Rollins Passion
For us, the story of Rollins Pass is interwoven with the story of who we are and encapsulates our excitement for all things related to this resplendent place: our Rollins Passion.
ROLLINS PASS IS HOME FOR US
Prior generations of our families have vacationed, hiked, camped, and fished on and near the pass. This tradition likely began when our ancestors and your ancestors first discovered the beauty and tranquility of these mountains, forging bonds, and becoming family friends while enjoying these same activities together. Rollins Pass is home for us: it’s where we spend at least four days a week each summer and early autumn; its where we snowmobile each weekend in winter; it’s where we fell in love—where Travis proposed to Kate on one knee—it’s the place we were married and where we honeymooned, and where we vacation several weeks each year.
Rollins Pass forms the backdrop for our high-altitude love story and is part of the enduring tapestry that we’ve written about in our books. We’ve adopted trails and made discoveries, volunteered with Dr. Jason LaBelle’s Colorado State University field school students for archaeology work on the pass, participated in the US Forest Service’s Passport in Time program for Rollins Pass as well as the 2021 and 2022 Rollins Pass Bioblitz‘ of the Colorado Natural Heritage Program with Colorado State University, written multiple academic and published works, produced documentaries as well as several presentations—all informed by experts, received a State Honor Award and Partner of the Year award, and we work to ensure the legacy of the 12,000 years of history on the pass by safeguarding Rollins Pass and Moffat Tunnel chronology, photographs, stories, structures, and landscapes so they are preserved for future generations.
We also enjoy meeting on or atop the pass year-round… and sometimes our meetings aren’t scheduled: we have treated families to hot pizza while they waited for a tow truck in an area of Rollins Pass that doesn’t have cell signal, given groups of bicyclists our reserve water from the back of our truck, shuttled stranded motorists back to town, or opened our lunch kits to those who needed additional calories or protein to get over the pass and through their day. We also share stories, take family photographs, roll the cameras for groups of snowmobilers, help look for lost dogs, answer historical questions, advise on closure areas, suggest scenic vistas to honor ancestors, provide directions, and sometimes tuck complimentary signed books under windshield wipers of out of state vehicles parked on the pass.
We hope our unique Rollins Passion shines through in our books, photographs, documentaries, media and podcast interviews, when we meet fellow visitors atop the pass, by our trail adoption, and in our presentations that we enjoy giving throughout Colorado.
The primary purpose of our work is to inform the public.
