapidated cabin than a vacation home. I only visited as a small child, but I still fixate on the 10-acre property—which my papa sold for a pittance in the late 1980s—because I know the potential it would have today. With its private river access and proximity to Monongahela National Forest, the camp could’ve easily been turned into an adventure resort, a business that could help the former coal and lumber town as it attempts to transition to a tourism-based economy. West Virginia is widely known for its coal mining—an industry that’s been slowly dying as the world moves away from burning…
David Williams has been earning a living via editorial and commercial photography for 11 years, but the Denver-based creative is so dedicated to his mission of “documenting life” that he can’t help but capture images in his free time, too. “Whether I’m going to the grocery store or on a long road trip, I almost always carry a camera with me,” he says. That passion for memorializing slices of the day-to-day made him the perfect choice to traverse the state for “Hey, You Gotta See This!” (page 60), a feature that highlights some of Colorado’s quirkiest roadside attractions. Williams took his four-year-old son along to experience Morrison’s Tiny Town, a spot he grew up visiting, and he was happy to learn that three of the story’s locales are in the…
When Kim Zimmerman moved from Georgia to Colorado in 2005, it didn’t take long for the hobby gardener to realize that our state’s clay soil and dry climate were a more challenging canvas. “I killed a lot of things at first,” she says. To learn how to work in her new terrain—and hone her artistic skills—she enrolled in Colorado-specific gardening and floral design classes. One of her biggest takeaways: Florists use a lot of environmentally harmful materials, including foam, chemical-packed flower foods, and plastic wrappers. So Zimmerman set out to start a sustainable flower business and founded Rowdy Poppy in her Whittier home in 2018. To fulfill her mission, she opts for natural, recyclable, and compostable materials whenever possible and grows most of her flowers locally to reduce the carbon…
Despite being legal for years, marijuana bars and cafes have been basically nonexistent in Colorado. Why? Because regulations were so cumbersome it simply wasn’t worth the effort. That changed on January 8 when the state Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) rewrote its rules to allow, among other things, weed hospitality businesses to sell the same amount as dispensaries of most products (like up to an ounce of flower) and axed a requirement for security cameras in consumption areas. “Cannabis hospitality is the next frontier,” says Brian Vicente, founding partner of Vicente LLP, a Denver-based law firm specializing in the marijuana industry, “and it’s been anticipated the state would eventually tackle it.” But Vicente isn’t convinced the new rules are simply to reduce red tape. With tax revenue from marijuana sales down…
When Readers Take Denver (RTD) returns for its second annual gathering (April 18 to 21; Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center), attendees will have to adjust to its new scale. “The first year, we had about 1,000 people,” says writer Lisa Renee Jones, who founded the romance-focused book festival. “This year, we’re going to have 3,500.” Part of the reason for the explosive growth? Bookworms are in love with love: While print book sales were down in the first half of 2023, according to Publishers Weekly, sales of romance novels grew by 34.6 percent, making the category the fastest-growing adult fiction genre in the country. These authors—all of whom you’ll find at RTD—have helped set the mood in Colorado.…
On January 1, 2022, Joshua Berman greeted the new year with a herniated disk. But when a doctor told the then 48-year-old writer that he might avoid surgery by pairing a steroid injection with intensive physical therapy—especially a lot of walking—Berman had to laugh. For the past month, he’d been mulling over an offer from publisher Moon Travel Guides. The assignment? Hike hundreds of miles while cataloging Colorado’s best trails. Berman accepted the gig from his hospital bed and hoped it wasn’t a huge mistake: His back was an open question, and he was also raising three kids, penning an outdoors column for the Denver Post, and teaching Spanish at the Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder. The added responsibility felt daunting. Berman started in March 2022 with Hogback Ridge…
