Tag Archives: san juan national forest
12k ft. days
i awoke tuesday morning at alta lakes. the sun shone bright in the cloudless sky, silhouetting the mountains in front of me.
i left the lakes in late morning, and headed back to town. wilson peak and lizard head wilderness became distant memories behind me.
on wednesday, travis, bd, and i decided to hike silver lake. just above bridal veil falls, on the east end of telluride, silver lake is another high alpine pool that sits near 12,000 ft elevation. the hike is short but strenuous.
travis and i hiked the surrounding summits while bd fished the lake.
telluride and it’s surrounding wilds is one of the first places that my love of photography, and more specifically, landscape photography, grew. the shot below, looking out from bridal veil toward town, is framed the way i shot it nearly ten years ago.
outside telluride
my friend bd and i pulled in to telluride mid-day saturday. sunny and 72 degrees. mountains all around. fantastic.
we got a bite to eat at smugglers, then spent the rest of the day at brown dog drinking full flavored ipa’s and watching the rangers beat the bosox.
i love telluride. i lived and worked here in the summer of 2000 with one of my best friends, john. and since then, i’ve been back more times than i can remember. but what i appreciate most about this part of colorado is the insane beauty.
so, i decided on sunday to take a short trip up to alta lakes to spend a solitary night in the high country of the san juans.
the road up is narrow, but stunning.
i found a perfect campsite, but this wasn’t it. i went ahead and made camp at this spot, which was really nice, but i chose it specifically because of the view.
as the sun dropped behind me, the light played a symphony with colors in ripples on the lake.
all of the afternoon fishermen left, and i was completely alone as darkness came. it reminded me of why i live for solitude in the wilderness:
it’s terrifying. but it’s also soul-washing. experiencing the primal fears that we in modern life have lost touch with, are essential to my sanity.
late at night, i shot a 1 hour exposure of the view from my tent…
andrew slaton | blog 