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Those adventurers who want to experience the wonder of September at the Dallas Divide, The Sneflels, the San Juan Mountains, Ouray, and Silverton will ultimately find themselves on the Million Dollar Highway. It essentially runs from Ouray to Durango, which is part of the Sky Highway. The road was created in 1883 as a toll road but was rebuilt in 1920. No one is exactly sure why it is called the Million Dollar Highway. Some claim that it is because it costs a million dollars a mile to build it. Another explanation is that early travellers were so overcome with vertigo due to the steep and windy stretches of the road that they insisted they would never travel it again, even if one paid them a million dollars. Personally, both explanations make sense.

We were up early to make the 5.6-mile journey from Ouray to Crystal Lake, a 2,600 assent through one of the treacherous sections of the Million Dollar Highway – no guard rails and a long way down. There was no wind, a clear sky, a heavy frost on the grass in the foreground, and the aspen was at its peak. It being such a clear morning, we have excellent visibility of Red Mountain 2 in the foreground left at 12,208, Red Mountain 3 farther back at 12,877 and perhaps Ohio Peak farther back at 12,651.

We continued to work the scene as the sun came up with the outstanding yellow of the Aspen trees increasingly lit by the rising sun on the right foreground, the side of Hayden Mountain, wonderfully matched against the blue of the sky. Later, we would head up to Red Mountain Pass at around 11,000 ft, the site of the mining ghost town of Red Mountain Town, one of the largest mining towns in the area. Gold was discovered here in the 1870s and, in its heyday, supported around 10,000 people.