Estes Park is known for its abundance of wildlife, including elk, deer, coyotes, big horn sheep, and bears, to name a few. It’s also known for its quaint downtown, music, events, The Stanley Hotel, and Rocky Mountain National Park.

However, Estes Park isn’t only a tourist attraction. Part of what makes Estes Park so alluring is the community of creative people who call it home, like author Dawn Wilson, who grew up in a small university town, Glassboro, New Jersey.

Wilson’s career background includes “positions in advertising, promotions, public relations and marketing in businesses that produced medical devices, medical textbooks, and medical animations.”

Wilson spent summers at the Jersey Shore and holidays with family in the area but craved a more outdoor lifestyle. After visiting Colorado in 1997, it became one of her dreams to live in the state someday.

After completing her MBA in 2002, she sold her house and drove cross-country to her new home. Life had proven challenging in 2012 and 2013; Wilson decided another adventure would help improve her situation.

“Hard lessons during that time taught me that life is short and we need to follow our dreams, so I left my corporate job and started building my photography and writing business. In 2015, I again sold my house, but this time I bought an RV and hit the road with my two dogs and two cats,” confesses Wilson.

Wilson traveled for 15 months, writing and photographing places from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska. She says, “On that adventure, I met my current partner, who was also traveling full time, in Rocky Mountain National Park. After the time on the road, we decided to settle in Estes Park, where we could be close to the mountains we love.”

Wilson is the author of 100 Things to Do in Estes Park Before You Die. Knowing that over four million visitors pass through Estes Park every year, and with a timed entry reservation system in Rocky Mountain National Park, Wilson considered that “finding other things to do a necessity during a visit, and a fascinating history for a small mountain town, I knew I could show an eclectic side of Estes Park.”

The idea for Wilson’s new book, 100 Things to Do in Estes Park Before You Die, began in May 2022, intending to have it in stores just in time for the busy 2023 summer season, an extremely tight deadline for a 25,000-word book.

Wilson published other books, including Colorado: Flora, Fauna, and Landscapes from the Perspective of Women, in 2011. “In addition to these two books, I also have more than 600 bylined articles and photographs in regional and national publications,” shares Wilson.

Currently, Wilson is the outdoor writer and photographer for the Estes Park Trail Gazette. Her book is sold in shops throughout Estes Park, on Amazon.com, ReedyPress.com, and DawnWilsonPhotography.com.

To learn more visit https://www.dawnwilsonphotography.com/. You can find Dawn Wilson on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DawnWilsonPhotography, or you can give her a call at 970-567-6109.