6Foot5

Adam Russell · Dayton, Ohio

Colorado

September 2016, mostly in the Wet Mountain Valley under the Sangre de Cristo Range, with side trips to a homemade castle, a gorge, an old gold camp and one very fancy hotel.

Black and white photo of a wide grassy meadow below mountains under a heavy, cloudy sky
Middle of nowhere, Colorado. Not a figure of speech. That’s about as precise as the address gets.
View through a dark window frame of golden grassland, pines and distant mountains under clouds
The view out the window where I stayed. I spent a lot of the trip looking at this and calling it relaxing.
Green valley pasture with an old fence and farm equipment below a big range of mountains
The Sangre de Cristo Range over the Wet Mountain Valley. The range has ten fourteeners. I climbed exactly none of them.
Red gondola cars on cables crossing a deep rocky gorge, seen past a wooden fence
The gondola across the Royal Gorge. The park put these in after a 2013 wildfire burned nearly all of its buildings. The bridge is 956 feet above the Arkansas River, and I stayed on the solid-ground side of the fence.
Rusty old mine hoist with large gears and a cable drum with mine tailings in the background
An old mine hoist near Victor. That big drum wound the cable that pulled ore up out of the shaft. Behind it, a modern open-pit mine is still digging gold out of the same hills.
Tall weathered wooden mine headframe and ore house under a blue sky with clouds
A wooden headframe left over from the gold rush. Bob Womack started the whole thing in 1890, then sold his claim for $500 and a case of whiskey and died broke. The district went on to make more than 30 millionaires.
Night sky full of stars over the silhouette of a pine tree
The night sky over the valley. Westcliffe and Silver Cliff became Colorado’s first International Dark Sky Community in 2015, which means they keep the lights low on purpose. It works.
Silhouette of a big pine tree with the sun rising behind it over golden grass and hills
A big pine catching the first light. Some trees are just born for this.
Looking up at an iron and glass peaked roof with a tall stained glass window below
Inside Bishop Castle, looking up through the iron and glass of the grand ballroom. Jim Bishop started building this place in 1969 and did most of it himself, with no blueprints.
Stone castle towers and a metal dragon head sticking out from the roof against a deep blue sky
Bishop Castle from the outside, with the dragon head sticking out of the roof. It breathes actual fire, thanks to a hot-air balloon burner in its throat. Admission is free.
Large brown bull standing in tall grass behind a wire fence
A bull by the road in the valley. We had a long talk through a fence, which is the only way I would have it.
Hummingbird hovering over pink and yellow flowers
A hummingbird working the flowers at the Garden of the Gods visitor center. It was gone before I finished saying “oh, look.”
Bighorn sheep crossing a mountain road in front of stopped cars and vans
A bighorn sheep crossing the road like it owns it. It pretty much does. The Rocky Mountain bighorn has been Colorado’s state animal since 1961.
Weathered wooden shack with a rusty corrugated tin roof under a deep blue sky
An old shack with a rusted tin roof. It has been about to fall down for longer than I have been alive.
Dramatic storm clouds and a hint of rainbow over a valley with a dirt road
A storm coming over the valley in the evening, with a little bit of rainbow thrown in. The sky out there puts on a show every night and never charges for it.
White ranch buildings with red roofs and an arched gateway under a blue sky with clouds
Beckwith Ranch, outside Westcliffe. The Beckwith brothers came out from Maine and built one of the biggest cattle operations in southern Colorado. Theirs was the first house in the county with electricity and a telephone.
Black cattle grazing in a green pasture with a snow-streaked mountain range behind
Black cattle grazing under the Sangre de Cristos. Best office view in the state, and they never look up.
Pronghorn standing in a field of sagebrush and yellow flowers below a green hillside
A pronghorn in the sagebrush. It is the only animal in the world that sheds its horns every year.
Tall mullein stalks and yellow rabbitbrush in front of rolling hills and purple mountains
Mullein stalks and yellow rabbitbrush in front of the mountains. The mullein looks like a field of candles somebody forgot to light.
Pink stucco hotel towers across a calm blue lake with mountains behind
The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, across Cheyenne Lake. Spencer Penrose opened it in 1918 to be the finest hotel in the country. I admired it from the lawn.

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