Dateline 1930: Harry Standley Photographs Colorado Hikers

Here's a throwback photograph by Harry L. Standley, an early 20th-century Colorado photographer, of early climbers sitting around a blazing campfire in the mountains above Colorado Springs in 1930.

Outfit those hardy hikers in PrAna clothes and replace the fire with a Jetboil and it would seem like good ol' 2018. You have to love those high lace-up boots though. I don't know if I would change them for some modern Nikes or Merrells. Harry Standley was a pioneer photographer in Colorado Springs and one of the first people to climb all of Colorado's 14ers. Standley was born in Kansas in 1881 and moved to Cripple Creek as a lad in 1893 where he began his photo career before moving down to the Springs in 1905.

Standley took thousands of photos of Colorado life, including many classic life images of early Colorado Springs, and climbing his beloved mountains in the high country, but he only copyrighted 21 photographs, saying, "I love these old Colorado mountains and it pleases me to see pictures of them get out into the world."

Here's to you Mister Standley. You've always been an inspiration to me with your classic black and white photographs of Colorado taken with a big bulky view camera.