Winter in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado

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In December 2009, I traveled to Telluride, Colorado for work and was fortunate to have extra time to slip in some roadside photography. The San Juan Mountains are probably my favorite place to visit in Colorado and I particularly like the Telluride area. For this trip, I had a rental car and a tight schedule, so I was only able to get in a sunset and two sunrises along the roadside. And, the trip was a comedy of errors – forgotten gloves, ripped boots, a frozen tripod, and a lost wallet.  That made it more interesting, I guess.  I did find myself in a panic when I was trying to figure out how I could get back home with no money or credit cards - trying Western Union for the first time?  Luckily it didn’t come to that…    

After about six hours of driving, I ended up in Ridgway. I have explored most of the back roads of this area, but had never taken County Road 5 out of Ridgway, so I tried that first.  Since I was in a rental car, on a work trip, and the snow was pretty deep, I only went a little further than the plowed area, but saw enough to know that I will definitely return next time I am in the area. One main pull-off provided an expansive view of the valley down below and a sideways perspective on the Dallas Divide area.  Knowing this area was not looking productive for sunset, I headed over to the main Dallas Divide turnout off Highway 62.  Unlike many summer and fall evenings, I was completely alone except for the sound of cars whizzing by.  The sunset was punctuated by a series of puffy orange clouds, followed by purple twilight off to the west.   I’m going to process a few photos from that sunset when I get a better handle on image blending.

The next morning, I headed out of Ridgway to catch the sunrise on Dallas Divide. Considering that my tripod was frozen shut and the fence was perfectly in the way in any configuration that I tried, I ended up enjoying a stunning sunrise while only taking a few sharp shots. This was especially disappointing, since the sunrise was particularly vibrant and interesting. And, I managed to rip one of my winter boots as I scrambled around the ridge.  Heading into Telluride, backlit steam was rising from the partially frozen San Miguel River and was swirling up around trees covered in hoar frost. If there has ever been a morning where I wanted to skip out on work, it was this one. The responsible side of me prevailed and I continued into town and work responsibilities took over.

Although I had planned to head out to Wilson Mesa for sunset after finishing up my work project, my carelessness with my wallet prevented my from doing anything that evening. So, my plan for the next morning was to get an early start so I could head out to Wilson Mesa for sunrise, drive along Last Dollar Road, and get my rental car back home before the rental place closed for the weekend.

Because my car was covered in an impenetrable coat of ice and I always cut time too short in the first place, I enjoyed the sunrise from my car. I headed out of Telluride toward Lizard Head Pass on Highway 145. I stopped at a few places along the road, including a pullout just past the main Mount Wilson view.  This provided an nice viewpoint looking back over the mesas toward Telluride.

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I always enjoy the drive to Lizard Head Pass, especially seeing the peaks that frame Ice Lakes Basin to the east around Trout Lake. Despite the fact that it was deep in winter (and I was without appropriate gloves and with a ripped boot), seeing those peaks brought me right back to backpacking in Ice Lakes Basin among stunning wildflowers last summer.  Wrapping up my daydream, I headed on to one of my favorite places around Telluride, which is the Wilson Mesa area. Although most of the land is now owned by wealthy out-of-towners, most of the ranches are preserved and the area has some interesting historical character. There are lots of aspen bole fences and wide-open views, which makes for good time-crunched roadside photography. Some really interesting clouds were starting to form as I composed the photo below.

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With my time getting short, I planned to start heading home after quickly driving around Wilson Mesa. However, with the clouds getting more interesting with each minute, I decided to risk a weekend of paying for the rental car to stop along Last Dollar Road. I wish I would have been able to find a composition that minimized the places where the bushes converge with the horizon, but I am still happy with the photo below.

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As always, I had to push my luck with time and stop at Dallas Divide for one last shot. I am glad that I did, as my favorite photo from the trip is the last one I snapped (the first image with this post).   While I did darken the clouds a bit, all of the cotton-candy texture is natural, as is the sun lighting up the ridges and a few places on the peaks.  With the pressure of knowing that I would have to pay for a weekend of car rental time if I did not get back and my margin of error was long gone, I finally hit the road and had to leave one of the best cloud displays I have seen behind me for my seven hour drive back to home.  Still, my time was productive for a work trip!