Land, Water & People

By Kelly Defaye. I know, this column typically discusses current matters in the mountains surrounding the San Luis Valley, but humor me for a moment while we go a little farther afield and a little further back in time. I want to tell you about Patti. In 1998, Patti began volunteering with the San Juan National Forest and their nonprofit partner, the San Juan Mountains Association. She drove the forest roads, looking at them from a visitor’s perspective to see how appealing they were, checking aspects like cleanliness, hazards such as brush obscuring visibility, road and sign damage, and so on....

By Kelly Defaye, Visitor Information Coordinator, Rio Grande National Forest. To set the scene, I’ve been working at the ranger station for about six to eight months. I’ve been through spring’s mud season, summer’s recreation season, and am now experiencing the hunting and woodcutting season.  I play a game when someone pulls up to the office, trying to guess why they’ve stopped by. Sometimes they make it easy when they stop by early in the day with an empty trailer or stake truck bed and a chainsaw. The phone calls are usually more varied, although many times the underlying question is, “How...

By Gregg Goodland Public Affairs Officer, Rio Grande National Forest We left the trailhead with fully loaded backpacks for several days of camping in the Wilderness. Just two miles from the trailhead, we crossed the imaginary line into the South San Juan Wilderness Area.  Another mile up and that familiar sprinkle that would eventually develop into a full blown, monsoon-driven thunderstorm prompted us to don raingear for both us and our backpacks. The marble-sized hail soon had us hunkering under the trees with the widest canopy we could find.  As the ground turned white and lightning blasted around us, we did venture to...

by Hannah Fake photo by Marlys Hersey There is not a cloud in the sky, the sun has just made it over the horizon, and the air is still cool. The perfect weather for a day in the mountains. The birds are sing- ing in the forest and the trails are still quiet. Dappled shade from the vibrant aspens allows a little warming sun into the cool forest. Starting up the trail it feels like you could hike all day. Moving along the trail that follows the creek to your right, you slowly gain elevation. Passing through the spruce and fir that blanket the...