Colorado Life Magazine June-July 2024 by Flagship Publishing

JUNE/JULY 2024

Charles

Keep Colorado Wild

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FEATURES

West Side Waters

This Colorado photographer has a knack for capturing Rocky Mountain National Park’s most remote waterways. by Tom Hess photography by James Frank

Living the S uite Life

Visit seven of Colorado’s most luxurious suites reserved for once-in-a-lifetime celebrations and scenic getaways. by Leah M. Charney

Colorado Through Rockey’s Eyes

Known for its artists and creatives, Manitou Springs honors one of their best in a painter’s home and studio on Cañon Avenue. by Eric Peterson

Zebulon Pike and India Wood explore the same trails and lands across Colorado, facing different obstacles centuries apart. by India H. Wood

Publisher & Executive Editor

Chris Amundson

Associate Publisher

Angela Amundson

Design

Hernán Sosa

Jennifer Stevens

Senior Editor Tom Hess

Production Assistants

Victoria Finlayson

Lauren Warring

Advertising Sales

Sarah Smith

Marilyn Koponen

Subscription Services

Carol Butler, Janice Sudbeck

FROM TOP: JAMES FRANK, JACK RICHMOND, RYAN ERNSTES

ON OUR COVER

Colorado columbine grows along the trail to Fifth Lake on a rainy summer afternoon in Rocky Mountain National Park. Story begins on page 18.

PHOTOGRPAH BY JAMES FRANK

Dunton Springs, pg. 26

Palisade, pg. 54

Aspen, pg. 26

Walden, pg. 66

Grand Lake, pg. 18

Boulder, pg. 16

Vail, pg. 26

Hartsel, pg. 48

Divide, pg. 60

Longmont, pg. 10

Denver, pg. 10, 26

Ironton, pg. 64

Durango, pg. 54

Colorado Springs, pg. 26

Silver Cliff, pg. 10

Manzanola, pg. 48

10 Sluice Box

Silver Cliff harbors a mysterious dome off Highway 96; Denver International Airport’s concourses feature local artists; Highland Ranch photographer wins Denver Audubon Society’s award for a mother mink shot; only one paper stands after a 116-year rivalry between two Colorado newspapers.

Prove you’re a trivia buff and answer these questions about alumni of CU Boulder. Answers on page 62. No peeking!

Heat up your grill for these summer recipes.

Colorado poets revel at the mountains we explore and call home.

54 Go. See. Do.

Enjoy peach-flavored yogurt, beer, coffee and more in Palisade; board a train in Durango for an intimate blues concert; and more events across the state.

60 Camping

Hikers and equestrian riders traverse more than 50 miles of trails dotted with 1800s homesteads at Mueller State Park.

64 Peak Pixels

Red Mountain Pass rewards drivers and photographers as they slow down along its winding roads.

66 Top Take

The waters at Lake Agnes became still enough for a mirror-like reflection.

Colorado Life Magazine PO Box 270130 Fort Collins, CO 80527 970-480-0148

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SLUICE BOX

NUGGETS AND OBSERVATIONS

ABOUT LIFE IN COLORADO

The curious case of Silver Cliff’s dome

story by LISA TRUESDALE photographs by DEB ADAMS

First-time visitors to the tiny town of Silver Cliff almost always have the same two questions as they pass by the huge white dome along Highway 96: One, “What the heck is that?” (It’s a bar.) And two, “What was it before?” (A bar.)

Charlie Behrendt, a Silver Cliff native, launched an ambitious plan when he was only in his mid-20s. He wanted to open a local watering hole, where working people could come by after their shifts and just relax and enjoy themselves. Also, he really, really wanted it to be housed in a geodesic dome – simply because he was fascinated with domes.

Charlie ignored all the friends and family asking, “Are you sure you know

what you’re doing?” He also tried to forget a certain high school math teacher, who thought Charlie wouldn’t amount to much of anything.

Charlie built numerous dome models out of straws, matchsticks, anything he could find, then bought a mail-order dome-building kit. He recruited friends and local workers to help him construct it, little by little over the next few years, as they continued working other jobs.

When the dome was finally up, Charlie got to work on the interior, which he was determined to make as unique as the exterior. He sourced a fallen piece of beetle killed pine that was native to the valley and sent it off to Old Colorado City to be handcrafted into the 40-foot bar top that’s still being used – and admired – today. To complement the distinctive bar, he

commissioned local furniture maker Ken Wisecup to make matching wooden tables and chairs. The distinctive bar stools, designed and built by Charlie’s friend Mike Colgate, were added in 2009, in celebration of the bar’s 25th anniversary.

The Silver Dome Saloon opened for business on July 4, 1984, when Charlie was just 29 years old. He was reportedly so excited and nervous serving his first customer that his hand was shaking as he passed the pint of beer across the bar. Charlie has been running the place ever since, along with his wife, Mary, sometimes their two grown sons and several long-time staff members.

For 40 years now, the bar has been a wellknown gathering place for residents and an interesting pit stop for those just passing through. Hundreds of customers have written funny or inspirational messages on

Airport art lifts spirits of fliers

by TOM HESS

Alyssum Skjeie is a marathoner, a quilter and a mom. Running builds endurance and quilting fosters creativity – activities that help her and her husband in parenting her toddler, and in coordinating the rotating art exhibits at Denver International Airport.

Because the exhibits come and go, Skjeie is always on the lookout for new Colorado exhibitors. She visits Denver-area art museums with her counterpart, Samantha Weston, who manages the permanent collection. Skjeie is especially fond of their visits to the Clyfford Still Museum, in part because of the people she meets there.

A current exhibit, “14ers,” features local watercolor artist Mike Wilson. He’s painted an aerial view of 53 of Colorado’s highest peaks and donated them to the Cottonwood Institute, a Denver-based non-profit that brings environmental education and service learning to youth. The paintings appear on Concourse A, next to the Bridge walkway. The exhibition ends Sept. 30.

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dollar bills that are tacked to the walls and shelves behind the bar, and they excitedly point to their own on return visits. Mary’s not sure how that tradition started – “It’s just a thing,” she said – and even if she wanted to stop it, she knows she probably couldn’t.

Until the pandemic temporarily shut the bar down in March 2020, it had been open for an impressive 13,041 consecutive days. After the Behrendts reopened, the streak began anew, and they celebrated 40 years in business on July 4.

“I may not have excelled in high school math, but I guess I knew my spherical trigonometry,” Charlie said. “I don’t know how I pulled it off. I guess I had something to prove.”

As it turns out, he was right to ignore those warnings. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Another current exhibit, “Creatively Remade: Upcycled Art and Design,” is spread across the airport – Ansbacher Hall, Baggage Claim, Concourses B and C. The exhibit “breathes life” into discarded objects. Among the artists is Denver’s Heidi Calega, who began during COVID to create portraits and mosaics from trash. Skjeie is always looking for new artists. She must. Art at DEN is always changing, just in time for new seasons, vacations and travel for Denver fliers.

The Silver Dome Saloon attracts both curious visitors and regular locals with its unique exterior and lively interior.

Colorado quilts adorned Level 6 North, before A Bridge security, at DEN.

DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Mother mink brings kits breakfast

ON THE DAY that the American mink mother emerged from her watery, rocky shelter in Longmont, Highlands Ranch photographer Will Shieh crouched at its eye level and captured an award-winning image of her carrying a freshly caught northern crayfish to her litter of kits.

Mink eat fish, birds and their eggs, insects, crabs, clams, small mammals and crayfish. Shieh set up his equipment at sunrise and watched mother mink submerge herself in the pond and emerge with breakfast for her family.

The mink moved fast enough under the lower light conditions that Shieh needed to shoot a blistering 30 frames per second with his Sony mirrorless camera to capture the action. He didn’t know until later what shots he would find on his memory card. He ended up deleting nearly all the images, but as he scrolled through one shot after another, he finally saw one worth processing – mother mink carrying the crayfish.

Normally skittish, the mink came the closest she’d ever been to Shieh – about 30 yards. She also was holding the largest crayfish he’d seen her catch, and she appeared to be staring straight at the camera to give the image a personal touch.

Shieh submitted the photo to Denver Audubon Society’s 2023 Share the View International Nature Photography Contest, where it won Colorado Life Magazine’s Colorado Nature Award.

Submissions for the 2024 Share the View contest will open Oct. 15. Learn more at sharetheview.contestvenue.com.

This photo was shot with a SONY ILCE-1 camera with a 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens, shot at 368mm at f/6.3 for 1/1600 sec, ISO 800.

Photographer Will Shieh of Highlands Ranch captured this photo of a mink with a northern crayfish to win Colorado Life Magazine’s Colorado Nature Award at Share the View photo contest.

photograph by WILL SHIEH story by TOM HESS

Two newspapers duel for Denver press

by LISA TRUESDALE

“Goodbye, Colorado.”

That sad and ominous headline of the Rocky Mountain News on February 27, 2009, marked the end of the newspaper’s run of nearly 150 years – with 116 of those years spent in fierce competition with the Denver Post.

Ken J. Ward grew up in Colorado, and the battle between the two papers so fascinated him that he wrote his doctoral dissertation about it. Now an assistant professor of multimedia journalism at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, he used his dissertation as the basis for his new book, Last Paper Standing: A Century of Competition Between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.

“I remember the excesses of this competition from my time growing up in Hugo,” Ward said. “Massive, inexpensive copies of the Rocky and Post, chock-full of fascinating stories and photos, were everywhere, and we had no idea how good we had it until it was gone. It’s important to remember what journalism used to look like in Colorado, not to celebrate it but to get a better sense of where we are today.”

Ward doesn’t glorify nor vilify either side in the feud, despite the fact that the Post’s Frederick Bonfils attacked and beat the News’ Thomas Patterson in 1907, after Patterson called Bonfils a “blackmailer” in a cartoon. Instead, he carefully chronicles the history of both papers, beginning in 1859 when the News was formed, mostly to educate readers about the most and least favorable places in the area to search for their gold fortunes.

He then explains in attentive detail the strategies both publications used in their long and storied competition with each other, what led to their Joint Operating Agreement in 2001 and why the News finally gave up and folded in 2009. He also touches upon how the Post has fared since, in a time when fake news has been running rampant and newspapers continue to disappear around the country.

“Denver journalism is a shell of what it was a decade ago,” he wrote in the book. “But as news organizations finally begin to adopt business models that are profitable in today’s digital-centric media ecosystem, there is reason to hold out hope that better times will come.”

Last Paper Standing by Ken J. Ward University Press of Colorado 271 pp., hardcover, $51

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TRIVIA COLORADO

ALUMNI

Test your knowledge on these CU Boulder alumni. by BEN KITCHEN

1 What trombonist who disappeared over the English Channel during World War II briefly attended Colorado, but dropped out after three semesters? The campus is home to a ballroom named for him. You can visit it if you’re in the mood.

As you could probably tell by his last name and the fact that he was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, alum Steuart Walton is a member of the Board of Directors of what major corporation?

3 The short story “Collision Orbit” by Jack Williamson (who got his Ph.D. at CU) makes the first known use of what word Merriam-Webster defines as, “to transform (a planet, moon, etc.) so that it is suitable for supporting human life?”

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf got her B.A. from Colorado in 1970, 36 years before she became president of what West African nation? For

promoting women’s rights, she was named a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

Alongside Paul Simon, Colorado alum Dave Grusin won a Grammy for writing the score to what movie? Grusin does not have a writing credit on “The Sound of Silence.”

Nestled in the Estes Park valley, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, our custom studio has been crafting unique fine jewelry since 1976.

GENERAL

GLENN J. ASAKAWA/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO NASA

MULTIPLE CHOICE

After appearing as one of the title characters on Two and a Half Men, what actor went on to pursue a degree at Colorado, though it’s unclear whether he finished it?

a. Angus T. Jones

b. Charlie Sheen

c. Jon Cryer

Chauncey Billups was born in Denver and played basketball at Colorado, even getting his number retired there. He’s still active in the NBA, serving as head coach for what Northwest Division team?

a. Denver Nuggets

b. Minnesota Timberwolves

c. Portland Trail Blazers

8 Of the three astronauts who flew on the Apollo 13 mission, which one attended CU? Later in life, he was elected to the House of Representatives serving Colorado but died of cancer shortly after the election.

a. Fred Haise

b. Jack Swigert

c. Jim Lovell

Colorado alum and NFL player turned Supreme Court Justice Byron White had a life full of impressive accomplishments, but which of the following facts about him is false?

a. He served as a Supreme Court Justice for over 30 years

b. He was a Rhodes Scholar

c. He won the 1937 Heisman Trophy

10 Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman are both CU alums. They’re probably best known for being the two members of what group, named for a Colorado area code?

a. 3OH!3

b. 72OH!

c. 97OH! TRUE OR FALSE

At the 26th Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Story went to Ian McLellan Hunter, and at the 29th, the prize went to Robert Rich. These were both pseudonyms for former CU attendee Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted at the time for being a Communist.

While she was still a sophomore at Colorado, Louisville native Nicole Fox was named the winner of cycle 13 of Survivor

13 At Colorado, scientist Erin Macdonald majored in both astrophysics and math. Nowadays, she’s putting her degrees to good use – according to her website, she “is currently the science consultant to the entire Star Trek franchise.”

14 Though Colorado has produced more than 200 NFL players, none of them have been drafted by the Broncos, though many later went on to play in Denver.

15 Fictional people can attend CU, too! Two characters from the Breaking Bad universe did – Gale Boetticher dropped out of a CU Ph.D. program, and Kim Wexler got one of her degrees from Colorado.

No peeking, answers on page 62.

the splendor of the Rockies at Aspen Winds. The secluded setting along Fall River offers a relaxing atmosphere among the aspen and pines. Aspen Winds is located

MITZI TRUMBO/COURTESY SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS

Haynach Lakes nestle between Nakai Peak and Sprague Mountain on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. To reach the remote lakes, photographer James Frank rises early for seven to nine mile hikes through Colorado’s deep wilderness.

Nestled deep in the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, these beautiful lakes and rivers reward a strenuous hike.

story by TOM HESS photographs by JAMES FRANK

FOR A PLACE of significance to millions of people, the drive to the headwaters of the American West’s most coveted river is surprisingly remote and uncrowded.

Thirteen miles off Colorado State Highway 14, at the end of the unpaved Long Draw Road (National Forest System Road 156), is an unassuming marsh known as La Poudre Pass Lake.

That marsh, located just inside the northern border of Rocky Mountain National Park, is the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River. Those waters, fed by major tributaries downstream, quench the thirst of much of the southwestern U.S. and, through diversion projects, sustain eastern Colorado farms and ranches.

There is plenty of water over the high-mountain divide from Colorado’s populous Front Range. The western side of Rocky Mountain National Park includes more than a hundred lakes. The most remote are among the most scenic, carved out by glaciers, their waters reflecting the jagged peaks that remain. Trails provide moderate to difficult access, but it takes all day to reach them.

The 2020 East Troublesome and Cameron fires burned 30,000 acres of the park, about nine percent of its total area. Hikes on trails to remote park lakes lead visitors in and out of burned areas where torched trees open a wider range of views. But the snow still comes, the snowmelt flowing into lakes, streams and waterfalls.

A 300-foot-high ridge separates Lake Nokoni and Lake Nanita, in separate basins but at the same altitude – 10,780 feet –along the North Inlet Trail that begins near Grand Lake. Hikers find Nokoni first with rock slabs along its eastern shore. Another mile is the Nanita with views of Andrews Peak to the east and the Ptarmigan Mountain to the west. The two alpine lakes each offer wildflower gardens: columbine, Indian paintbrush forget-me-nots, larkspur, lupine, harebell and monkshood. These views require an eight-and-a-half hour hike up on average, gear for overnight camping and an awareness of wildlife.

The remote lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park’s west side so mesmerized a longtime park photographer, he would rise hours before daybreak to capture the

Hikes along Rocky Mountain’s west side trails reveal columbines near Fifth Lake, waterfalls from the North Inlet and moose bubbles in the Kawuneeche Valley.

sunrise on the waters. He would hike up to 10 miles with as many as three cameras and 45 pounds of gear and food in his backpack – hoping he wouldn’t encounter the animal he feared most.

“If I leave at 3 or 4 a.m. I can be at the lake at sunrise,” said James Frank of Loveland, formerly of Estes Park. “It’s dark, I’m wearing a headlamp, thinking, gee, I hope I don’t meet a moose.”

About 95 percent of the park’s 415 square miles is designated wilderness. It’s not uncommon to meet wildlife along the trails. Gray-bearded and bespectacled, Frank is all of 5 feet, 11 inches and a fit 170 pounds. A bull moose grows up to 7 feet tall and 1,600 pounds. So, when Frank encountered a bull moose on a west side trail, he took action that saved him from injury, or worse.

“The moose was 30 yards away on the trail, in a very steep section, so I went down, lower than he was, off the trail,” Frank said. “I stood behind a tree, about five to 10 yards away, and he gave me a sideways glance. ‘Dude, good thing you got out of my way,’ is what that look said to me.”

James turns 71 in October, so he’s less inclined these days to make the long hike to his favorite west side spots, Lake Nokoni and Nanita. At his age, Frank is willing to consider hiring llamas to help carry the next load.

James remembers the hike that ignited his passion for Rocky waters, back in the last days of film cameras in the 1990s. He hiked from Wild Basin, south of Estes Park, six miles west to Thunder Lake and on to Boulder-Grand Pass, where he saw sunlight gleaming from a string of pearls: the glacially carved lakes Verna, Spirit, Fourth and Fifth.

Lately, he’s preferred a closer, fine art approach: long-exposure shots of creeks and waterfalls. He photographs the moving waters when the light is low and chooses a slow shutter speed with a two to five second exposure. The water appears as a silky blanket, flowing over the rocks and off boulders.

These west side waters continue to mesmerize hikers who trek through Rocky Mountain National Park’s remote trails. For Frank, it’s a familiar and welcome hike to visit his Rocky Mountain pearls.

In 2020, the East Troublesome Fire burned over 30,000 acres of the park. Hikers weave through recovering areas, visit

Little Buckaroo Ranch Barn

reach Ptarmigan Mountain across Lake Nanita. WEST

For photographers like James Frank, the long hikes are worth the views: low-hanging clouds and fog along Milner Pass at the Continental Divide.

LIVING THE SUITE LIFE

by LEAH M. CHARNEY

The restored 19th-century Bathhouse at

is one of a variety of unique and exclusive experiences enjoyed by guests of Colorado’s luxury accommodations.

Dunton Hot Springs

JACK RICHMOND

Urban and rural, mountain and prairie, Front Range and Western Slope – Colorado has no shortage of topnotch accommodations with a strong sense of place. Colorado’s reputation as a premier destination has only increased in the decades since movie stars and moguls made their mark on towns like Aspen and Telluride.

So, what does luxury look like across the state? Below we showcase seven of the state’s top hotel suites, from those whose nightly rates rival monthly mortgage payments to spots where opulence is semi-accessible. Though not a definitive list of every suite in the state, it’s a glimpse at how the other half lives –and how you can, too.

ASPEN

Jerome B. Wheeler Presidential Suite, Hotel Jerome Hotel Jerome, Auberge Resorts Collection has long been referred to as “Aspen’s living room” by locals and travelers alike. Known to be an exclusive playground for celebrities, it has become increasingly popular with guests in the tech industry and performing arts.

“There is no better town that I know of that is so small, so naturally beautiful and so culturally rich,” General Manager Patrick Davila said. Jerome’s reputation as the social center of Aspen has only grown with these demographic shifts. This also extends to the property’s diverse suite offerings, including the suite in highest demand: The Jerome B. Wheeler Presidential Suite, which overlooks Aspen Mountain Ski Resort’s namesake peak.

But it’s not the photo-ready panorama and sumptuousness of the suite (or the corresponding costs, as rack rates can be upwards of $7,500 a night in peak season) that is most intriguing at Hotel Jerome – it’s how guests use the space. A

growing number of presidential guests use the Wheeler Room, the third floor’s antique hardwood dining room, as an exclusive entertaining space. Owing especially to the Jerome’s central location, these pop-in patrons eschew overnight accommodations and instead ask the property to cultivate custom events lasting only a few hours at a time.

Hotel staff delights in these “unique, nimble and unprescribed” experiences for all guests. Davila arranged sushi omakase flown in from New York City and a select tasting of Colorado whiskeys with its own Certified Whiskey Specialist. There are many perks to booking the Presidential Suite as a party spot, but perhaps the best is that hosts can leave whenever they want, leaving the cleanup to someone else.

The Wheeler’s south-facing living room windows overlook Aspen Mountain – sometimes called “Ajax” – centers both hotel and party guests alike. From this vantage point, the natural beauty merges with Hotel Jerome’s energy and the rich music, arts and culinary scenes that extend into the town beyond.

AUBERGE RESORTS COLLECTION

Guests staying in the Jerome B. Wheeler Presidential Suite at Hotel Jerome savor views of Aspen Mountain from their suite’s intimate dining area and enjoy a decadent experience at Prospect, the hotel’s signature restaurant.

Presidential Suite

DENVER

Presidential Suite, Halcyon Potential employees are always asked one question in their interviews: “On a scale of 1-10, how weird do you think you are and why?” To ensure staff members can challenge themselves to give each guest a memorable experience, the hotel employs this “weird” interview style at the Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek.

Despite these techniques, the Halcyon experience is anything but weird. The Presidential Suite – with private street level entry, a vast outdoor patio complete with a telescope for stargazing and a 150-squarefoot shower – is often what seals the deal for the independent thinkers who opt for this boutique hotel’s suite life. Collaborations with arts and culture venues like Denver Botanic Gardens mean guests not only get complimentary passes, but they also might run into the performers who play at the Gardens’ summer concert series and also stay at Halcyon.

Those musicians often stay in the Presidential Suite, which can be reconfigured to add a second and third bedroom and includes a secret interior entrance and exit

as well as a semi-private elevator.

The most memorable suite guests aren’t the national touring acts or the celebrities who have hosted baby showers, but the non-famous Denver couple who approached the hotel about helping them host a secret wedding. The couple, who had been together for years, set up a formal, black tie cocktail party for both sides of their family. Their guests assumed that they were about to witness a long-awaited proposal and buzzed with excitement.

To cover the true meaning behind the party, Halcyon staff covered the suite’s windows with vinyl decals to make them look like stained glass and set up an area for photographs. Guests arrived and mingled inside, unaware that hiding behind the vinyl were chairs and an altar set up on the near 600-square-foot outdoor terrace. A staff member even got ordained to marry the couple. The wedding was a surprise worth the wait.

“We get paid to make people happy,” said Clinton Heil, general manager of hotel operations.

“As long as we’re not breaking the law and it’s ethically, morally, okay, it’s never a ‘no.’ ”

HALCYON

The

at Denver’s Halcyon includes a Peloton bike, an oversized soaking tub and a secret interior entrance. The hotel’s Gear Garage hosts a collection of adventure amenities, including a Piaggio Fly 50 that guests can ride to nearby parks.

VAIL

Blue Sky Presidential Suite, Grand Hyatt Vail

When Kym Nunan-Squier decided to upgrade a repeat guest to the Blue Sky Presidential Suite at Grand Hyatt Vail, she didn’t think much beyond the fact that the room was available and this was the fifth time the man and his son were coming to ski over the 2023-2024 ski season.

What she couldn’t have known was that the man was having a horrible week: He was in the midst of a stressful remodel and his father had just died. “He went through this laundry list of terrible things,” Nunan-Squier said. Every time she saw him after, she noticed how his body language had shifted, reminding her of Maya Angelou’s quote about how people may forget what you say, “but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

There are a lot of memories attached to the Blue Sky, especially since it’s booked

as often by families for their reunions as it is by couples who use the room to get ready on their wedding days. The Blue Sky is large but intimate, known for great photography lighting and two balconies for capturing life-changing moments. There’s a tub that Nunan-Squier described as “made to get lost in”: guests can slide into the bath and live as royalty.

Nunan-Squier will never forget one memorable bride who came to the lobby carrying her gown. Tears streamed down her face as she showed the security tag still attached to the dress that had been shipped all the way from the East Coast. Staff tried magnets and many internet suggestions, but the tag only successfully detached after an engineer hit it with a hammer, leaving a hole in the dress. Nunan-Squier went up to the room with her sewing kit to hand-stitch the hole closed, leaving none the wiser and making yet another memory in the Blue Sky.

GRAND HYATT VAIL

The largest of Grand Hyatt Vail’s suites, the two-bedroom Blue Sky Presidential spans 1,860 square feet and features a massive master bathroom, a double-sided gas fireplace and three balconies overlooking Gore Creek.

GRAND HYATT VAIL

COLORADO SPRINGS

The Penrose Suite, The Broadmoor

“Ms. Crawford is a star and should be treated as such,” the telegram read at the end of the first paragraph. It was the early 1960s and Joan Crawford, winner of the 1946 Best Actress Oscar for Mildred Pierce, was coming for a two-day stay in the Penrose Suite. Her management had wired a list of requests for the hotel, such as painting the suite a specific shade of white. “Ms. Crawford is a star and should be treated as such,” the management note stated a second time. Vodka should be placed in every room so her ice cubes might never run dry, because, as the final line also repeated, “Ms. Crawford is a star and should be treated as such.”

Decades later, The Broadmoor continues to serve celebrities, seated and past U.S. Presidents and other dignitaries alongside families and foreign tourists. Memory and legacy are part of the allure, said Resident Manager Ann Alba, who first started at the property as a banquet server 37 years ago. The Joan Crawford story has always stuck with Alba, who continues to do “whatever is required, so long as it isn’t illegal, immoral or life-threatening.”

From arrival to departure, Alba pays attention to her guests and finds ways to make each visit special. One family has stayed in the Penrose for the past five generations every summer. “People get attached to these suites, newer or older,” Alba said. “No matter what we build and how bright and shiny that something is, you cannot pull them from the main suites and the Penrose in particular.”

The suite is named for co-founder Julie Penrose, who made this her residence from 1944 until 1957. Together with husband Spencer, the Penroses made their mark on Colorado Springs and beyond. The Pikes Peak Highway, Penrose Memorial Hospital, El Pomar Foundation and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo are among their many legacies that continue to shape modern day Colorado. Though the Penroses knew The Broadmoor was something special when they opened it in June 1918, they might not have realized that 106 years later it would continue to attract family generations and Hollywood royalty.

DENVER

Premier One-Bedroom Suite, Four Seasons

The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Denver and EDGE Restaurant & Bar are both among the highest-rated in their respective categories. Yet families are often the focus of the brand’s legendary service and offerings at the hotel: Children’s menus are standard for the 24-hour in-room dining, and the hotel provides complimentary kid-friendly snacks and tents for indoor “glamping” adventures.

The Premier One-Bedroom Suite is the favorite among families, especially for small gatherings and birthday celebrations. Locals like to host cake and pizza, enjoy the third-floor heated pool and book their teens for pedicures at the spa. Beyond the roomy collective spaces or the extra rollaway bed the staff adds for overnight guests, the suite also offers unobstructed views of

the Denver skyline and the Rocky Mountains beyond. These vistas are visible from every room – even the bathroom.

“One of my favorite guests was a family who was doing a cross-country road trip,” said Hotel Manager Tim Churchmack, who remembered how the family had initially only booked a single night. After their arrival – and using amenities like the rooftop pool terrace and child-sized bathrobes – they extended their stay into five nights and explored more of Colorado via day trips to the mountains and Rocky Mountain National Park.

“A few weeks later, on their way back home, they called us and said instead of staying south for the return drive, they re-routed to Denver so they could have a few more nights!” Churchmack said. Churchmack and his team focus on wowing all guests, including the littlest luxury travelers.

Once the home of Mrs. Julie Penrose, the Penrose Suite at the Broadmoor drips in vintage class. Those staying at Four Seasons Hotel Denver dine on locally sourced fare from chef Craig Dryhurst at EDGE Restaurant & Bar.

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL DENVER

THE BROADMOOR

VAIL

Vail Mountain Suite, Sonnenalp Hotel

“Gemütlichkeit means a feeling of warmth and welcome,” said Victor Rossi, who has spent the past 24 years as Chief Concierge at Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail. This singular German word “sums up what we try to convey every time a guest walks in the door,” Rossi said.

This philosophy makes perfect sense for a property where the European atmosphere intentionally matches the aesthetic of Vail Village. Repeat guests often tell Rossi that he feels like a member of their extended family. This intimacy also includes direct access to the hotel’s owner, whose office is located off the main lobby. Even celebrities like the actor Jim Carrey, who checked in under the pseudonym “Johnny Pineapple,” was eventually asked whether he’d like to be referred to as “Johnny” instead of “Mr. Pineapple.”

Of the 127 accommodations at Sonnenalp – “sun on the mountain” in German – 112 are suites, nearly all rooms named for

nearby locales like Bald Mountain, Castle Peak and Gore Creek.

But it’s the Vail Mountain Suite, which faces the namesake mountain, that is Rossi’s favorite: “If you were going to design your own two-bedroom apartment, you’d want it to be like this.” Natural light streams into the living room, which was built for entertaining around the fireplace. The German-style patio doors open completely for outdoor access or partially to let in only the fresh air. The heated marble floors are especially beloved in the winter months.

Sonnenalp guests engage the ski concierge service in winter to have rentals brought directly to them. The popular snowshoe tours are offered thanks to a special-use permit granted by the U.S. Forest Service. But Rossi’s favorite season is summer because of his own affinity for hiking and mountain biking and the “sheer diversity of activities available,” both on the property and in the Vail Valley beyond.

The goal is for guests to find Gemütlichkeit, no matter the time of year.

or late night

Sunlight illuminates the Vail Mountain Suite’s 1,350 square feet, including its two bedrooms – one king and two doubles. The master bathroom offers heated marble floor with a large soaking tub and separate shower. Guests enjoy private dinners

snacks in the living room next to a gas log fireplace.

SONNENALP

DUNTON

Well House Cabin at Dunton Hot Springs

Nestled in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains is a cluster of hand-hewn, historic and now-luxurious log cabins in the 1885 mining ghost town of Dunton Hot Springs.

Located a little more than an hour’s drive from Telluride, Dunton attracts celebrity travelers. The secluded location charmed Netflix series Emily in Paris actress Lily Collins (daughter of Genesis lead singer Phil). It’s here that she wed The One I Love director Charlie McDowell (son of award-winning actors Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell) in 2021. Dunton likewise appealed to adventurous women who arrived by cross-country skiing.

The couple that runs Dunton, Edoardo and Christina Rossi, is experienced in hosting remote destinations. Christina’s favorite guest stories involve families, like the parents from Mexico whose daughter had never seen snow.

“The dad called (and continued calling often) prior to their visit, asking if we had snow, if there would be snow, could we guarantee snow,” said Rossi, who began to get nervous as the family’s arrival approached, and the wet, white stuff was nowhere to be found. The family arrived late in the afternoon and, luckily, when they awoke the next morning, a massive snowstorm had moved in overnight. Rossi awoke to find the family out on the deck of the saloon “shoveling snow because they were just so excited to see it!”

The most requested cabin at the former Dolores County ghost town is Well House, 450 square feet that accommodate two. That’s because a good portion of the cabin includes an indoor hot spring, just steps from the bed, with a mountain view out the windows. Guests simply turn the valve handle and hot spring water pours directly into the large stone tub.

Rustic luxury plus private hot springs? Now that’s the suite life.

There are several ways to experience the Dunton hot springs: within the restored Bathhouse, at the outdoor pool beside the Bathhouse or at the springs themselves. Well House Cabin guests can enjoy a soak in their private stone tub filled with hot spring water.

JACK RICHMOND

ROCKEY ART MUSEUM

Manitou Springs painter Charles Rockey made art from his heart, and didn’t care about money.

by ERIC PETERSON

ROCKEY ART MUSEUM

Left and above: Rockey Art Museum houses Charles Rockey’s home and studio, where he painted over 1,000 artworks of his adopted hometown, Manitou Springs.

CHARLES ROCKEY

CHARLES ROCKEY LOVED to play a simple trick on the people who visited his art studio in the heart of Manitou Springs.

Now affectionately called getting “magicalized” by those who knew him, he’d ask people to look into an ornately framed mirror on the wall while he fidgeted for a secret button – that didn’t exist – until two hands appeared in the frame.

The magic? There was no mirror, just an opening into the next room. The “magic” was the viewer’s childlike giggle and surprise from their own “through the looking-glass” moment.

Rockey had a way of seeing the magic in the mundane.

His home and studio of more than four decades now serve as the Rockey Art Museum. The mirror is still there for visitors to get magicalized. The walls are clad in his paintings, a mix of fantastic creatures, portraits and landscapes.

Rockey settled in Manitou Springs in 1972 after a divorce, and soon purchased

the historic three-story building that now houses the museum for $17,000. Over the next 47 years, he painted almost 1,000 landscapes of the town he dearly loved at the foot of Pikes Peak.

“Manitou’s a very paintable place,” said David Ball, the museum’s special projects manager and co-designer of Rockey’s 2015 book, Love Songs of Middle Time. “It has plenty of historic buildings and many of those are next to Fountain Creek that runs through town. With mountains surrounding Manitou on three sides, there are all kinds of interesting scenes to paint. The town has a lot of character.”

For decades, Rockey would often take a walk and set up his easel to capture a different perspective. “You literally walk out the back of the building, you look this way, there’s a picture,” Ball said. “You go up on top of the hill, you look down on the alley, there’s another picture.”

Floyd Tunson, a Manitou Springs-based artist, knew Rockey for more than 40 years as a friend, neighbor and creative peer.

For almost 50 years, Rockey created paintings, wrote fantastical stories and crafted intricate displays in his home and studio on Cañon Avenue. His paintings not only detail the town’s character but showcase its setting below Pikes Peak.

ROCKEY ART MUSEUM

“Manitou’s a very paintable place … The town has a lot of character.”

David Ball, Rockey Art Museum’s special projects manager

Branding Rockey “a quintessential Manitouan,” Tunson said he was a local fixture: You could round any corner in town, and there was Rockey, brush in hand. “He was always out doing plein-air painting. Charlie was all over the place. You could go anywhere and catch Charlie Rockey out working,” Tunson said.

The resulting works capture intricate details and expansive panoramas. Rockey likened Manitou Springs to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and it shows in his ethereal paintings of the town’s nooks and crannies. He often sketched and painted the Wheeler Town Clock, topped with a statue of the Greek goddess of eternal youth, Hebe, just outside the museum’s front window.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1932, Rockey grew up in Evergreen, Colorado. He attended the Chicago Art Institute, served a stint in the U.S. Army and earned a pair of art degrees, then worked as a middle-school art teacher in Colorado Springs for 30 years before retiring to focus on his art full-time.

Profit motive had nothing to do with Rockey’s prolific career. He abhorred the commercialization of art, and he often preferred to lend out his paintings rather than sell them. Rockey did have several sold out one-man shows in Manitou. Even so, his retirement from teaching was his main source of income and his expenses were notably low. Ball called Rockey “a very frugal guy.”

Rockey’s philosophy was inspired by one of his artistic heroes, Vincent Van Gogh, who, he said, didn’t just paint what he saw, he painted what he felt. He was always aware of the possible distortion of art by the influence of money. In a 2015 interview with KRCC, a Colorado Springs radio station, Rockey said, “Art and money don’t mix, I mean they really don’t. If you’re painting to make money, then the artwork is going to lose out. I painted because I had to paint.”

Several Manitou Spring businesses are still among the recipients of Rockey’s art loans, including Adam’s Mountain Cafe and

ROCKEY ART MUSEUM

the Cliff House Hotel. Adam’s Mountain Cafe owner Farley McDonough said that Rockey’s works have hung on her restaurant’s walls since the 1990s. “There was no discussion of selling any of the work. It was literally just being hung for the community,” McDonough said. “He had no desire or taste for attaching any monetary value to his artwork, so he wouldn’t even talk about it.

“Anytime that Rockey decided where a piece was going to go, it was because he trusted that you were going to honor the artwork for the artwork, not for the monetary value of what it could be.”

McDonough said the paintings are a portal into the past. “It’s very comforting to look at it and see Manitou, but you’re also seeing Manitou the way that it was 30 years ago.

“It’s funny. People eat here and not say anything about them or maybe they don’t notice them. And other people come and seek me out and they’re like, ‘I feel like I’m eating in a fine art museum. How can I be sitting amongst these incredible pieces of fine art while I’m eating a burrito?’ ”

Rockey was something of a study in contrast to himself. Tunson spoke of how the artist’s grizzled appearance sometimes gave people the wrong impression. During an art show in downtown Colorado Springs, Rockey looked like he sprung from the pages of a fantasy novel.

A passing family was shaken by his appearance. “One parent grabbed her kid and said, ‘Don’t go over there!’ ” Tunson laughed.

Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Rockey often challenged assumptions at first glance throughout his art, from hidden figures, faces and meanings in fantasy pieces to exaggerated self-portraits of his famously prominent nose.

Rockey would sometimes dress as a wizard for Halloween and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. He would position a paper mache sculpture of an old woman in a chair behind him. Children thought she was a witch, but books don’t always match the cover. Rockey would tell them that she was actually a kind soul, pointing out how tenderly she held her stuffed pet opossum in her lap.

The old woman is now part of the Rockey Art Museum’s collection, at the bottom

of a staircase at the back of the studio. The story is one of many memories that keeps Rockey’s magic alive.

Rockey was a man with many stories, often sharing his tales with passersby and visitors as he sat outside his studio or painted just inside the window. The town planned a concert in the spring of 2019 to honor Rockey when he passed a few weeks prior at the age of 87. The concert quickly became part of his memorial as the community mourned the loss of a beloved artist.

The studio and home remain mostly the same. His favorite hats and walking sticks hang inside the front door, right where Rockey had them. A hulking sculpture of Zebulon Pike reigns over the

room decked in frames and furnishings sculpted of special “goop” he fashioned himself. There are crusty old palettes with miniature mountains of multicolored oil paints and other detritus of a hardworking artist scattered throughout the house.

The museum captures his evolution as a man and as an artist. Like a time capsule, the studio and museum is a monument to an unforgettable Colorado artist. The museum takes visitors along Rockey’s long and winding journey from magical realms to Manitou Springs and back.

Rockey Art Museum is located at 10 Cañon Ave. in Manitou Springs. It is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday. rockeyartmuseum.org

JOSHUA HARDIN

“If you’re painting to make money, then the artwork is going to lose out. I painted because I had to paint.”

Charles Rockey

Rockey’s mischief and magic continue to enchant the community of Manitou Springs. His work can be found at the Rockey Art Museum and in his 246-page book, Love Songs of Middle Time.

ROCKEY ART MUSEUM

ROCKY ART MUSEUM

CHARLES ROCKEY

Grill, baby, grill Bring the heat

Put your grill to work with these sweet and savory dishes

Crecipes and photographs by DANELLE McCOLLUM

ELEBRATE SUMMER GRILLING with fresh, sizzling recipes hot off the grill. From juicy steaks to vibrant veggies, explore delicious dishes that elevate outdoor dining. Every char, sizzle and sear is sure to make these creations your new summer staples.

Grilled Jalapeño Lime Flank Steak

Keep a flank steak in the freezer ready for weekend grilling or busy weekday nights. Even with as little as two hours of marinade time, this flank steak makes an amazing filling for tacos, and is perfect for a steak salad.

Season the steak with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, to taste. Place steak in shallow glass pan. Add the remaining ingredients into food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Pour the marinade over the steak, turning to coat all sides. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to 24 hours.

Grill steak over medium high heat for four to six minutes per side, or until desired doneness is reached. Let stand for five to 10 minutes before slicing thinly against the grain. Serve with additional sliced jalapeño, chopped cilantro and lime juice, if desired.

11/2-2

lbs flank steak

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp lime zest

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1-2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

Pepper to taste

Ser ves 4-6

Potato Chip Crusted Grilled Corn

Eating grilled corn that’s covered in mayonnaise and sour cream is messy, but well worth it. If you prefer a neater presentation, cut off the grilled kernels, stir in the mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle the potato chips on top.

In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, cilantro, spices and lime juice. Set aside. Place crushed potato chips in large, shallow dish. Brush corn with vegetable oil. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Place corn on grill and cook over medium high heat, covered, for 12-15 minutes, turning often, until tender.

When cool enough to handle, spread corn cobs with mayonnaise mixture, then roll in potato chips. Serve immediately.

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp lime juice

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

6-8 ears corn on the cob, husks removed

1 cup finely crushed sour cream and onion potato chips

Ser ves 6-8

What’s

in Your Recipe Box?

We are interested in featuring your favorite family recipes. Send them (and memories inspired by your recipes) to editor@coloradolifemag.com.

Grilled Sesame Chicken Kabob

The baste and marinating liquid for these kabobs is a sweet and savory blend of apricot preserves, soy sauce and spices that goes perfectly with both the meat and vegetables. Add extra pineapple, and a side of rice for a complete meal.

In a large bowl, combine broth, soy sauce, onions, preserves, oil, garlic, ginger, hot pepper sauce and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. Reserve and refrigerate 1/3 cup of marinade for basting.

Pour remaining marinade into large resealable plastic bag; add chicken. Seal and refrigerate for two to three hours or overnight, turning occasionally. Drain and discard marinade from chicken.

On metal or soaked wooden skewers, thread chicken, peppers, onion and pineapple. Grill, uncovered, over medium heat for six minutes; baste with reserved marinade. Grill five to 10 minutes longer or until meat juices run clear, turning and basting frequently.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

1/3 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 green onions, chopped

3 Tbsp apricot preser ves

1 Tbsp canola oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp minced fresh ginger root

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce

1 Tbsp sesame seeds toasted, divided

1½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 fresh pineapple peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces

Ser ves 6-8

An CollectionAmazing of Colorado Artists

From chamber music to flamenco guitar, we have over 8 concerts this summer

Radio shows and 10 min plays 4 showings

Live music, live art, every first Friday from June–Sept.

Still Feellin’ Groovy–A show reliving the 60’s and 70’s

Over 12 art classes, every Tue. thru Sept. 356

e grandeur of a bygone era awaits you at Rosemount in Pueblo! Built in 1893, this 37-room, 24,000 square-foot mansion was the family home of prominent businessman John A. atcher and his family. Take a guided tour of the mansion, and step back in time.

Open February-December

Tuesday-Saturday • 10 am–2:30 pm

COLORADO POETRY

OUR STATE THROUGH THE WORDS OF OUR POETS

From red to snow-capped to green-shaded peaks, Colorado’s mountains stand tall as resolute towers. Our Colorado poets bask in the glory of our mountains, telling of the giants’ reverence, stillness, solitude and reprieve.

Valleys vs. Mountains

Cher L. Tom, Palisade

Valley people look up at stars

Mountain dwellers touch them

Streets encircle roundabouts

While mountaineers press new paths

One bootprint at a time.

Crag Crest dances in my dreams

Its boulders colored with fragrant flowers

Peeking from rock-crumbled foundations.

Hurry, hurry, today won’t wait.

I have to climb until I can’t

Blue glitters of the lake below

Stir memories that the crest is near

The air is pure and thin unlike the valleys down there.

Perspective

Nancy Cummins Bierman, Littleton

Just this once look up

Beyond the busy city streets

To see, however distantly

Eternal peaks

Graced with crowns

Of sparkling snow

To comprehend their majesty

Demands some distance

And a momentary pause

To feel their pulse

Requires connection

The pretty postcard view

Won’t do

It takes time

To climb a winding trail

Feet slip, legs ache, breath comes hard

But the reward…

Oh yes!

The mountain hosts abundant life

Jumbled boulders where pale lichen cling

Elfin wildflowers tougher than

The twisted limber pines

That yield at altitude to tundra

Yield to reveal

An expansive scene

As if the prairie to the east

Has climbed with you

And stretched itself to rest

In glaring ineffectual sun

Scan the horizon

Turn your face into the wind

See how the raven claims

This cold, bright land

And watch in awe as other peaks

Hold hands and dance a magic ring

Far above those busy city streets

JACK BRAUER

To the Top

Blythe-Anne Leidig, Estes Park

Destination above the trees mind full of expectation heart covered with joy.

Breezes blow through the night the moon’s light upon the mountain clouds engulfed us at times.

Beside me walked a brother scrambling, pulling, pounding hearts, rubber legs, until the summit.

We stood, joined by sweat and blood amid a victory embrace!

Hikerado’s Mountain Tops

Ben Humphrey, Boulder

Snowcapped or bare scratching low flying clouds.

Hemming the horizon pointed ribbon of white

With our eyes or our feet, we capture those peaks.

Hinting

Nathan McNally, Elizabeth

Sublime beauty of mountain peaks enthrall and bid me ascend.

Hinting to God’s view.

Then descending to the solid swells of this grassy sea.

SEND YOUR POEMS on the theme “Bounty” for the September/October 2024 issue, deadline Aug. 1, and “Dark Skies” for the November/December 2024 issue, deadline Sept. 1. Email your poems to poetry@coloradolife.com or mail to address at the front of this magazine.

Lowlander High

Suzanne

Lee, Littleton

At twelve thousand feet, lowlanders begin to dream out loud, imagine floating away from leaden feet, springing from snow field to craggy peak inebriated by fantasies of boundless oxygen. Each step breathes effort and the wonders of illusion.

Among mammoth scattered stones lichen-starred, in a thin grove of wind-carved fir, I am surrounded in a moment by elk. Many elk. Elk tough enough to climb this high. Elk with antlers like Christmas trees.

I glance at them secretly from the corners of my eyes, wishing to be polite, wishing to be in tropic seas eluding woman-eating sharks or in Asian jungles evading the embrace of amorous cobras, wishing I wasn’t wearing a succulent spring green shirt and cargo pants of a delicious willow branch brown.

I breathe deeply. Lowlanders do up here. I stay very still. A preposterous elk, taller than Pike’s Peak, considers me from six feet away. Breathe, I tell myself. No hope here of leaping boulders in a single bound or of swarming up a tree like Tarzan. The trees are shorter than the elk.

Think peaceable, invisible thoughts.

The wizened pine nuzzling my motionless boot may be two hundred years old. It hasn’t been eaten yet. Think longevity. The tender flower in the roots of the bonsai pine hasn’t been eaten. This is good.

I look up. The elk have disappeared, but I can hear them chewing.

MARYANNE NELSON

A Colorado hiker watches closely as a summer storm expands across the mountains, covering the land in speckled shadows.

MY HIKE WITH

Pike

Facing one obstacle after another, Boulder hiker follows in explorer Zebulon Pike’s footsteps

by INDIA H. WOOD

Using Pike’s maps, Gaia GPS and a state atlas, India Wood retraced explorer Zebulon Pike’s 1806 route across South Park to Buena Vista. RYAN ERNSTES

The South Platte River weaves lazily through Park County, an unmapped region that Zebulon Pike explored by following its waters.

In 2020, India H. Wood of Boulder embarked on a 730-mile hike from Colorado’s southeast to northwest corners –recounting her journey in the May/June 2022

Colorado Life story “Going Diagonal.”

Two years later, Wood traveled nearly 750 miles across the southwestto-northeast diagonal and told the story of her adventures in “Going Diagonal: Part II” in the July/August 2023 issue. Now she reflects on traversing the same trails that Colorado explorer Zebulon Pike navigated almost 220 years ago.

THE GREAT MOUNTAIN ABOVE Fountain Creek was called Tava for thousands of years before it was renamed after a 27-year-old Army lieutenant, the first Anglo American to document the region. Zebulon Pike rode up the Arkansas River in 1806 to what is now Pueblo, attempted to climb the peak, then continued past Cañon City to South Park and beyond.

My own expedition across Colorado intersected his and was also a first: hiking an X across the state. I completed the southeast to northwest diagonal in 2020 and northeast to southwest in 2022, and Pikes Peak was my lighthouse for more than 100 miles on each diagonal.

Zebulon and I walked the same lands along the Arkansas River from La Junta to Pueblo and across Park County, but much had changed in 216 years. Pike had only Arrowsmith’s then-renowned map of North America, the Colorado region a blank. I had the Gaia Topo app and the Benchmark state atlas but no gun. What could go wrong for me in this civilized world?

“VOILÀ UN SAVAGE,” Zebulon Pike’s French guide cried out near the future Manzanola on Nov. 22, 1806, having sighted Native Americans as Pike’s small team of U.S. soldiers made its way along the Arkansas River.

I would have said the same thing, “Voilà un savage,” in Manzanola on June 2, 2020, as I hiked along the Arkansas on my first diagonal. I had set up my tent behind an abandoned farmworker’s cottage with the permission of Rainy Melgosa, who also owned the creaky wooden-floored Manzanola Trading Co., founded in 1869.

I stirred my supper of dried tofu, peppers and pasta on my Pocket Rocket stove and observed a man drive to a neglected house just over a low wire fence from my tent. My hackles rose as he fumbled himself out of the pickup truck and let rip a burp. I scurried behind a tree and cursed at my blue tent that he would see in seconds and hop the fence after me, but the man staggered behind his truck, took an endless pee and stumbled into the house. I breathed deep and slow behind the tree for a few minutes, then resumed cooking with shaking hands. I kept my can of Mace (“shoots 18 feet!”) handy.

Pike, in contrast, was well-armed and had 15 men with him to reckon with the locals. His published journal recounted what Baronie had alerted Pike to: “We found them to be 60 warriors, half with firearms, and half with bows, arrows, and lances.” The Indigenous Americans were likely worried about the U.S. Army’s intentions and attempted to steal Pike’s horses, equipment and food.

H. MARK WEIDMAN

Pike’s men had already killed many bison, the mainstay of the Plains Indians. Pike wrote unhappily that his “hunters killed without mercy, having slain 17 bison and wounded at least 20 more” near La Junta. They used only a few for food and left the rest to rot. East of Lamar he observed bison: “The face of the prairie was covered with them, on each side of the river; their numbers exceeded imagination.” That bison-based ecosystem is now gone, replaced with cattle: fields of cattle feed, cattle pastures, feedlots and the roads that take them to slaughter.

PIKE CONTINUED WEST to South Park, looking for the Red River, which was actually in north Texas. He had no map, which must have been a challenge, but at least he did not have to contend with fences, roads, reservoirs and private property.

I had not noticed the high wire fence when I drove my 4Runner through South Park on recon in July 2022. Colorado has bazillions of fences you would never notice

in a car but as a hiker they block every path cross-country. Also, land ownership is a checker-boardy collage – “yes” here, “no” there, “maybe” here if you get permission. Mostly “no.” Pike and I both walked from Hartsel to Buena Vista but 216 years apart, and we faced very different challenges.

The route I had drawn on my Gaia Topo app required me here, just west of Hartsel, to enter the Badger Basin State Wildlife Area and saunter along the South Fork of the South Platte toward Antero Reservoir, provided I had my fishing license, just like the Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer had suggested. I had assumed I would wedge myself and my pack under a standard four-strand barbed wire fence here and try not to catch my nylon REI shirt on a barb.

But, no, a seven-foot-high square-wire fence blocked me and any other large animal from reaching the river, its tranquil blue waters curving seductively past grassy banks. Swallows soared over the water, snatching insects. No way could I climb

that fence with four days of provisions in my backpack or somehow hurl said backpack eight feet over it and then climb the wire like a lab rat.

I sulked along Highway 24 for two miles, heart thumping in the gusts thrown by semitrailers and RVs, tires whining. Then peace waited behind a gate into the state wildlife area. Gray-bottomed clouds scudded across the sky – blue, gray and white reflected in the river’s silver ribbon. A herd of privately ranched bison grazed on the other side; their wild-cow scent carried to me on the gentle wind.

I picked up the rusted-off head of a railroad spike, like a thick brown thumbnail, remembering my mother telling me about the Midland Railroad, built in the 1880s to carry gold and silver ore, lumber, coal and passengers between Colorado Springs and Leadville. I walked the Midland’s vague grassy hump for a few miles, then had to skulk to Antero Reservoir. Home sweet home for a night, or so I thought.

India Wood walked the same lands as explorer Zebulon Pike did 216 years earlier, from La Junta to Pueblo and into what later became Park County. Pike was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to find the headwaters of the Red River and began his explorations up the Arkansas River.

H. MARK WEIDMAN

On his grand expedition, Zebulon Pike saw what the Utes called Tava, or Sun Mountain, and tried to climb it, but failed. The mountain now bears his name: Pikes Peak.

TODD CAUDLE

“NO ACCESS TO ANTERO RESERVOIR. AREA BEHIND THIS SIGN CLOSED TO ALL ACTIVITY – Denver Water.” Only a mile across the damn dam to the campground I wanted. An extra six miles if I obeyed the sign and backtracked a giant C on public roads. I dropped my pack, sighing theatrically, and rested my chin atop the locked gate.

My old buddy Zebulon had camped right over there, across the reservoir at the base of that hill on Dec. 17, 1806. Back then there were no Antero, Eleven Mile or Spinney reservoirs, no Highway 24, no fences about every half mile to thwart him; plus the locals had left for the winter and did not post “No Trespassing” signs.

PIKE WROTE IN HIS JOURNAL about the South Platte near Hartsel: “Ascended the river, both sides of which were covered with old Indian camps, at which we found corn-cobs ... My poor fellows suffered extremely with cold, being almost naked. Distance 10 miles.”

They ate the few bison that had not migrated to the foothills for the winter. The Native Americans, having summered at South Park for thousands of years, knew enough to leave before December. Pike knew nothing of this area except what his guide, perhaps a French trapper, may have told him. They forged on in moccasins they made from raw buffalo hide, still wet with life, after their shoes wore out. Luckily, I hike in Solomon X Ultra trail shoes.

I turned away from the locked gate and decided to hitchhike. I just could not walk four extra miles with a full pack; hitchhiking was a calculated risk.

A nice older man in a van with a ponysize dog who slobbered me dropped me back where I had left Highway 24. My maps showed a county road straight to Antero Campground. Yay! I thought. Dang. A barbed-wired gate barred the road, now just a grassy ghost. A sign said Denver Water owned the land but didn’t say no walking. I went, just like Zebulon Pike.

The Mosquito Range of the Rocky Mountains separates the headwaters of the Arkansas River from those of the South Platte River and stands above the South Park basin, where bison roam on pastures east, north and south of Hartsel.

JOSHUA HARDIN; FABIAN MESEBERG (BOTTOM)

GO. SEE. DO. COLORADO’S

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

by TOM HESS

FESTIVAL

PALISADE PEACH FESTIVAL

AUG. 16-17 • PALISADE

The unmatched ingredients of a Palisade peach, with its burst of sweetness and acidity, the sticky sweet juice flowing down your chin: cool Colorado River snowmelt, 300 days a year of sunshine, 56-degree August nights and century-old, multigenerational family farms. The peach pit’s DNA is rooted in the Grand Valley’s history, and its future, on the Western Slope.

In the first annual Palisade Peach Festival in 1930, organizers knew how to attract a crowd; they set aside 50 bushels of peaches from that year’s harvest for free distribution. The peaches had gained favor in the White House years earlier, 14 boxes going to President Calvin Coolidge. The festival has grown from there.

Now in its 56th year, the peach festival stretches across two days, featuring fruit from farms that supply Colorado’s groceries and fruit stands, and add seasonal flavor to everything from Colorado yogurt to beer and coffee.

Clark Family Orchards began in 1897, the earliest in alluvial Grand Valley, hand-watering their trees with buckets of Colorado River water. Clark offers free horse-drawn carriage rides. Breckenridge Brewery offers a Palisade Peach Wheat beer and a getaway in its Peach Pod set up at Talbott Farms – another century-old farm, starting in 1907, and the source of Breckenridge’s peaches. Peach farmers often donate their fruit to local school fundraisers.

On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 16-17, Colorado chefs make innovative use of Palisade peaches and cook dishes for guests to taste. Market vendors and food trucks offer their peach products, backed by mu-

sic from three bands each day at the Peach Jam Stage in Riverbend Park, on the banks of the Colorado River. Saturday offers contests: pie eating (11 a.m.) and BBQ (winners announced 5 p.m.). The week before features the Just Peachy 5K run and orchard tours on Aug. 10. (970) 464-7458. palisadecoc.com/events/palisadepeachfest

WHERE TO STAY THE WINE COUNTRY INN

Just two miles from Riverbend Park, off exit 42 from I-70, the inn sits near several vineyards beneath the Little Book Cliffs. Guests gather and share their peach, cider and wine stories at a pool and spa tub. 777 Grand River Drive, (970) 464-5777

WHERE TO GO

TALBOTT’S FARM MARKET & TAP ROOM

The tap room, operating under a separate business from the fruit business, offers juices, cider and hard cider made from its apple crop, and wine from its grapes. 3782 F 1/4 Road, (970) 464-5943

Other events you may enjoy

JULY

Kit Carson County Rodeo

July 25-27 • Burlington

Rodeo begins all three nights at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 25, offers free BBQ and watermelon at 11 a.m. Friday, local youth present 4-H FFA projects in the livestock barns and project buildings. Visit Carousel Park for live entertainment and local food. Ride the historic Kit Carson County Carousel featuring the Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ for a quarter. (719) 346-0111

Oddities & Curiosities Expo

July 25–Aug. 4 • Sterling

The Dick Stull Memorial Rodeo is named for a rodeo legend who operated a ranch east of Sterling and who died in 2007. Stull Ranch raises show goats and quarter horses. Rodeo events include bull riding and mutton bustin’. (970) 522-0888

AUGUST

Vino and Notes Wine Festival

Aug. 3 • Woodland Park

Gathering In Woodland Park’s Memorial Park will be every kind of wine merchant – those that grow the grapes, those that blend wines, those that create mulled wine and more. Vineyards include one of international renown: The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey, winner of the Double Gold at the 2022 Sunset International Wine Competition for its Sangre De Cristo Nouveau. (719) 310-2335

Arkansas Valley Fair

Aug. 14-17 • Rocky Ford

The oldest continuous fair in Colorado, the Arkansas Valley Fair, began as a celebration of bumper crop of watermelon in 1878. U.S. Sen. G. W. Swink – a valley town bears his name – invited people to join him. Most arrived by caboose from La Junta. Attendance grew year by year, and

markets as far away as St. Louis placed orders for “Rocky Ford Melons.” The Fair now includes a 4H program –horse showmanship, farm mechanics, livestock weigh-in – and a parade, mutton bustin’, rodeo, concert and Watermelon Day. (719) 254-7723

Arvada Days

Aug. 24 • Arvada

The city of Arvada, incorporated on Aug. 14, 1904, celebrates its 120th anniversary all summer long, capping it off with an old-fashioned family fun day at the 80-acre Clear Creek Valley Park. Arvada’s history includes a number of firsts: first gold strike in Colorado, first King Soopers and first to receive a shipment of Coors Beer after the end of Prohibition. Arvada Days attractions include live music, craft vendors, train rides and food trucks. arvadafestivals.com/arvada-days

Olathe Sweet Corn Festival

Aug. 24 • Olathe

When John Harold moved to the Uncompahgre Valley, he discovered his passion for farming sweet corn. He founded Tuxedo Corn and trademarked in 1987 his brand of corn, Olathe Sweet – sweeter than other types and tender, too tender for machine harvesting; workers pick at least 600,000 boxes a year. Tuxedo Corn headlines the festival, which includes a sweet corn-eating contest, crazy hat parade, wheel barrel race and potato sack race. olathesweetcornfest.com

Commonwheel Artists Co-Op

Aug. 31-Sept. 2 • Manitou Springs

Meet Colorado artists and learn about their wall art, jewelry, glass, pottery, sculptures and clothing. Among the artists: Tylan Troyer of Colorado Springs, who paints local landscapes and cityscapes; and Jean Cuchiaro, a Springs native, who paints based on her photographs of sunlight on moving water. commonwheel.com/festival

Hot Sulphur Springs is...

• nestled in the Rocky Mountains waiting to be explored

• filled with pioneer, railroad & Native American history

• the county seat & oldest town in the ❤ of Grand County

• gold medal fishing on the Colorado River

• named for the historic hot springs

sulphur springs chamber of commerce

www.hsschamber.com

Catch Lake Trout at Williams Fork Reservoir

Hike at Himebaugh Gulch

Explore History at Pioneer Village Museum

MUSIC

DURANGO

BLUES TRAIN

AUG. 24-26 • DURANGO

Two sounds share musical history: a train whistle and a blues guitar. The historic, coal-fired, steam-powered Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad offers that sound mix, making its own music, its whistle wailing like a blues guitar through San Juan National Forest canyons.

The Blues Train starts and finishes each night in the railroad’s downtown Durango station. Artists perform in fully enclosed rail cars, equipped with a sound system and plenty of room to dance and move. Occupancy is about 40 people. Bands perform in open-air gondolas, the seats removed for more dancing and moving. To enjoy the mountain views for some peace and quiet, guests go to the two enclosed coaches without music. Guests can move between all coaches and gondolas. The train employees will

be wearing their caps, blues guests their ice-cool fedoras.

Among the performers is Jesse Cotton Stone, whose hometown is Manitou Springs. Joe Waters placed first in the 2022 Telluride Blues Challenge and the 2024 International Blues Competition for solo/duo artist.

The experience is a three and a half hour round trip. Boarding begins each day at 6:30 p.m.; departure is 7 p.m., sharp. The train returns at 10:30 p.m. A cash bar offers local craft beer, hard cider, wine and non-alcoholic beverages. Each passenger coach includes a Coach Host to answer questions.

With a nighttime return, consider dressing in layers. Airborne cinders from the engine can lodge themselves in your eyes, so if you plan to be outside, wear protective lenses – maybe some cool shades.

WHERE TO EAT THE ROOST

Award-winning chef, Dave Cuntz, brings elevated American cuisine to downtown Durango. Cuntz won the 2021 Colorado Restaurant Association’s Stars of the Industry Chef of the Year Award. Before that, he won Guy’s Grocery Game, hosted by Guy Fieri on the Food Network. Cuntz said customers like the Stirling Silver Teriyaki Tri-Tip Steak and the ParmesanEncrusted Cod. Co-owner Michelle Redding prefers the bacon-wrapped meatloaf. 128 E. College Drive, (970) 7644661, open Tues.-Sat., 5-9 p.m.

WHERE TO STAY THE HISTORIC STRATER HOTEL

The hotel opened in 1887, five years after the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad began operating. It hosts two of the most famous literary hotel rooms in Colorado. Famed Western writer Louis L‘Amour booked rooms 222 and 223, where he wrote many of his novels about the fictional Sackett family, within earshot of live honky-tonk music. Guest rooms include antiques and tiled Victorian bathrooms. 699 Main Ave., (800) 247-4431

WHAT TO DO

CREATIVE SOUL SCAVENGER HUNT

Hunt Master Tara guides you and your family and friends, from preteens to grandparents, via WhatsApp on your smartphone through an interactive story of the Old West in Durango, including hidden gems and friendly locals, and includes a stop at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and The Historic Strater Hotel. Registrants start on Main Street. creativesoulscavengerhunts.com

Andrew Rios

RODEO RODEO

Hometown Fun

Upcoming Events in Monte Vista, Colorado

Faith Hinkley Memorial Fundraiser, July 27

SoCo Suds & Sounds, Aug. 17

Potato Festival, Sept. 7

Moonlight Madness, Oct. 31

Come stroll through town and experience The Swoop of the Cranes

These beautiful works of art are hand painted by local artisans and will be on display until September! 947

COLORADO CAMPING

LAUNCHING POINTS FOR OUTDOOR EXPLORATION

MOUNTAIN ESCAPE

LEETH

LOCATION

3 1/2 miles south of Divide

TENT RV/SITES

Both

ACTIVITIES

Biking, hiking, geocaching, horseback riding, hunting, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing

Mueller State Park offers the Front Range refuge from summer heat

MY FORMER NEIGHBORS WERE the proud owners of a 40-foot motorhome. Every Thursday night throughout the summer, they’d fill their RV with a weekend’s worth of food and supplies. Come Friday, they’d fetch their 2 1/2 dogs (two huskies and a Chihuahua) and set off for a weekend of camping in the mountains. Their favorite destination was Mueller State Park.

One of the few Colorado state parks not bordering a lake, Mueller lies seven crow-flying miles northwest of Pikes Peak. Situated 9,600 feet above sea level and less than an hour’s drive from Colorado Springs, it provides a lofty, closeto-home venue for Front Range campers wanting to flee the summer heat.

The campground features nearly 100 RV sites with electric hookups. Folks story and photographs by DAN

camping under canvas can opt for one of the park’s walk-in tent sites. Mueller offers a pair of sites for equestrians wanting to camp with their steeds, and there are two group sites available. Guests not wanting to bunk in the Great Outdoors can rent one of Mueller’s three multi-bedroom cabins.

When my wife and I bought our first travel trailer, we followed the neighbors’ suggestion and booked a weekend campsite at Mueller. While almost two-thirds of the sites are pull-through, I could only secure a back-in site. Fortunately, my wife was a good sport, and our marriage survived her directing my trailer parking efforts.

A Colorado Springs couple tentcamped at the site next door with their two sons, aged 6 and 4. When I asked the lads what they liked most about camping out here, the oldest admitted it was playing in the dirt and the rocks. It’s a good thing the campground has hot showers available, the boys’ mom sighed as she gazed down at her dirt-dusted offspring.

Nestled in the foothills of Pikes Peak, camping at Mueller can almost feel like

The Ride Of Your Life.

Steal away a day on the award-winning, historic Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Climb aboard and leave your worries behind. From the open air gondola to the breathtaking views from your private window, this is a scenic train ride unlike any other. Join us for a day trip through the unspoiled Rocky Mountain West. Vibrant and beautiful as always. Depart from Antonito, Colorado or Chama, New Mexico. The modern world can wait while you take the ride of a lifetime.

book now at cumbrestoltec.com 1-888-286-2737

camping in a national park, complete with rangers offering evening campfire talks. We listened to songbirds singing, watched squirrels scamper and admired the tenacity of a bluebird feeding its chicks in its nearby nest. A ranger at the evening’s campfire program discussed the local black bears, which fortunately we did not encounter.

Mueller State Park sits in an area settled in the 1800s by homesteaders who raised crops and ran livestock to feed the nearby miners. Seventy years ago, W.E. Mueller, the man for whom the park is named, purchased a number of those individual homesteads to form his 12,000-acre Mueller Ranch. In the late 1980s, a 5,121-acre portion of his holdings became the state park. Several of those homesteaders’ old cabins still pepper the area with the abandoned roads to their properties now serving as backcountry trails.

The park today offers over 50 miles of hiking trails, 36 of which are available to mountain bikers and 34 remain open to horseback riding. The park also offers short, self-guided nature trails and six geocaching sites. While leashed dogs are permitted in the campground, Fido and his friends are banned from trails or in the backcountry.

With our time at Mueller limited, we laced up our boots and set off to explore one of the park’s historic sites on foot. After carefully evaluating options, we chose to hike the 5 1/4-mile-long, multi-use loop trail to the old Cheesman Ranch. The well-marked route led us on an easy stroll through the forest and around meadows garnished with wildflowers.

The ranch, which offers some of the best preserved remains from those bygone ranching days, lies at the forested edge of a grassy meadow. Hints of faded red paint speckle its classic wooden barn and rail fences still outline pastures. A log cabin and the family’s old outhouse have been boarded up. Local residents now include a mule deer doe who crawled into an old shed, apparently using it for her shelter or den. In no rush to depart, we sat back and savored the serenity of the setting.

One weekend offers nary enough time to truly appreciate Mueller State Park. My wife and I may need to follow our former neighbors’ lead and load our bedroom-on-wheels on Thursday nights so that we can just hitch and go after work on Friday. We’ll just have to do it without the 2 1/2 dogs.

Mueller State Park lies off Colorado Highway 67, 3 1/2 miles south of Divide. The casinos of Cripple Creek can be found 15 miles down the road with the ghost town of Victor a short drive beyond.

The park’s campground features 96 electric sites with picnic tables and fire rings plus 22 similarly equipped, walk-in tent sites. There are two equestrian sites, two group sites, four backcountry campsites and three rental cabins. The campground offers flush toilets, hot showers, a kids’ playground and an RV dump station. Electric sites run $36 per night with nonelectric hookups going for $28. All sites require reservations (800244-5613, cpwshop.com), which are best made six months in advance.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

Questions on pages 12-13

1 Walmart

2 Glenn Miller 3 Terraform 4 Liberia

5 The Graduate

6 a. Angus T. Jones

7 c. Portland Trail Blazers

8 b. Jack Swigert

9 c. He won the 1937 Heisman Trophy (he was runner-up)

10 a. 3OH!3

11 True

12 False (she won cycle 13 of America’s Next Top Model)

13 True

14 False (nine have been drafted by the Broncos)

15 True

Page 16, Top Mascot Chip rallies students at a CU vs. USC football game

Page 16, Bottom Astronaut John “Jack” L. Swigert Jr.

Page 17 Dalton Trumbo working from his bathtub Trivia Photographs

Campgrounds at Mueller State Park include walk-in tent spots, backcountry camps, rental cabins and equestrian sites. Horseback riders enjoy 34 miles of trails.

48th Annual Celtic Cultural Celebration

Red mountains and white knuckles PEAK PIXELS

by JOSHUA HARDIN

FEW ROADWAYS INSTILL as much fear to acrophobic automobilists as Colorado’s Red Mountain Pass.

The divide between Silverton and Ouray, traversed by U.S. Highway 550 aka the Million Dollar Highway, is famous (or infamous depending on who is asked) for winding curves, precipitous guardrail-less drop-offs and frequent rockfalls along its shoulders. Those not fond of heights are advised to hand over driving duties to a fellow traveler due to the deservedly dangerous reputation of the pass.

The care required to venture this part of the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway should come as a comfort rather than curse. Photographers and sightseers alike will appreciate a more leisurely pace. Just beyond car windows, travelers discover inviting natural scenes and historical remnants that can only be seen by driving at slower speeds and taking frequent stops. Traffic and backups here are clues that wildlife is roaming nearby or the view is too good to pass up.

From Ouray heading south, the road first twists to the dazzling “Switzerland of America” overlook of the picturesque Victorian city and National Historic District often equated with the European Alpine locale. Nearby, a diversion leads to Ouray Ice Park and Box Canyon Falls Park, sites of world-renowned winter ice and rock climbing. During summer, hikers can access closeup perspectives of the falls from metal walkways suspended on narrow canyon ledges.

Back on the road, it’s a rugged route as drivers approach a tunnel blasted through solid rock. Just beyond the tunnel is a bridge that crosses another waterfall, Bear Creek Falls. The falls aren’t visible from the road and can’t be sighted without stopping at a nearby pullout and walking a short trail to

a viewing platform. Photographers can use a slow shutter speed to artistically blur the waterfall as well as the cars traveling on the bridge above it.

A plaque at the falls pays tribute to pioneering road and railroad builder Otto Mears, nicknamed “Pathfinder of the San Juan.” Mears constructed a toll road in 1881, charging $5 for a wagon team to pass over the bridge. A toll booth once stood at the site of the falls. Mears’ original route was widened in the 1920s-30s but still narrowly ascends steep eight percent grades and switchbacks on its way to the apex. Even though the entire thoroughfare is paved, a memorial to three snowplow drivers who died clearing the 25-mile stretch attests how treacherous the road can become in the wintertime.

A WELCOME BREAK comes as the road flattens shortly before its final rise to the summit. To the west, Crystal Lake is a common rest spot where strollers along a shoreline path can see one of the clearest reflections imaginable of the Red Mountains rising to the southeast. The peaks are named for the ruddy-colored iron oxide laden rock forming their upper slopes. The reddest peaks are numbered from 1 to 3. Verdant green aspen stands grow near the lake and on the lower slopes of the peaks above. The trees turn a sparkling gold col-

or and snow sometimes dusts the peaks in the fall, revealing a different contrast to the green-red ombre of the summer.

About halfway between Ouray and Silverton is the Red Mountain Mining District. Ironton Park, partially the remains of a historic town, introduces the area that was the site of an 1882-1893 silver boom. Remains of other communities, including Red Mountain Town and Guston, as well as headframes of old mine workings – including those of the Idarado Yankee Girl and National Belle – are still visible from the highway. Photographers can use the weathered wooden mining structures to frame other buildings or the mountains above.

Topping a series of switchbacks inside the mining district, the 11,018-foot Red Mountain Pass summit is also the highest point of the Million Dollar Highway. The origin of the name is unclear, though legends say the highway cost a million dollars a mile to build, or that fill dirt used in construction contains a million dollars in gold ore. A local saying is reportedly, “you’d have to pay me a million dollars to drive that stretch in the snow.”

The Million Dollar Highway continues south of Silverton over two more mountain passes, Molas and Coal Bank, before reaching Durango. These passes are less lofty than Red Mountain and contain fewer hairpin turns. Motorists might spot a steam-billowing engine on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad alongside the highway. Plentiful pullouts exist to watch and photograph the train passing through the mountain meadows.

Red Mountain Pass invites drivers to a challenging but gorgeous experience. Grip the wheel tight but fear not for the road ahead. With proper care and the right photography settings, this highway of some peoples’ nightmares can be dreamy.

JOSH SHOT this photo of Red Mountain No. 3 from a scenic overlook at the Idarado Yankee Girl Mine with a Nikon D800e and Nikon 24-70mm lens at 55mm, exposed at f/11, 1/800, ISO 400.

TOP TAKE EDITORS’ CHOICE

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE RICH

THE MIRRORLIKE waters of Lake Agnes in State Forest State Park resemble an inkblot test as they reflect the craggy slopes of the Never Summer Mountains east of Walden. Photographer Dave Rich captured this image on a hike while camping in the park. Rich and his family had camped in the area many times, and though they had heard how beautiful Lake Agnes was, they had never seen it in person. Deciding to remedy that, they trekked in from the trailhead, which wasn’t terribly far but included a lot of elevation gain.

Once Rich got to the lake, his 120-pound lab mix, Scotch, jumped right in. The water-loving Scotch had been known to spend an hour or more splashing around in lakes at lower elevations. However, in the glacial Lake Agnes, which is 10,666 feet above sea level and remains uncomfortably cold even in summer, Scotch was done after about a minute. With the dog out of the lake, the waters got still enough to take this photo.

IN EACH ISSUE, Top Take features a reader’s photograph of Colorado. Submit your best photos for the chance to be published in Colorado Life. Send images with detailed photo descriptions and your contact information to photos@coloradolifemag.com or visit coloradolifemag.com/contribute.

This photo was shot with a NIKON D90 camera with a 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, shot at 29mm at f/10 for 1/400 sec, ISO 800.