Exiting Estes chamber chief springs into a new challenge

ESTES PARK — The 135-mile commute between Estes Park and her family’s home in Colorado Springs was taking a toll on Donna Carlson. Her husband and children didn’t want to move north. But Carlson, as executive director of the Estes Chamber of Commerce, couldn’t leave until she’d accomplished what she wanted.

And now she has.

“I loved being in Estes Park,” said Carlson, who was hired in April 2020 as the newly formed chamber’s first full-time leader — just in time to deal with a pandemic-fueled lockdown. “After about a year and a half of being away from my family, and living…