I attended the final SEEK training workshop and helped a bunch of ecology/biology faculty and graduate students get going with our Kepler software. The workshop was 3 days in Albuquerque. I tacked on an extra few days to do a little road trip by myself to go shoot some photos and enjoy New Mexico and Colorado. When the workshop was over on Thursday, I grabbed a ride to Alamo and picked up a rental car, threw all of my gear in and hit the road north toward Steamboat Springs where I was to meet ski/snowman-extraordinaire Mike Martin.

The sunset heading up US 285 toward Colorado was amazing. Beautiful desert colors with a sliver moon getting ready to set. It was cold and windy on the high plains in Northern New Mexico and afters topping to take some sunset photos, I drove into a storm going toward Wolf Creek Pass over the San Juans. I decided to stay the night in Pagosa Springs just south of Wolf Creek and drive the rest of the way to Steamboat the next day.

A storm coming in over Sandia Peak in Albuquerque.

Artwork on the UNM campus that I’ve always admired.

Sunset with the moon over the New Mexico desert.

In Pagosa Springs, I wandered around in the cold night playing with my new Bogen tripod. The local cop was somewhat interested in what I was doing and passed by me several times to make sure I wasn’t terrorizing any of the locals with my tripod and camera at 10 pm. Pagosa is a nice little town with hot springs in the middle of the city just south of Wolf Creek Pass. It’s basically where all of the skiers heading to Wolf Creek stay and it’s also a stopping point on the way to Durango from US 285.

The Pagosa liquor store.

Old mining equipment in the snow.

Shadow self-portrait.

Orion in the dark sky.

The next day I woke up early and started driving up the pass. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I drove up the pass and found a skin trail where others had been skinning up a ridge line. I parked and followed them into the backcountry. I eventually got up over 11,000 ft. My lungs were burning but I managed to make some lines in a small bowl then ski out back to the car through the trees. Helicopters were buzzing around overhead looking for two snowboarders who had gotten lost in a storm the week before, so I played it cool and didn’t do anything crazy.

Pasture land heading up Wolf Creek.

Boar frosted tree.

Looking down the pass from the top.

11,000 ft. and breathing hard.

A buried tree.

Great day in the mountains.

Skin track up.

After skiing for about 2 hours, I jumped back in the car and kept cruising north. I came into the San Luis Valley north of Wolf Creek and stopped to shoot a bunch of photos of the valley and the amazing weather happening all around me. Many of the 14,000 ft peaks were obscured by huge storms, but you could also see a lot of them too.

While I was driving, I was flipping radio stations and came across a station playing a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King. It was one of his lesser known, yet extremely important speeches that he gave in 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City. It’s a beautiful speech and I felt at peace with the world listening to Dr. King while driving through such an amazing place.  Here’s the text of the speech.

Storm coming out of the mountains in the San Luis Valley.

Beautiful view the other way. A bald eagle cruised over me at this point.

Dramatic clouds and wide open spaces.

Another whiteout storm that I’d end up driving into.

The road to Leadville leading out of the San Luis Valley.

Leadville, CO. The highest incorporated city in the US.

After going down the pass from Leadville to Vail, the roads got really bad and I was having to drive 30 mph for pretty much the rest of the drive. This afforded me a lot of time to check out the scenery and hike up some ridges near the road. I also got to witness another brilliant sun/moonset overlooking the Colorado River on CO 131 50 miles north of Vail.

The moon starting to set above the Colorado River.

Another shot of the same in B&W.

Driving through one of the blizzards on CO 131.

I finally got to Steamboat and met up with Mike and Steph. We went and ate pizza and drank beer then went to bed so we could wake up to hit the fresh powder the next morning. When we called the ski report in the morning Steamboat was reporting 22″ of fresh snow which seemed like a lot at the time. We got up to the mountain and got first chair on the Christie Lift then headed up into the trees where we quickly discovered that the snow was over waste deep. Perfect, amazing, Colorado powder and lots of it. The top was closed until around noon and when if finally opened we jumped on the first chair up and were quickly making tracks in neck deep powder. It was amazing. This day will live in my top 3 ski days ever. The other two also being neck deep days, one at Schweitzer in 1993 and the other at Alta in 2003. The first two were 10 years apart. I only had to wait 5 years for this one. Maybe I’ll get the next neck deep snow in 2.5 years this time.

Mike and Steph’s picnic table.

The sun setting on an amazing day at Steamboat.

The next day we all had breakfast and I started driving to Boulder to meet up with Chris and Kimberly. We had some phone issues so I ended up driving toward Eldora and skinning up a road for a few miles to check out the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It was fun, but cold and there wasn’t nearly as much snow in the front range as in Steamboat or the San Juans. There really wasn’t even enough to make tracks in the trees, so I just stayed on the road and had a leisurely cat track cruise back down to the car. I finally met up with Chris and Kimberly when I got into Boulder and we went out and had a great time on the town with Noah and Val, who I hadn’t seen since their going away party in Santa Barbara 3 or so years ago.

Looking into the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

Not too much snow in these aspen groves.

Monday, I drove back to DIA, returned the rental car and flew home to Portland. Another great trip with amazing scenery and great people. Thanks to everyone who let me crash at their places along the way.

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