DENVER After removing more than 130 traffic cameras around the state last summer, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has started a project to install new, state-managed cameras, including several in remote areas.

In September 2025, Denver7 began hearing from residents about the missing cameras, and reached out to CDOT to learn more about the issue. Charles Marsh, CDOT's northwest regional communications manager, explained that the department's contract with a third-party vendor expired in July 2025. The vendor operated 136 traffic cameras.

Read our previous in-depth story on this development below.

Ultimately, instead of working with another third party, CDOT decided to build and operate its own permanent, state-owned and state-managed camera system a process that was already underway back in September, Marsh told Denver7. That would start with replacing 66 of the original 136 cameras, he said, adding that the number was limited due to budget and infrastructure limitations.

In CDOT's press release Friday, it noted that only about 90 cameras were removed last summer. Denver7 is working to confirm which number is correct. We will update this story once we do.

Several of the new 66 cameras will go up in remote areas where people rely on them to view highway conditions, CDOT said. The department listened to public feedback when identifying where to place the new permanent cameras.

In the meantime, CDOT acknowledged that "coverage was critical" in some places, and travelers and residents needed a temporary fix. As a short-term and cost-effective solution, the department decided to position solar-powered cameras on existing infrastructure or portable trailers. That included Highway 40 on Berthoud Pass, Highway 40 on Rabbit Ears Pass, Highway 14 on Cameron Pass, Highway 133 on McClure Pass and the Nordic Center on Highway 65 in Mesa County.

In September, Denver7 received an email from one resident who was particularly concerned about the lack of cameras on Cameron Pass, which now has a temporary camera setup: "These are (or were) vital cameras near Cameron Pass, especially people who commute or work, using this major highway... Driving in the mountains can be dangerous, especially in the winter, and these cameras help us to know before we go."

In a press release issued on Friday, CDOT said it had started the installation project on Monday in south-central Colorado, specifically at the intersection of Highway 24 and Highway 285 at Antero Junction, as well as Highway 24 near Manitou Springs and Highway 67 near Cripple Creek.

Drivers won't feel major impacts from this, as most of the work will happen off of the roadway.

The 66 state-owned cameras are expected to be ready and live by fall 2027.

CDOT released the below map, which outlines where the new cameras will be installed. Click here to view the map in a new window.

However, travelers looking for insight on conditions on the roadways can still check COtrip.org by using the Road Conditions layer.

To find the Road Conditions layer on the map, go to COTrip.org, find the map, and locate the layers menu on the right side. Below is a screenshot of where to find this information.

CENTRAL CITY, Colo. A husband and wife, who were both Central City Fire Department firefighters, were found dead in their home Friday.

The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office identified the couple as Lt. Cody Allen, 29, and volunteer firefighter Shelby Allen, 27.

The Gilpin County Coroners Office determined Saturday the two died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. The couple's two dogs died in the home as well.

"You do not have two people more loved in the community," the family told Denver7.

Cody was recently hired full-time to the position of lieutenant with the department after being a volunteer since July 2009. Shelby was a volunteer firefighter since February 2016.

Both Cody and Shelby's families have been members of this community for many years. They grew up in Gilpin County, met, married two years ago and were looking forward to raising their family in Gilpin County, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The case remains under investigation.

A funeral service has been scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. The service is open to the public. The community can also view the service through a livestream on the Gilpin County Sheriff's Office Facebook page or at the Gilpin County Fairgrounds for a drive-in to view the service on two large video screens.

DENVER, Colo. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued multiple advisories for poor air quality because of several wildfires.

An Action Day for Particulates is in effect for the Front Range until at least 4 p.m. Wednesday. There could be moderate to heavy smoke with the heaviest smoke likely to be in Larimer and Weld counties because of the Cameron Peak Fire in Larimer County and the Mullen Fire in southern Wyoming.

CDPHE issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for northeastern Colorado including Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington and Yuma counties until 4 p.m. Wednesday. They expect smoke to be slow to decrease, especially for locations along the Platte River Valley.

Another Air Quality Health Advisory is in effect until 9 a.m. Thursday for Grand, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties. This area is also seeing smoke from the Williams Fork Fire. Shifts in wind direction will bring the possibility for heavy smoke through Thursday morning.

CDPHE also issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for Routt and Jackson counties until 9 a.m. Thursday.

Poor air quality particularly impacts the very young and the elderly as well as anyone who has conditions like heart disease and respiratory illnesses. Air quality is forecast to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the Denver, Boulder and Greeley areas and the most serious in Fort Collins. CDPHE tracks the latest Smoke Outlook here. If smoke becomes thick, consider limiting outdoor activities. For more information about smoke and your health, visit this website.

The black and white photo demands attention.

Its a self-portrait of Scott Wilson. Against a black background, hes standing with his arms crossed in front of his bare chest, his hands in tight fists. His face shows the gentle strength that comes with a fight long fought.

But perhaps the most striking part of the image is the long scar across his abdomen, with the word SURVIVOR written above it in marker.

Wilson, a 52-year-old professional photographer originally from Scotland but now in Greenwood Village, has been battling stage 4 colorectal cancer and an extreme skin sensitivity to sunlight from his treatment since he was diagnosed in August 2016.

On an afternoon in early January, he held up the 17x22 black and white photo in his home studio.

I have to be honest at first, I felt a little bit awkward, he said about the portrait, which he took during the summer of 2019. I'm sort of standing there and baring my soul and baring everything, including my scars. But I think, through time, I've really grown to recognize its power and its strength in actually giving other people hope. Ive gotten over any misgivings Ive had about it. I'm very proud of it.

After about 100 takes with a self-timer, he got the shot he wanted.

He said he was moved to take the photo after attending a convention for colorectal survivors and fighters, and meeting a 17-year-old boy with stage 4 colorectal cancer.

I don't usually get angry about cancer, he said. I certainly don't get angry about myself having cancer. But I came home and I was angry, and I just wanted to do something that showed my defiance and would hopefully give hope to other people.

Before he took the photo, he asked his daughter to write SURVIVOR above the scar from his liver resection.

It's funny enough a lot of people have said since, You've really got to get that tattoo, he said, laughing. My wife said it's not happening, but I might surprise her one day.

Against massive odds, he completed his chemotherapy and now undergoes immunotherapy, also known as maintenance treatments, to keep the cancer cells at bay.

He published the photo on his website and social media, in hopes of inspiring people going through their own battles. His son, 18 at the time, described the photo as badass, Wilson said, wiping a tear.

Wilsons photography is more than just something pretty to look at. The images have prompted emotion that Wilson couldnt have predicted, and even encouraged one woman who had been fighting colorectal cancer in secret for nine months to open up to her family and friends about her diagnosis and upcoming surgery.

That was life-changing for her and absolutely emotionally charged for me to hear that kind of reaction to my photography, he said.

The woman keeps the portrait on her refrigerator as a source of inspiration through her treatment and the two regularly talk on Facebook, he said.

I think if youre surviving cancer, you have a duty to pass along hope, Wilson said.

And he does that, through his snapshots of life, even when his grueling cancer treatment nearly took photography away from him.

The first push to try photography came when Wilson was almost 30 years old as he washed dishes in his home about 20 miles outside of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

From the sink, he looked up out the window and saw two pairs of eyes staring back at him. Two deer. A normal experience for a Coloradoan, but an unusual and exhilarating one for Wilson.

He blurted out, Darling, wheres my camera? to the confusion of his wife. She knew, as did he, that he didnt actually own one. But it was an instinctual reaction, like some motor inside him gently rumbling to life. Like a sign from the universe.

Thats the moment I realized I really wanted to start to capture some of the sights and sounds around me, he said.

And start he did. Over the course of more than a dozen years, he taught himself the buttons and dials and features of a camera, perfecting the craft to the point of earning a spot among the finalists in the UK Landscape Photographer of the Year competition four times in four years.

All the while, he was working remotely for a beer company based out of Colorado.

In August 2015, after he was offered a job at its headquarters, he, along with his wife and their two children, moved across the Atlantic and found a home near Cherry Creek State Park.

As a landscape photographer, the opportunity to explore Colorado was just absolutely fantastic, he said. We were so excited. The family came over for a little pre-trip before we moved, and everybody fell in love with the state so quickly.

They were breathing in their new home, exploring the far stretches, tourist spots, and hidden corners of Colorado. Gobbling up the beauty. And then, about a year after they had first arrived a bitter discovery in a doctors office.

The words flew around the doctors office at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center.

Colorectal cancer.

Stage 4.

Metastasis to his liver.

Survival rate 10%.

Photography immediately fell to the wayside. Wilson talked with his oncologist, who explained there was a treatment program available for him. It would involve 40 weeks of aggressive chemotherapy.

He learned it is one of the most preventable cancers, but also the second-most deadly.

He began treatment in October 2016.

Chemotherapy comes with all kinds of challenging side effects. The specific chemo Wilsons oncologist recommended included a drug called panitumumab. As it keeps cancer cells at bay, it also breaks down the skins immune system, causing irritation when exposed to sunlight.

Honestly, when youre trying to beat cancer, youll take anything thats going to help you stay alive, Wilson said. Its a small price to pay.

Keeping some sort of normalcy for his kids was, and continues to be, a priority, he said.

All through my treatment, I continued to attend every single sports event, he said. I was just covered in a facemask and a big hat, but I didn't want to miss any events and just help them live as normal of a life as possible.

He said he also wants to ensure theyre never afraid of getting screened because it is such a preventable disease when caught early.

The survival rate of stage 1 is something like 90 percent, so obviously getting ahead of that is preferable, he said. Getting screened, getting early this is a survivable disease. I just happened to be very lucky, at stage 4, to be in this position.

Today hes more of an advocate than a patient, though he still gets a dose of panitumumab in immunotherapy every two to three weeks, so he continues to have sensitivity to sunlight.

Theres no end for the treatment in sight, as of now. Stage 4 long-term survival is so new that doctors are still figuring out how to treat patients and ensure the cancer doesnt come back, Wilson said.

He said the number of people who stay on the treatment and reach remission, like him, is about equal to the number of people who stop treatment and reach remission.

We're probably decades away from that being an exact science, he said.

The cancer diagnosis changed much of Wilsons life and the panitumumabs effects threw a wrench into his normal routine for photography.

Suddenly, my landscape pursuits were a little more difficult and my energy was a little bit lower with the chemotherapy, he said.

But the idea of setting aside his photography passion through the chemotherapy was emotionally daunting, he said. So, it wasnt long before his photography pursuits crept back into his mind, even though he knew he couldnt be in sunlight.

I was determined to shoot, he said.

But he faced a few challenges he started to experience neuropathy, or numbness, in his fingertips (though a drop of paint on the camera shutter fixed this, creating an abrasive surface to feel). His energy levels were low from the chemotherapy. And of course, he couldn't be in sunlight.

Then something clicked: If he couldnt go outside to take photos, he wouldnt have to be outside, technically speaking. Many Colorado Parks and Wildlife parks have road systems that could allow him to stay in his car and shoot from inside. He could drive in, park and set up to photograph, all within the shade of his car.

Wilson quickly found photographing from the car was more difficult for the landscape shoots he was accustomed to it, but it opened the door to wildlife photography.

It wasnt perfect, but it was fulfilling enough. And in some ways, staying inside the car came with a few unanticipated benefits.

For one, animals seemed more inclined to stray closer to a still car than a moving person. Its like a portable hide, Wilson said.

And two, he had the convenience in the lull of activity to retreat into the back of the car. Often, hed come home from six hours of grueling treatment and head to Rocky Mountain National Park, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal or Cherry Creek State Park. And between shoots, hed think.

It sounds like a gloomy situation sitting alone, often in the middle of nowhere, all too aware of the internal fight in his body.

Many people say, How can you sit for hours in your car thinking about stage 4 cancer? he said. The experience is the opposite for me. It was a real place to escape and enjoy nature. I find in those dwell times when I was waiting for something to happen I was writing my story. I was actually taking notes and working on my phone and et cetera and came home in the evening and transcribed what Id written in the car. And that basically became the book.

Hed built a portfolio of wildlife photography and all the while, wanted to do something to help the colorectal cancer community. Those ideas rolled into one with Through the Window.

In partnership with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, he launched a book that was part-photography, part-cancer story in August 2017.

Despite his bleak diagnosis, Wilson said readers wont find one negative sentence in the entire book. In fact, the first line reads, Im a lucky guy.

In addition to his cancer story, the book is filled with the wildlife pictures he shot from within the car throughout his chemotherapy. He used, and still does use, what he described as a glorified bean bag to stabilize the camera lens on the open window of his car. Then he turns the car off to reduce vibration and shoots.

In total, the Through the Window has raised more than $40,000 for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.

If Through the Window helps even one cancer sufferer to brighten up their journey, or accelerates one piece of research by even a fraction of one percent, then I will live a happy man, Wilson said.

True to his word, the book is nothing but positivity. It acknowledges the shock of a cancer diagnosis, but holds onto hope of a bright future. Theres even a little wit and humor in it.

Screening and early detection could save your life, especially if your family has a history of colon cancer, so stick a camera where the sun dont shine! Wilson wrote. It could be the most important image youve ever taken.

After Through the Window was published, Wilson made a new push this time, aimed at the Colorado legislature.

Currently, the standard age for a colon cancer screening in Colorado is 50. Wilson is pushing for a bill titled HB20-1103, Colorado Cancer Screening Coverage that would lower the screening age for colorectal cancer from 50 down to 45.

Im a very live example of that, he said. I was diagnosed at 48. Had I been screened properly at 45, we wouldnt be sitting here talking about stage 4 cancer. I think thats a really important message to get out to people get screened and get screened early.

He said the bill being signed into law would be a step in the right direction, but educating the public about why they should take advantage of it is a whole other issue to tackle.

They need to know to get screened, he said. Theres a massive education and awareness job to still be done. There are too many people who are already eligible to be screened who arent being screened. People need to put their own screenings first to prevent cancer from happening.

The bill still has a long way to go before it lands on the governors desk.

On Jan. 29, Wilson testified about his support for HB20-1103. Later that day, it passed in the House Health & Insurance Committee.

But its just the first hurdle.

Next stop is appropriations, Wilson explained. There are very few implications to the state budget so hopefully thats a clear path. Then it will go for a full vote in the House, hopefully well get the support there. Then its the same process again in the Senate. Of course, well need the governor to sign off in the end.

Were not celebrating yet, he said. We still have a long way to go.

Fifteen of Wilsons favorite shots, including his black and white portrait, are now on display for the public to see at one of the few photo galleries in Denver.

The Robert Anderson Gallery sits in a building built in 1910 along E. Colfax Avenue, next to the Bluebird Theater. It still has its original floor and ceiling.

Robert Anderson, the gallery owner, is hosting a show called Photographers Favorites, which has a grand opening on Feb. 7 from 5-8 p.m. Anderson, who had been in the medical field for years before retiring to work with photo galleries, said the show features his favorite photographers most beloved pieces.

Anderson and Wilson met because Anderson was searching for a photographer to feature in his gallery, and Wilson was looking for gallery space to show his work. It wasnt until Anderson asked for a small artists bio on Wilson that he learned about the cancer diagnosis.

Robert explained his history as chair of internal medicine at UC Anschutz, Wilson said. He knew nearly everybody who had treated me from oncology through surgery through my cancer journey. The relationship literally just blossomed from there. An amazing conjunction.

Anderson said he knows Wilsons surgeon and oncologist quite well. He saw the latter move up the ranks from intern to resident to a young faculty member, he said.

I told him, Youre in great hands, Anderson said.

And he would know. He had worked at CU Anschutz Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City for many years before he opened the photo gallery along E. Colfax Avenue in 2018.

Anderson said Wilson is one of his favorite photographers because his work is unique and technically superb.

It covers a lot of range from beautiful flowers, to big horn sheep crashing, to wild horses thundering, to a truck full of pumpkins in the snow. Lots of themes, he said. You put it together and its hard to beat the package.

He said the black and white self-portrait of Wilson is a great addition to the gallery.

That image of Scott, once you know his story and what hes been through resolve, power, determination, Anderson said, holding up his arms in the same position. Its a human story about somebody whos faced tremendous adversity and has been strong through it.

In addition to the portrait, visitors can see photos by Wilson from all over Colorado and beyond.

Along one wall hangs a photo of Maroon Bells. Gone are the golden aspens, the warmth of fall colors and the bright sky. When Wilson captured this shot, it had rained for three days straight and fog hung heavy below the peaks. He was alone on the typically busy shore when he snapped the dark and dreary photo. Hed later title it Bells in Mist.

Guests can also see unique photos of Denvers skyline, a once-in-a-lifetime shot of the Eiffel Tower, a beloved picture of Picasso, the wild mustang of the Sand Wash Basin, and more.

Oh, its not that cold.

Wilson knelt on Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, which was well frozen over, on the last day of January. Snow whipped down the nearby mountains and rolled across the lake like a snowy tumbleweed. With the wind chill, it was -8 degrees.

And there was Wilson sitting in the middle of the dark blue lake, where snow had not yet covered the thick ice. He focused the camera on long cracks in the ice that shot out from a central point, like lightning in a stormy sky. It would be the foreground, he explained.

I love snow as a landscape enhancer, he said. So winter is a brilliant scene for me.

He was bundled in multiple layers, for both warmth and to protect his skin from the sun. He set up his tripod low to the ice of Bear Lake. A few adjustments. A scooch to the right a little more. And a snap of the shutter.

Theyre not award-winning shots, he said, but rather nice captures of a beautiful landscape. And sometimes, thats enough. The experience, the thrill of the art of reality in front of him its enough.

Besides, so much is still waiting to be found and framed in his viewfinder.

You can never say youve completed Colorado, Wilson said. The wildlife, the landscape. I would love to get a picture of a mountain lion, I would love to get a bobcat. I havent been to Telluride. Its endless. I havent even scratched the surface. That journey has miles and years to go.