In late 2000, I packed up my jeep and headed for a spot in the Uncompahgre Valley between Ouray and Ridgway, Colorado. I’d visited this beautiful area many times over the years and vowed to live there for a time if I had the chance. Well, I took that chance and spent all of 2001 and a few months of 2002 living, working, and photographing the beauty of the San Juan Mountains and the area around Ouray, Ridgeway, and Silverton, Colorado.
(Click to enlarge)
Ouray, Colorado
At the top of Black Bear Pass (12,000 feet) overlooking Telluride, CO
Fall in the San Juan Mountains
The beautiful Columbine flower
The San Juans
Fall in the San Juans
Glorious Aspens
There are four deer in this image.
At the top of Mt. Evans (14,000 ft).
I call this the lone cowboy.
The valley I lived in.
Near Sliverton, CO
Tom's Thoughts 
What a perfect theme for our internet re-connection, Tom!
I was thinking it had been a very long time since I had seen any posting from you, and was getting ready to write you and “inquire”… and here come these gorgeous photos of the land you were visiting at the time you and I first connected. Somehow it seems longer ago than 2000, but I’ll take your word for it!!!
I had left that general area (and the nearby Navajo Reservation where I lived and taught for many years) already ten years before 2001, but can never be too far removed from the glorious landscapes, so many of which you have photographically “captured” during your visits to the general (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming) area where I used to camp and hike and explore.
Thanks for the memories, brought back so vividly through your eyes and heart.
In loving spirit, Eleanor
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So many beautiful pictures. I wish I could do what you did, and spend a year or so in such beautiful surroundings, instead of driving like a maniac and trying to cover x number of parks in one week.
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