Isak Heartstone is a 15-foot wooden troll sculpture by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, tucked into the forest along Breckenridge, Colorado’s Trollstigen Trail. He’s made entirely from scrap wood and pallets, he’s free to visit, and getting to him takes less than five minutes of easy walking from the trailhead near the Stephen C. West Ice Arena. He’s also, depending on who in town you ask, either the best thing that ever happened to Breckenridge or the reason a neighborhood nearly revolted.
Who Is Isak Heartstone, Exactly?
Isak isn’t just another roadside oddity. He’s the work of Thomas Dambo, the Copenhagen-based artist who has built dozens of similar trolls during his career, made out of scrap wood as a way to demonstrate the importance of upcycling and reusing materials. Breckenridge got its troll in 2018, when Isak Heartstone was created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo for Breck Create as part of the Breckenridge International Festival of Arts, using locally sourced, recycled wood.
Volunteers did a lot of the heavy lifting here, literally. Dambo enlisted the help of local volunteers to collect scrap wood and pallets, along with pine branches found along the trail, and Isak was brought to life.
The name has a genuinely sweet backstory. The name Isak Heartstone comes from a pretty adorable story — Dambo always references someone involved in the creation of his art, thus the name Isak, and Heartstone refers to the stone heart that little girls from the Wellington neighborhood gave to Dambo to place into the sculpture. A few different accounts put the number of girls at three, but the gesture is the same either way — a handful of kids handed over a heart-shaped rock they found, and Dambo built him a little chest cavity to hold it.
The Troll Who Almost Got Torn Down
Here’s the part of the story that makes Isak more interesting than your average forest sculpture. He was originally installed in a spot near a quiet residential neighborhood, and almost immediately, he became a problem — a good problem, but a problem nonetheless. According to Dambo’s website, nearly 3,000 visitors a day were making their way to Isak’s home, which happened to be near a quiet neighborhood on the edge of Breckenridge.
Neighbors who signed up for mountain-town quiet did not sign up for thousands of daily visitors parking on their street, and the town council eventually agreed with them. After a 5-2 vote in the Breckenridge Town Council, the town decided to dismantle the artwork, and piece by piece, Isak came down early in the morning on November 15. Dambo himself found out about all of it from overseas: “I’m sitting back in Copenhagen and seeing this whole frenzy about the sculpture… there’s so many people coming to visit, it becomes a problem,” he said at the time.
But here’s the thing about trolls — people don’t let them go easily. The backlash to the removal was loud enough that the town backpedaled. Recognizing the obvious magnetism of Isak, the town said it planned on commissioning Dambo the next summer to reinstall the artwork in an area better suited for hordes of visitors. True to that promise, the people of Breckenridge missed Isak Heartstone so much that in the summer of 2019, while installing another project, Dambo took a detour to Breckenridge to reinstall Isak in a new location. A town spokesperson summed up the whole saga about as well as anyone could: “There’s certainly a lot of things to be learned from this situation, but we feel a kind of pride and amazement at what creative arts was able to do.”
Where Is Isak Heartstone Now?
Since 2019, Isak has lived in a much more sensible spot. He’s now settled on his current position on the Trollstigen Trail, where he continues to be a popular destination and photo-op. The trailhead sits right where you’d hope for something this popular — near the Stephen C. West Ice Arena at 189 Boreas Pass Road, with the Trollstigen Trailhead located in the southeast corner of the Ice Arena’s parking lot, often marked with troll footprints on the pavement.
One important heads-up before you go: don’t plan on driving right up and parking next to him. There is no troll parking near Isak Heartstone, so the town strongly encourages walking, biking, or taking public transportation. If you’re staying downtown, that’s genuinely no hardship. You can plan to either walk about 15 minutes from the Welcome Center, bike about 10 minutes, or take the free Breck Free Ride bus in about 5 minutes.
Once you’re at the trailhead, the actual walk is almost comically short. The Breckenridge troll hike is short, flat, and easy for all ages — it’s barely a hike, since you only have to walk about 400 feet to reach the troll from the parking area, in less than 5 minutes. That said, don’t let the short distance fool you into thinking it’s a nothing walk — even though it’s only a quick stroll in nature, you’re surrounded by pine trees and it’s a great setting.
The path itself works as a loop rather than an out-and-back. The path is meant to be hiked as a one-way loop because of its popularity, so after you reach the Breck troll, you’ll turn the corner and follow the loop back to the trailhead — though if you want to go further, you also have the option of continuing on the Illinois Creek Trail. If you’re the type who wants to turn a five-minute stroll into an actual outing, that connector trail is your move.
When Should You Visit?
Isak’s popularity hasn’t exactly cooled off since the whole 2018 controversy — if anything, social media has made him more of a bucket-list stop than ever. Isak is Breckenridge’s most popular outdoor art exhibit, so if you’re trying to have one-on-one time with the troll, it’s best to visit first thing in the morning before 10:00 a.m. or early evening after 5:00 p.m. One more practical note if you’re planning a winter trip: the Trollstigen Trail will not be maintained throughout the winter months, so check conditions before you bundle up and head out.
Also worth knowing if you’re bringing a drone for the perfect aerial shot — don’t. Drone photography and videography is prohibited at the site.
Why Isak Is Worth the Detour
Colorado has other Dambo trolls now — Rita the Rock Planter over in Victor being the other well-known one — but Isak was the original, and he’s the one with the drama attached. There’s something fitting about a giant folk-art troll built from other people’s trash becoming the center of a genuine town controversy about growth, tourism, and who gets to enjoy a piece of public art. Breckenridge learned the hard way that you can’t just drop a viral sculpture into a quiet cul-de-sac and expect nothing to happen. But they also learned that once a town falls in love with its troll, tearing him down just creates a bigger mess than leaving him up ever would have.
If you’re already in the mountains for skiing, hiking, or just wandering Main Street, the ten minutes it takes to see Isak is one of the easiest “why not” stops you’ll make all trip. Bring your camera, respect the no-parking rule, and leave the drone in the car.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
