Colorado production locations, farms ranches deserts canyons mountains

 You know that Johnny Cash song, “I’ve been everywhere”? 

That’s a fun one, isn’t it? Johnny Cash sings about all the places he’s been, and lists them in fast time, places all over the country. Well, I can’t say the same for all parts of the country, but I can say it for Colorado. I’ve been everywhere. Of course, I’m familiar with the major resort destinations, such as Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Winter Park, and Telluride. I can navigate in all those towns, and I have several good contacts in each.

The out-of-the-way Colorado destinations for photo shoots and film locations 

Everybody knows where Denver, Vail, and Aspen are, and most of us know what they look like. That’s a no-brainer. But do you want your production to look like everybody else’s? That’s why you need to branch out. There are some awesome locations that still have great amenities and enough rooms and internet access to accommodate your crew, but they lie elsewhere. Colorado has an amazing variety of scenes, ranging from dryland wheat farms, melon farms, and desolate cattle ranches in the eastern plains; mountain vistas and alpine scenes in the spine of the Rocky Mountains; hay farms and cattle ranches on the Western Slope; and canyons, mesas, rimrock, and wasteland deserts in the far western and southern reaches of the state.

 Wide-open spaces, trout streams, mountain peaks, ranches, deserts and rimrock 

We have some suggestions for where you should shoot. Big wide-open plains with mountain vistas? South Park—yes, the source of the comedy show. It has buffalo and grass, mountains and sky. Trout streams—the Gunnison, Roaring Fork, Frying Pan, Colorado, and Taylor rivers. Mountains and peaks—San Juans near Ridgway, Telluride, Rico, Silverton, and Lake City. Ranches—San Luis Valley near Alamosa; North Fork Valley near Hotchkiss and Crawford; Lamar and La Junta in the southeast corner of the state. Mines—Telluride and Ophir are a good choice. Deserts and rimrock—Grand Junction; Delta; Nucla and Naturita in the southwest corner of the state (near Mesa Verde).

Have you heard of these Colorado towns? I’ve been there—many times! 

Cotopaxi, Toponas, Dotsero, Gypsum, Satank, Grand Lake, Twin Lakes, Sawpit, Norwood, Dove Creek, Brown’s Hole, Maybelle, Rangely, Johnstown, Bennet, Lamar, Kit Carson, Salida, Colorado City, Lake City, Creede, Basalt, Silt, New Castle, Oak Creek, Placerville, Yampa, Westcliffe, Rye, Yuma, Sterling, Antonito—you get the point, I could go on and on. The bottom line is this—if you’re looking for a specific location in Colorado, whether it’s high mountain, desert, grasslands plain or small ranching town, I know where to look and I can find it. It comes from decades of riding and guiding, exploring and hiking the peaks, canyons, deserts and plains of Colorado.