Meet Greg Peterson of Downtown Estes Park, Colorado

Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Peterson.

Greg, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We had been visiting Estes Park for years and had always dreamed of living here. We got to know the previous owners of Wild Spirits Gallery during our many visits and when they decided to sell, they let us know to see if we might be interested. We were very interested, but they actually wound up signing a contract with another individual before we were able to get financing together. Over Memorial Day weekend, we decided last minute to come to Estes Park just to get away. One Sunday, we were walking through Downtown and went in the gallery just to visit. Judy, their employee, was on the phone and we overheard her giving our home phone number to someone. When we got off the phone, we asked her why she was giving our number out and she advised that the realtor handling the sale had heard we were in town and wanted to get in touch with us. We joked that he wasn’t going to be able to if he called our home number. We figured he just wanted to either thank us for our interest and let us know it was sold but thought it wouldn’t hurt to give him a call. When we went to visit with him, he indicated that the buyers were having trouble getting financing and wondered if we were still interested. We jumped at the chance, but there were several things that needed to happen in order for us to tie up loose ends at home (we had a family business) and we weren’t sure the owners would be willing to do extra to make it work. However, at the end of the week, we were meeting with the owners and before we could even ask, the owners started offering one by one each of the things we needed to make the purchase work. It was amazing! We signed papers at the end of the week, closed on the store on September 1, 2011, and the owners ran it for us until we were able to move out to Estes Park in October of that same year.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Owning the gallery has been amazing, but it has definitely not been a smooth road. In 2013, the flood happened and Estes Park was essentially cut off for several months. While we were able to keep the water out of the store, the roads were decimated, and tourists couldn’t come up. We were blessed by many people calling and ordering by phone and just telling us to “ship when we could.” FEMA provided financial support and the State of Colorado helped by allowing our employees to apply for unemployment until Estes got up and running again, which allowed us to survive. In August of 2016, I had a motorcycle accident that left me with a traumatic brain injury and unable to work for months, so my wife was alone in managing the gallery alone during busy season. Of course, everyone knows the challenges of COVID and being forced to close down and travel disrupted. Things were hard and everything was stressful and I wound up having two strokes as a result of the stress, again during busy season, leaving my wife to manage the gallery alone again. That was also the year that two of the largest fires in Colorado history converged on Estes Park and the enter town was evacuated. Finally, the construction of “the Loop” caused unexpected financial strain as many people stayed away from Downtown Estes during the main construction last year. God blessed us, though, and we have made it through all the difficulties.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We operate a gallery, gift and custom framing business in the heart of Downtown Estes Park. We specialize in photography and prints of paintings of wildlife and scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park, although we do have artwork from other areas too. Our main emphasis is carrying affordable art for everyone, so we generally deal in open edition prints rather than original artwork. We work with over 70 different artists, most being from Colorado, although others are nationally known or ones that we have discovered when we were on vacation and wanted in the gallery. We do almost all of the framing ourselves, which helps keep our artwork affordable. We pride ourselves in making quality artwork attainable for everyone.

We also offer custom framing services for people who want to bring their own prints in to have them framed or if they would rather have one our pictures framed differently than what’s in the gallery.

Back in 2019, we expanded the store to add a new store called “Bee Wild.” We carry a variety of honeys and honey related goodies, including honey from Savannah Bee Company, local Colorado honey, Hawaiian honey, and huckleberry products. We also have some fun, “wild” artwork in that area as well.

What matters most to you?
At the heart of our business is offering our customers quality artwork at an affordable price. We believe everyone deserves to have beautiful artwork in their home that they don’t have to pay a fortune for. We also have an amazing selection of gifts, including all of the fun honey products in our new area.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wildspiritsgalleryestespark.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildspiritsgallery

Image Credits
Featured Pictures: A Walk in the Woods by Stephen Lyman, Faith by Patrick Lundquist, Kodiak Brown Bear by Davies Babies, Samson and Winter Elk by Scott Pope