Living in Colorado comes with many benefits, one of my favorites is the access we have to the most beautiful scenery in the world! A short drive into the mountains one can find spectacular views in any direction. In the fall my favorite place is on the western slope of Colorado in the San Juan Mountains.
This year I took an extended weekend trip with 3 other ladies. We call ourselves The Pixel Chicks, because we share a passion for photography. It was an amazing 4 days of photo talk and finding the perfect shot.
We left Denver and headed west via Highway 285 to Buena Vista then caught Highway 50 to Gunnnison. Shortly there after we went south to Lake City. It was the first time I'd ever been to Lake City, what a great little town!
Our visit to Fall Creek was the first destination where I gingerly climbed jagged rocks while fully loaded with camera, tripod and gear. I stood at the edge to capture the best shot of the Falls. It wasn't an easy position to get to. There was a young man helping me navigate to a large flat rock nearest the edge. He had such a delightful accent, I asked him where he was from.
He said, "Ghanna."
I said, "you are a long way from home." "Yes" he replied, "8000 miles!"
"Welcome to Colorado" I said warmly.
"Thank you, there is a God." was his emotional reply.
Wow. How could I top that?
A few minutes later one of my secret wishes came true. Two cowboys were moving a herd of cattle across the range to a new location. I stopped to photograph them until they were finished. My favorite image was of them riding home with the yellow Aspen Trees in the back.
From Lake City we drove over Cinnamon Pass. To the uninformed this might seem like a "normal" route, but let me tell you it's not for the weak of heart! Cinnamon Pass is a 4-wheel drive road, made for high clearance vehicles only. I just bought a new car last month that qualified, well kind of it's all-wheel drive with high clearance. I was ready to test out my new car, because frankly I purchased this vehicle to do exactly what I was doing (in addition to showing homes to clients that is).
The rough road of Cinnamon Pass is 21 miles from Lake City to Ouray, how bad could it be? It was bad, but passable. The rocky road was described by my passenger Arina as being a "butt pucker!" She was a trouper, luckily for me because when the road got rough Arina jumped out to guide me over the boulders. Many times I couldn't see over the hood of the car, but she guided me well.
Cinnamon Pass treated us to wildlife. We saw Mountain Goats and Moose. While Mountain Goats are fairly common, Moose are not. Moose tend to live up high along streams. They are North America's largest animal and have no natural enemies.
Sadly my favorite zoom lens broke between the Cowboys and the Moose, so the only images I have of Bullwinkle are not all that close.
We reached the summit right at sundown. It was a good/bad thing because as we marveled in the beauty of the sunset, we worried about the trip down in the dark.
It was a long, treacherous ride but we were very careful. I missed a turn and didn't discover it until long past. I turned on my GPS and she kept telling us to "make a legal u-turn!" Since the road continued to improve, there wasn't a chance I would turn around to retrace our route, I knew what was behind me. Plowing forward was the better of two options.
Eventually we ended up in Silverton instead of Ouray. It's about 24 miles south of our destination, but once again we were on a paved highway!
I drove the paved road, also known as The Million Dollar Highway in the darkness. I knew the road well, it hugs the mountain on one side while the other side drops off to a seeminly bottomless pit, there are no guard rails, no street lights, just curves and darkness. I didn't mention this to my passenger nor to my friends following behind. I figured we would come back in the daytime to enjoy the marvelous Colorado scenery.
Day one of our trip was 16 hours of travel. We arrived at our hotel 9 p.m. in time to grab dinner and tuck in. The following three days we found more and more wonderful sights to photograph. I only took 1025 images over three days. It will be awhile before they are all processed, but in the meantime, enjoy the few in the slideshow!
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