Telluride to Sterling, Colorado

If you lived here, you'd be Ralph Lauren

My route from Telluride to Lincoln was a bit convoluted. 145 to 62 to 550 to to 50 to 285 connecting with Interstates 70 and 76. I got as far as Sterling, Colorado tonight. It was another spectacular drive. Today's star is the aspen tree. The first half of the drive was golden and red-golden aspen trees stealing thunder from the mountains; conifer forests serving as a jeweler's cloth against which to display precious gold. Outside of Ridgeway, Colorado, I drove past Ralph Lauren's ranch. There are no signs, just a designer rail fence that stretches for miles separating passersby from a Bierstadt landscape.

US 50 east

Then it got flat. Not much else to say about that except you can see a whole lot of not much driving across northwest Colorado. The contrast between Telluride and Sterling is so great it's hard to believe they could be in the same State - hell - the same country.

Last night I was invited to dinner, actually David was invited to dinner and I was welcomed as his guest. The host couple was a superb combination of physical grace and gracious hospitality. The guests were five adults and one three-year old cherub with golden hair and blue eyes. All of the guests were year-round residents, fit, healthy, interesting, and attractive. The men and women were handsome, engaging, and spiritually lovely. Dinner was in a picture perfect bungalow on a street of picture perfect bungalows surrounded by the awe-inspiring beauty of the canyon. The sky was ultramarine blue as we walked to dinner and black velvet arrayed with crystals and the milky way when we returned home. I felt like I had been invited to Asgard. The conversation was lively and some of it centered on injuries suffered by the group and others in and around Telluride on skis, or bikes, or motorcycles, or from falling rocks. David laughed that Telluride is a good place to die and everyone agreed. Stories topped stories of spectacular wipe outs and equally spectacular comebacks from near death (and a few who didn't make it).

Not included in the discussion were some other interesting tidbits I had learned about the area. At the end of the canyon where sits Telluride are capped toxic ponds holding mine tailings from the long defunct gold mines. Less than 50 miles upwind are uranium mines and a proposed uranium processing plant that has been given the go ahead from the State government. Does anybody remember the movie Pretty Poison? It hit me as I was driving away today that these exceptional people are drawn to a place that offers incredible beauty, phenomenal access to various forms of recreation, five medicinal marijuana dispensaries for a town of 2500, and a good deal of risk.

I have been to many beautiful places. Places where the land draws people who form community around that attraction. Santa Fe, Sedona, San Francisco, Palm Springs are prime examples. I can't recall ever being in a place where both beauty and danger formed such a compelling lure.

Don't get me wrong. I adore these people. I adore their physicality, their openness, and their vitality. I think Telluride area is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places I have ever been - including New Zealand the title holder for most spectacularly beautiful country. As much as I love being around these people, the life they have chosen is one for which I do not have the courage. Bless them. And hopefully they'll let me come back and wallow in the beauty of the place if they read this.