I won’t lie – when Colorado finally released its now very popular all-black license plate sometime last year, I was one of the first people in line to get one for my aging black sports car. That black-on-black look was just too clean and slick to pass up.

But over time, I started to feel as if the black plate was a bit too drab, matched with basic white lettering in a combination seen on so many other license plates around the world – hardly indistinguishable and hardly paying fair homage to the state I hold so dear to my heart, save the small white ‘COLORADO’ lettering on the top.

After all, Colorado’s ‘green mountain’ plates and the various iterations of them that have existed throughout the years are iconically Colorado, recognizable anywhere in the country that the road might take you.

Prior to my decision to go with the all-black plates, I had proudly donned the ‘Ski Country USA’ plates on my vehicle, and it served as a reminder of why I loved the place I called home every time I left my house behind.

But after years of that, I couldn’t fight the urge to go all-black, and while I didn’t notice it at the time, my vehicle lost a bit of the personality that I had come to love.

And I’d venture to say some of the 169,997 other drivers who had the all-black plate on their vehicle in 2023 might feel the same. The popularity of the all-black historical plate dwarfs the other 216 designs offered by Colorado, with exception of the standard ‘white mountains, green backdrop’ plate that gets issued by default. The runner-up non-default design in terms of popularity is found on less than half of the vehicles around the state compared to the all-black plates – the ‘Columbine’ plate, on 75,692 registered vehicles in 2023.

With this lingering resentment related to how my all-black plate had somehow stolen that ‘Colorado’ connection from my vehicle in mind, I was able to find a silver-lining in the moment that the engine of my aging black sports car suddenly exploded. Faced with repairs so expensive that they forced my hand to find a different vehicle altogether, I would at least have an excuse to revisit my license plate selection once again.

And without further ado, a new license plate design that simply screams Colorado caught my eye – the recently released 150th Anniversary License plate, the winner of a state-wide contest in the ‘over 13’ category that called on the public to create a new license plate design representing the state. With a color scheme of blue, yellow, and red, and featuring mountains, pickaxes, and the Colorado ‘C,’ selecting this plate for my new ride was a shoo-in.

And in the weeks that have followed since I made the switch, I’ve found that the sense of ‘Colorado pride’ I was missing each time I left my house behind with the all-black plates has returned. Once again, I see one more subtle reminder of why I love the Centennial State on a daily basis and every time, it indeed fills me up with Colorado pride.