Western View: A Photographic Tour of Oak Creek, CO

There is something about small western towns that I love. Even just for a drive through, I find my eyes glued to the buildings, the people, the storefronts, the cars. Maybe it’s the sense of a past frozen in time, maybe it’s the western culture being so different from what I know or how I was raised, maybe it’s the laid back atmosphere that brings out a little cowgirl in me. Maybe it’s the dust settling in the afternoon light or the wave from a fellow passer-by, but either way it is a world far away from mine and one I am continually intrigued by.

I’ve always felt this way, no matter how many times I go out west. My family and I go to Colorado every year – to the Steamboat Springs area – and I lived outside of Telluride, CO in my early 20’s, a free spirited time pre-kids when my friends and I would take road trips, even for a day, and go out exploring. For me, I will always be fascinated by small town western Americana. Which is why on my most recent trip in CO this past week, I said to my family “Let’s go get tacos for lunch at Lupitas in Oak Creek”. Oak Creek is half an hour away from where we were staying, but the tacos at Lupitas Cantina are the best I’ve had and totally worth the drive.

I also just like going to Oak Creek. It’s exactly one of these towns, with no big draw (except for Lupitas, of course) other than it’s curiously interesting to pass through with the feeling of being transported in time. Oak Creek is a tiny town of 1000 people located in the Yampa Valley, about half an hour south of Steamboat Springs. An old mining town, it comprises just .3 square miles. With a classic main street with a bar, tavern, and a couple of shops, little houses and shacks dotting the outer streets, and mountainous terrain in the distance, it is your typical western town. But to me, it will never be typical. I decided that day to take a bunch of photos to capture the town as a representation of what draws me to the west. This is not an ordinary post of mine full of where to go info., but rather a photo tour of a town where my girls and I ate tacos. A western town full of its own western flavor. Here is Oak Creek:

And the tacos..they’re incredible…