Wandering Wonders

Karen Jacot captures the hidden treasures nestled along Boulder’s 955 streets

By Kalene McCort  »  Photos by Karen Jacot

When looking to capture the essence of Boulder, many photographers seek trailheads and higher elevations to snap shots of dazzling vistas, shaded peaks and herds of frolicking deer.

Karen Jacot—a shutterbug with a background in publishing—shines a light on the clever, quirky and often overlooked beauty of Boulder’s residential and commercial areas with her 2021 release, “Rabbits in Driveway: A Different Boulder Photo Book.” 

In a time when cookie-cutter subdivisions are ample and HOAs are king, Jacot’s coffee-table book is a visual love letter to the innovative and offbeat aspects of homeownership and community, comprising 400 images of matchless finds, from free little libraries framed by sunflowers to a flock of plastic flamingos planted near a glistening airstream.  

A front door the shade of Barbie pink, a sun-kissed clothesline with a rainbow palette and a mural of an ocean wave are also among the fabulous finds in Jacot’s homage to a place she’s adored since the ‘90s. 

“I want people to see that there is interestingness in everyday things,” says Jacot. “I think Boulder is especially cute, but most places have interesting things about them if you’re looking for them.”

If it wasn’t for the pandemic, this publication may not have come into existence. When folks were experimenting with sourdough starters and staying balanced with online yoga classes, Jacot—an avid hiker—set off to explore her neighborhood to fight the boredom of quarantine.

“I walked streets that I had driven a lot, and I noticed things that I never noticed while driving,” says Jacot, who listened to the audiobook of “The Hunger Games” on her initial walks. “The first thing I noticed was mailboxes that people had decorated. There was so much interesting stuff that people had in their yards.”

She continued her daily walks but made sure to never leave the house without her Nikon D750. 

Soon, her landscape-focused Instagram, @yeahkaren, transitioned to feature more content from her ‘hood ventures. She uploaded the day’s finds in her Instagram Story and finished off the series of snaps with a visual map of her jaunt, allowing followers to take the same route and see her discoveries up close. 

When compiling her photo book, Jacot ended up selecting several hundred shots from a staggering 7,800 taken while walking all of Boulder’s 955 streets in less than a year. “Besides having a kid, this is the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” Jacot says. 

Among Jacot’s favorite images is a tree carving of Koi fish, by artist Lueb Popoff, which she stumbled upon on an uphill cul-de-sac. 

While these photos were only taken a few years ago, some of the praised landmarks have already gone away. In a sense, the 304-page book is somewhat of a time capsule—an ode to the zany and creative aspects of dwellings, side streets and residents not afraid to break from the norm. 

In the book, collectors can marvel at the intricate and eye-catching sculpture of over 100 household irons forming a pyramid, topped off with a set of real antlers. The installation, done by the late Cydd West, was a gem of the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park. 

Sometimes, Jacot would encounter a fellow walker curious about what she was photographing, but more often than not it was neighborhood pets that would garner her attention.

“I went through my photos and counted at least 87 individual cats,” Jacot says. 

A few felines appear in the book—which was published with the help of donations via a Kickstarter—and an image of a dog with its head poking through a fence’s peek-a-boo hole resides on the publication’s spine. 

Jacot would eventually love to explore other areas of Colorado and continue her quest for the unexpected and rare. “I keep thinking I would love to check out Denver,” Jacot says. “There’s a lot of cool stuff down there.”

“Rabbits in Driveway”—whose title is an homage to a caution sign Jacot spotted—has resonated with folks beyond the 25 square miles of Boulder. A man in Northern Macedonia bought the book and didn’t even hesitate to pay the $120 shipping cost. 

Copies can be found at The Boulder Bookstore and purchased from Jacot’s website: karenjacot.com.

In a world where smartphones are the preferred method of snapping quick pics, Jacot—a graduate of Boston’s New England School of Photography—says she often forgets that capability is even on her device. 

Yet, Jacot remains a fan of Instagram and the online inspiration it stirs. “The more people interested in photography, the better,” she says. 

As someone who has lived in an array of other cities, Jacot remains enamored by Boulder and continues to uncover its distinct character one walk at a time. “Boulder just feels like home to me,” Jacot says. “It feels right. I love the landscape. I love the mountains. I love the people.”