The first stop was in Norwood Colorado just down the road from Telluride. The fire station there is forming wildland fire crew and my older brother Michael is there now training. So it was a good excuse to see him and take advantage of being close to some of the most amazing places in Colorado. I ended up staying for two days just so that I could see the sights (get to Telluride) and just soak up the idea of being a fireman in a rural place. I truly had a blast running around those guys and exploring a new place just in the backyard. Here’s some pictures of the trip!

Engine 5 and 7 of the Norwood Fire Department, Norwood CO 2021. Fujifilm x100s

What was cool was that the day I showed up they decided to do short patrol around the station, although i guess this is pretty normal. So we took both wildland trucks out to the edge of town and emptied the water tanks at one of the fire fighters houses. In an urban area when the tanks are empty you would just fill them back up at the station but for a wildfire things are different. After we emptied the tank we drove to Miramonte Reservoir to refill (like you might on a wildfire). I absolutely enjoyed riding in the big fire truck and spraying water from the auto-water cannon.

New Sheridan Bar in Telluride, CO 2021. Canon 7D MarkII, Sigma 18-35m F1.8 Art

Beyond the cool fire truck rides and joking around with all the guys, I did end up making it out to Telluride for the day. My brother had deflated the idea of the place the night before saying that it wasn’t really worth visiting, but I would entirely disagree. Yes everyone there (except the old guys baked by the sun…) seem like rich granolas. But, I would happily become a granola if I could live there. I’ve never been to a place that’s more photogenic, other than maybe switzerland.

After a couple passes of the downtown area I decided to climb the hills and walk through the neighborhood there. The mix of ultra rich modern homes mixed with dilapidated wood homes was intriguing to me. On one side of the street was a huge beautiful newly designed home and the other was a small leaning house with a couple bike growing from the porch. Regardless of build though each lot had a spectacular view of the green luscious mountains that surround the area, and were all a least a million dollars.

While I didn’t get the classic image of main street Telluride (mostly because the light was bad) I was invited to photograph the +100 year old bar at the New Sheridan Hotel, on the left. After spending a couple hours walking around the downtown to find the right light, and not finding it. I abandoned that shot and decided to drive to the end of mian road in Telluride where I found two waterfalls tucked high within the Aspen and Fur. The second I spotted them I knew I had to get closer so I grabbed my tripod and hike to Bridal Veil Falls and got the image at the top of this post. All in all a grand adventure