The year in photos: What Colorado looked like in 2024

By Hart Van Denburg
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A cowboy trapped beneath the leaping ranch bronco from which he fell. The Martin Luther King Jr. African-American Heritage Rodeo at the National Western Stock Show, Jan. 15, 2024.

From climate change to Old West traditions, politics to justice, earning a living to looking for a home, sadness to joy, here is a look at some of the moments captured by the photographers and reporters of CPR News in 2024.

January | February | March

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Former Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema, left, leaves the Adams County Justice Center Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, after he was found guilty of brutalizing Elijah McClain and sentenced to 14 months in jail, 4 years probation.
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A group of visitors pose for a photo at the base of the Rotunda staircase at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, as the General Assembly begins a new session.
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Chance Green of Oregon grooms the back and tail of a short horn heifer before judging at the National Western Stock Show, Jan. 12, 2024.
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Flyfishing in warm winter weather on the Arkansas River with the mammoth Pueblo Dam, in the background, surrounded by a cloud of insects, Jan. 30, 2024.
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Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert holds her grandson as she mingles with the crowd ahead of a debate among Republicans competing in the primary for the state’s 4th Congressional District in Fort Lupton, Jan. 25, 2024.
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Emiliano, 3 years old, sits on a rock outside a Denver motel that serves as a shelter and gets a haircut, while his mom and dad describe their journey from Venezuela, across the Darien Gap, through Mexico and across the Rio Grande. Feb. 5, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Aracrli Miranda opens a free legal clinic hosted by the Colorado Lawyers Committee and Centro San Juan Diego at Centro's church in Denver's Five Points neighborhood. Feb. 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
People raise their hands to express agreement with Wendy Shrader, who is testifying to Lakewood City Council against helping immigrants who might arrive in the city. Feb. 12, 2024.
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Colorado State Patrol Trooper Nate Reid in Patrol’s hangar at Centennial Airport, Feb. 13, 2024. You know those signs you see along the highways saying "speed checked by radar"? Reid's the man at the controls.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Yohannese Gebremedhin holds a photo of his uncle, Goitem Hagos, in the Centennial home Hagos and Gebremedhin's aunt shared before Hagos was killed while driving for a rideshare company. Feb. 16, 2024.
Jon Batiste plays the Paramount Theatre on Feb. 20, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Jon Batiste plays the Paramount Theatre on Feb. 20, 2024.
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As Guadalupe Rodriguez holds a sign that says in part, “Trump in Jail,” Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley of South Carolina signs a supporter’s poster during a campaign stop in Colorado on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, at Centennial Airport, ahead of the Super Tuesday primary elections.
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Billy Dodson, operations manager at The Natural Funeral care center in Arvada, picks up the end product of terramation, or human composting, March 8, 2024. Colorado funeral homes are working to regain trust amid string of high-profile scandals.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Denver's EXDO event center during a campaign trip to Colorado. March 12, 2024.
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A State Trooper helps shovel a stranded vehicle with a trailer on Interstate 70 near the Morrison exit on Thursday, March 14, 2024. A winter snow storm moved through portions of the Front Range, forcing many schools and businesses to close, and for CDOT to close I-70 into the mountains.
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A dancer at the the Denver March Powwow March 15, 2024. More than 1,500 dancers from around to 100 tribes in 38 states and three Canadian provinces take part in the event.
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Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney at Mission Ballroom in Denver, March 26, 2024.
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Thirteen-year-old Ava Keenan practiced flips during a training run on Vail Mountain’s Golden Peak, March 27, 2024, as her coach and a friend look on. Her goal is to become the first Black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in moguls, which combines free skiing with speed and acrobatics. 

April | May | June

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At the 2024 Republican 4th Congressional District Assembly. April 5, 2024, at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo.
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Delta Brick & Climate Company’s Christopher Caskey and his shovel on the dry bed of Paonia Reservoir, April 12, 2024. The company sources dirt from the lake to make ceramic tiles, in kilns eventually fired by methane captured from an abandoned coal mine in the North Fork Valley.
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Former Columbine High School Principal Frank DeAngelis bows his head in his hands at the start of a memorial service to mark those killed in the mass shooting at Columbine High School 25 years ago, at First Baptist Church in Denver, April 19, 2024.
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Jaime Raisbeck’s, at left, and her attorney Anita Springsteen, stand beside the graves of Raisbeck’s two children at Arvada Cemetery, April 23, 2024. Joshua Raisbeck was murdered in 2020, Ashley died the week before Christmas in 2023 while she was being held at the Jefferson County Detention Facility.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Carlos Stokes draws a tattoo on Lecrae Moore's bicep at Aurora's Tengu Tattoo shop. April 11, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Auraria Police arrest protesters advocating for the end of Israel's offensive in Gaza after they occupied the Tivoli Quad and refused to leave. April 26, 2024.
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You are here: Denver Health Paramedic James Boyer outside Meow Wolf at the junction of First and Walnut streets, May 6, 2024. Boyer trains new paramedics on how to get around Denver’s not-always-logical street layout.
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Democratic state Rep. David Ortiz, is embraced by his mother Evelia Ortiz after being honored for his service in the Colorado State House, May 8, 2024, the closing day of the session. Ortiz is retiring from the House. He’s the first representative in state history to use a wheelchair.
DUTCHMEN FLOWER SALE LARKSPUR
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Flower shoppers at Dutch Heritage greenhouses load up their cart with kids rare day of retail sales on May 25, 2024. Those kids will be walking soon, as flower pots take their places.
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Audrey Sayles and Staci Beaufort, Two Girls and a Mural, pose for a photo near their “Heart of Harvest” mural on the Norag grain bin in downtown Limon, May 20, 2024. Their hand-painted van’s license plate is SOMGIRLS.
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After waiting in a line of more than a hundred people, the first stop is the Triage area of Antiques Roadshow, where visitors present their items and are then directed to various tents for specific evaluations. May 29, 2024, at the Chatfield Farms Arboretum.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Jon Dettro (left) and Sarah Ingram, leaders of the local American Outlaws fan group, yell during the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's match against the Korea Republic at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. June 1, 2024.
Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
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Rick Trujillo, June 4, 2024, at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway, which sits above Ouray at about 9,000 feet next to a couple of old mine claims. Trujillo, a lifelong Ouray resident, is credited with discovering the trackway in 1958 when he was in high school.
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Competitive climber and Team USA member Colin Duffy practices an overhang route at The Spot climbing gym in Louisville, June 12, 2024. In 2023 he ranked seventh in the world in men’s boulder and lead. He’s qualified to compete at the Paris Olympics.
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Paralympian Melissa Stockwell training at Colorado College June 14, 2024. She made her fourth appearance in the Paralympics this summer, placing 5th in the women's PTS2. Stockwell lives with her husband, two kids and their dog in Colorado Springs.
SUMMER TRAVEL GRAND LAKE
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While much of Colorado’s lower elevations endure a blistering heat wave, visitors to Grand Lake on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park took to the water to cool off with paddle boards in a summer rain shower, June 23, 2024.
KILYN LEWIS SHOOTING DEATH PROTEST AGAINST AURORA POLICE
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Demonstrators enter Aurora City Council chambers Monday evening, June 24, to speak out in protest during the meeting against Aurora Police officers who shot and killed unarmed Kilyn Lewis in May.
MONOLITH ON A FORT COLLINS HILLSIDE
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Colorado State University senior Harrison Fraser, of Arvada, visits the mysterious, metallic, reflective monolith anchored by bolts in a concrete base, on a hill northwest of Fort Collins, June 27, 2024. No one seems to know, or is not saying, how it came to be there.

July | August | September

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Amirrah Graham, Sade Houston, and London Dawson, from left, students from this summer’s Opening Act Theatre Camp in Denver, ham it up for the camera while visiting the Museum for Black Girls, July 9, 2024.
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Marble dust flies into Joe Adams’s face as he shapes his marble block into the shape of a bowl surrounded by flames, at the MARBLE/Marble Stone Carver Symposium, July 18, 2004.
Dolores River Canyon views
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Beep beep! Above the Dolores River Canyon in Colorado’s West End, a motorcyclist passes by a Wile E. Coyote silhouette painted on Hwy 141, July 20, 2024. The cartoon character was in a constant losing battle to catch the Roadrunner, with the exploits often taking part in the canyon country of the desert Southwest.
Dolores River Canyon views
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A desert bighorn sheep at sunset in Unaweep Canyon, July 20, 2024. A controversial proposal has been submitted to set aside 400,000 acres for a Dolores Canyon National Monument, stretching as far to the east as Unaweep Canyon.
Alexander Mountain Fire burns in foothills west of Loveland
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U.S. Forest Service air support drops red fire retardant over the Alexander Mountain Fire burning fire in the Roosevelt National Forest near Loveland, Colorado, on Monday, July 29, 2024.
Yoga on the Rocks at Red Rocks. July 27, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Yoga on the Rocks at Red Rocks. July 27, 2024.
STONE CANYON FIRE SURVIVORS
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Suzanna Simmons holds her Irish Wolfhound Keeley as her Colorado Mountain Dog Ronan looks on, on the burn scar outside her home in Stone Canyon above Lyons a week after crews saved her home. She was able to evacuate all four of her dogs, four goats, one alpaca, five hens and a rooster.
Crews work to clear a freight train crash in Boulder
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Crews work to clear a freight train crash in Boulder, Friday, August 23, 2024. Two train conductors suffered minor injuries, and rail cars damaged tracks, a bridge and trees after a collision between two BNSF trains late Thursday in Boulder.
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A group of state lawmakers and tech advisors looking into ways to improve cell phone coverage along key parts of I-70 listen to CDOT’s Paul Fox while standing in the plenum above the roadway during a tour of at the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70, Sept. 3, 2024.
WILD HORSE ROUNDUP AT LITTLE BOOK CLIFFS HOLDING PEN
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One of 10 wild horses captured Sept. 11, 2024, during a gathering of the herd at Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Area northwest of De Beque. Bureau of Land Management and volunteers are working to thin the herd, through a combination of darted birth control treatments, and an adoption program.
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Twenty-nine people from 14 countries of origin took the Oath of Citizenship at Boulder Public Library on Sept. 18, 2024 - and most of them promptly registered to vote at a nearby League of Women Voters table. Ash Heather, of Australia, at center, was among them.
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Homer Talley collects his thoughts outside Boulder County Justice Center Monday Sept. 23, 2024, after Ahmad Alissa was given 10 life sentences for killing 10 people at a Boulder King Soopers grocery store in 2021. Talley’s son, Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, was killed that day.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Denver Police officer Clinton Newton helps Prynce (6) make a shot during the department's annual Hoops for Safety event with Metropolitan State University of Denver's basketball teams. Sept. 21, 2024.

October | November | December

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Aurora's Gaylord Rockies hotel. Oct. 11, 2024. Trump went on to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the November general election.
Colorado Springs master violin maker Pablo Mijares
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Pablo Mijares begins to shape the body of a violin in his Colorado Springs workshop. For nearly 40 years, this master luthier, as such craftsmen are known, has been hand-making violins, violas and cellos that musicians describe as "magical."
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Opponents of molybdenum mining on Mt. Emmons above Crested Butte celebrated their victorious four-decade battle on Saturday, October 5, 2024, with a five-mile hike to the mountain’s summit where they unfurled the banner of the High Country Conservation Advocates, sang songs and opened a couple of bottles of champagne.
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An ambulance leaves the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek in Teller County after 12 people trapped about 1,000 feet underground were rescued Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. One person is known to have died after what officials are calling an equipment malfunction.
Michael Jones plants rye seed at Jones Farm Organics
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With the Sangre de Cristo mountains for a backdrop, Michael Jones plants rye seed at Jones Farm Organics, in the San Luis Valley, Oct. 21, 2024. Potatoes were recently harvested from the field, north of Hooper. In a few weeks, the rye will start showing, and help topsoil and moisture, stay in place during the winter months.
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Ruby Left Hand Bull Sanchez holds a list of Rosebud Sioux whose bodies she and others are seeking to return home from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Carlisle was one of the largest and most well-known Indian boarding schools, where tribal children were forcibly taken, and stripped of their Indian identity and culture. Photographed at the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, Oct. 30, 2024.
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Part of a video presentation of life in Gaza before and after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, shown to an audience at Fiske Planetarium at CU Boulder. Media studies doctoral candidate Naim Aburaddi, center, seated, is a native of Gaza exploring new ways for audiences to explore life in his homeland.
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Gray weather: Looking at November rain through a car’s windshield in Denver, Nov. 4, 2024
Election Day Voters Aurora
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In Aurora, Abdulrahman Hassan, at left, helps his mother Maandeeq Barkhadle cast her ballot at the busy Centre Point polling station on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024.
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Republican candidate for Congress Gabe Evans, center, shares a light moment with supporter Allen Campbell, left, on Election Day evening, Nov. 5, 2024, at his watch party at Bella Sera Event Center in Brighton. Evans unseated Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s 8th District. More in Election Day in Colorado: What we saw.
CANINE COMPANIONS
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A moment of joy after a long, tense election season: Grayson Peterson, 5, a patient at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, plays fetch in a hallway next to his room with Canine Companions for Independence dogs Lemon, left, and Posey, Nov. 8, 2024. Both Labrador dogs are part of the hospital’s Child Life team.
CRICKET THORNTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
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Said Wali Nouri, a 6th grader, drives a ball into the outfield and prepares to run between wickets during a cricket game on the playground of Thornton Middle School on a chilly evening after class, Nov. 12, 2024.
CLUB Q LAWSUIT
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Adriana Vance speaks during a press conference Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, where lawyers announced a lawsuit against government officials and Club Q, two years after the mass shooting at the Colorado Springs nightclub. Her son, Raymond Green, was one of those killed in the shooting.
LINDSEY VONN RETURNS TO SKI RACING
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Steam rises off Lindsey Vonn’s back as she catches her breath in the finish area of the downhill race course at Copper Mountain, Colorado, Dec. 7, 2024. The 40-year-old former Olympian, who officially retired 5 years ago, started a bid to return to form this season at Copper Mountain.
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Nick Ray, left, and Juan Colon, of Colorado Geothermal Drilling, sinking one of two 400-feet-deep wells that will provide heat for the home being renovated by Jim and Hilary Denton in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. (Story coming in January.)
Colorado Matters Holiday Extravaganza 2024
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CPR Classical host Kabin Thomas serves as emcee for the 2024 Colorado Matters Holiday Extravaganza, Dec. 12, 2024 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver.
Colorado Matters Holiday Extravaganza 2024
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The 2024 Colorado Matters Holiday Extravaganza, Dec. 12, 2024 at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to correct a photo caption regarding the ongoing war in Gaza.

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