Golden Autumn at Mount Sneffels

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Golden Valley Below Mount Sneffels

Peak Fall Colors in Colorado's San Juan Mountains

There is nothing quite like taking the long way home, especially when the detour leads straight through Colorado's San Juan Mountains in peak autumn. Last fall, after celebrating my youngest grandson's first birthday, I meandered south toward Texas with my camera gear in tow. Mount Sneffels had been on my bucket list for a while, and autumn provided the ultimate excuse to finally stand in front of its rugged 14,158-foot peak.

Driving up County Road 7—a winding, dusty dirt road outside Ridgway—the landscape unfolded like a masterclass in composition. Golden aspen groves carpeted the valley floor and crept up the steep ridgelines, creating a vivid contrast against the dark evergreen pockets and the jagged, dustings-of-snow peak in the distance. I shared the views with a half-dozen other photographers, all of us waiting for that exact moment when the light, earth, and sky lined up in harmony.

What made this scene truly pop was the sky. Flat blue skies can leave a landscape feeling a bit hollow, but nature delivered a scattering of crisp, puffy cumulus clouds that framed Mount Sneffels perfectly without stealing the show. Interestingly, Mount Sneffels gets its name from the Jules Verne novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, named by early explorers who thought a nearby pit resembled the Icelandic volcano Snaefell. Standing there looking up at the summit, surrounded by a sea of yellow and gold, it certainly felt like discovering a world all its own.

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