Enroute home from Colorado Springs to San Diego. These are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Wet Mountain Valley in South Central Colorado. This setting is one of the best kept secrets in America. No major highways pass nearby, and the valley is still populated with ‘real’ ranchers and cattlemen. The average attitude in the valley is 8500 feet. Photographed from an altitude of 31,000 feet.

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are one of the longest mountain chains on Earth. They stretch from Poncha Pass, Colorado, in the north to Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, in the south. There are ten peaks over 14,000' high in the range, more than two dozen over 13,000'.