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Panoramic Close Up Photos
of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

I seem to drive around the Sangre de Cristo Mountains a lot, in all different seasons. These photos were all taken in late January and early February, 2008. We've been having a real Colorado winter this year and the snow levels are higher than usual (although it may not look that way from these photos). This area of Colorado is seeing 168% of normal snowpack already and several people have died in avalanches this year. As the winter goes on, the avalanche danger just increases.

On some of the lower photos on this page the mountains look kinda fuzzy: that's the snow blowing in the breeze. There's no clouds to speak of, it's all blowing snow at high elevations. I took some of the lower photos on February 8, 2008. On that day, because of blowing snow and avalanche danger, the I-70 was closed for a very long stretch, US 24 and 285 in the Buena Vista area were both closed, and US 50 through Monarch Pass was being closed that afternoon to do avalanche mitigation. I drove Cuchara Pass, La Veta Pass and Poncha Pass both ways that day and the roads were horrific (icy, snow-packed and heavy cross winds), never mind all those accidents with the folks in their fancy SUV's (owning an SUV doesn't automatically mean the driver knows how to drive, only that he thinks he's safer if he gets into trouble - what was the name of that movie? Oh yeah, Unsafe at Any Speed...)

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Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Crestone Needle & Peak with Humboldt to the right
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Humboldt, Crestone Peak and Colony Baldy, left to right
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Humboldt, the Crestones and Colony Baldy, left to right
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Mt. Adams on the left, Horn Peak on the right
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Challenger Point, Kit Carson Peak, Columbia Point and then the Crestones, left to right (from the west)
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Mt. Adams, Challenger Point, Crestone Peak, left to right, from the west
Mt. Blanca in February
Little Bear, Blanca Peak, Mt. Hamilton, left to right
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Twin Peaks, from just south of the Great Sand Dunes
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Looking east near Villa Grove, upper San Luis Valley
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Looking southeast from the summit of Poncha Pass
Mt. Ouray
Mt. Ouray, on the west side of Poncha Pass, lots of blowing snow
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