When you live in such a state as Colorado, it is easy to fall in love with nature, going on adventures and exploring beautiful areas miles away from the rest of society. It is a place that allows your soul to be wild and encourages you to keep wandering.

We discover new places every time we set out into the glorious wilderness. And yet, we still have our favorite places, the places that call to our hearts every time we feel the need to go exploring.

And the beautiful thing about Colorado is that these familiar places, the places we always find ourselves going back to, still find a way to amaze us time after time. They never change but every time you go back, nothing is the same. The air is different, the people are different, the shapes of the clouds rolling over the massive peaks are different. The smells and sounds, the weather and emotions, they are all different. These places are constantly changing but always staying the same, so reliable and yet so mysterious.

We come back time and time again because these places made an everlasting impression on our minds and in our souls. They gave us something that no other place could give us. They made us feel at home in some way or another.

For me, that place is Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The trail to Emerald Lake takes you past Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, and Dream Lake. It leads you through lush green fields, delicately decorated with tiny, brightly colored wild flowers. The trail takes you over bridges with a gentle creek trickling beneath them.

The first time I fell in love with Emerald Lake was in the winter, snowshoeing with my family. We had rented plastic red snowshoes, not knowing what exactly we were getting ourselves into. I do not remember at what age I had my first experience snowshoeing, but I know it was at the beginning of my newly found love for mountains and the great outdoors. The experience helped light a spark that would soon turn into a raging fire that longed to be in the mountains.

Time after time I came back to Emerald Lake, always snowshoeing; never in the summer to hike the beautiful trail. I had always known it as a snowy wonderland that had a different trail every time, always following a different set of snowshoe-sized footprints up the mountain and past the lakes. The part that was always the same for me was emerging through the trees and seeing the long stretch that was Dream Lake. There was always a trail that led around the frozen lake but we always chose to walk across it. The wind blew strong across the lake each time. It was the kind of wind that made it hard to breathe, the kind that forced us to walk backward so that we could get some air into our tired lungs.

And then you would get to Emerald Lake, which was always just as windy. The lake was surrounded by tall mountains, with Hallett Peak rising up on one side and Flattop Mountain rising up on the other, both creating a breathtaking view just above the lake. It was always too windy to stay for too long, so we would turn around and eat lunch tucked in some trees.

I revisited Emerald Lake last summer, seeing it for the first time covered in green with splashes of color from the wild flowers. And I fell in love with this place all over again.

Just recently I took my friend snowshoeing for the first time up at Emerald Lake, hoping that it would have the same effect on him as it did on me; a place to call home, a place where I belonged and would forever keep close to my heart. He was a lucky one, getting a day with no wind. A gentle snow fell down on us, but it was still warm enough for us to stop to strip off a layer before heading deeper into the forest.

We crossed over Dream Lake, with not even a breeze brushing our faces. It was the first time I could look up and enjoy the mountains surrounding us, getting bigger as we got closer. We got to Emerald Lake and the wind was just barely growing into something noticeable. We stood there staring at the mountains high above our heads, able to stare at every detail that was highlighted by the light dusting of snow that lay on the jagged mountains. We crossed the lake, it was the first time I had ever crossed Emerald Lake. And we stared at the mountains that were even taller over our heads now. And just then the wind picked up, forcing us to pull our jackets closed and turn back to the trial.

I fell in love with Emerald Lake again that day, for the fifteenth time. I will always find myself going back there, wanting to revisit the place the made me fall in love with the mountains, seeing it again in a new light, with new sounds and new feelings. It is my home away from home. It is my place.

It is places like these that keep our spirit for adventure strong and our wandering minds free. These are the places that put our lives into perspective; that help us fall in love with the world around us. Find new places, explore, and learn what magnificent places are in this world.