Last Dollar Road
- Camille Pissarro.
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Both my wife and I spend our initial years in New England when we moved to the US. We both attended college there and every time autumn came around all the streets of Boston would have spectacular foliage for us to enjoy. Every year we would plant a trip for next year as fall is an expensive season in New England and we couldn't afford much as grad students on a tight budget. Finally, we both got busy with our careers and that fall trip kept on getting postponed.
It was always on the back of my head that we never did Fall road trip as we always promised ourselves that we would do. The opportunity presented itself in 2016, I was about to change jobs and I managed to sneak in a 2-week break between jobs. My wife had to struggle a bit to get the vacation approved but we finally managed to get on with our road trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We missed peak colors by a couple of days but still saw some of the most spectacular autumn scenes combined with mighty peaks of the Rocky Mountain range.
This shot was taken at the Last Dollar road which is a 4-wheel drive country road that crosses the foothills of the San Juan Mountains. This road is challenging when it's muddy but provides some spectacular scenery. There is a spot on the road when the colorful forest gives way to a grand vista of the San Juan Mountains. I noticed a line of aspens by a ridge and used them to contrast with the more expansive view of the valley and the mountains in the distance. The yellows in the scene was a little overwhelming so I made sure the white balance was on point.
- Benjamin Disraeli.
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Another classic shot of fall foliage from Colorado. This location is basically on the last dollar road close to Telluride. It's pretty easy to reach if you start from telluride as it's at the beginning of the road and is located adjacent to the paved section of the road. So obviously we started at the other end and drove through the magnificent Last Dollar road to reach here. We were at least a week past the peak foliage season but the views were still spectacular.
– Sigmund Freud.
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I took this shot during a trip to Colorado couple of years ago. Our plan for this trip was to hit the fall color hot spots of western Colorado. It took us two days of driving to get to Colorado from southern California and we didn’t see much fall color on our drive up to Ridgway, our first basecamp. But we decided to stick with the plan and woke up super early to explore one of the country roads that criss-cross rolling hills around the San Juan mountains. We were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of aspens and birches with some brilliant yellow color to the backdrop of mighty snow-capped mountains.
At Ridgway, we heard a lot about the Last Dollar Road which connects the San Juan Skyway to Highway 145. I have learned that in California, if you ask the locals about your chances with a stock Subaru Outback on a local 4x4 road they will err on the side of caution with their recommendation but the locals we met at Ridgway was all encouraging about our chances of successfully completing the trip. I was a bit skeptical as our car still had road tires and it rained the day before. But we decided to try our luck and headed out well before the golden hour so we could call for help if we get stuck. The scenery alongside this road is quite otherworldly and is a nature photographers dream. The terrain was wet and muddy but our car was able to handle the rough terrain and we were back at Ridgway in no time.
- Saul Bellow.
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On our time driving through the last dollar road, we came across a lot of Aspen groves but since we were there just after peak fall, most of the groves were bare. Finally towards the end of the drive we came across this little patch of gold. The grove was well protected from the wind and was full of leaves both on the trees and the ground. We also have stunning late afternoon light coming in from the south west giving a nice little pop to this classical fall scene.
- J. R. R. Tolkien.
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I found this picture in my backups while I was searching for an image for testing out my exposure blending skills. This was taken during our trip to Colorado last fall, if my memory is correct, this was taken on the Last Dollar road. I have a soft spot for rustic fences and when the fence has vivid fall colors and fourteener peaks behind them, I am sold.
Ridgway and Telluride area has so many beautiful sights, I think you’ll need a month to just cover them. I am glad I got at least 4 days to roam around and take pics of this stunning state.
- Edouard Manet.
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Last dollar road near Telluride, Colorado has to be one of the most strikingly scenic roads in the western United States. Certain parts of the road were dicey even though it hadn’t rained in a while and there were a couple of locations where I seriously questioned the sanity of my decision but with roadside vistas like this one I seriously wouldn’t complain.
We started from highway 62 so the initial part of our drive was pretty tame but as the road started climbing and started to twist around superlative views awaited us as if to tempt us away from abandoning the trip. Hope you all enjoy this shot as much as we had enjoyed taking it.
- A. R. Ammons.
Last dollar road near telluride Colorado was one of the most surprising little side trips we did during our trip to Colorado. This drive was my first venture off-road, and I had just learned that it rained the day before we were supposed to take the trail. This mountain pass is unpaved, and when it rains, the muddy conditions can make it difficult to traverse the pass for even dedicated 4x4 vehicles. I had an AWD Subaru with road tires that didn’t inspire a lot of confidence either.
While parts of the road were indeed muddy and challenging, our Subaru could manage even on crappy tires. What surprised us the most was how pretty the views were. Unfortunately, we missed peak fall colors, but there were still enough leaves on the trees, and combined with the backdrop of Colorado’s mighty mountains, the views were just spectacular. I loved this image because the scene had the rolling hills in the foreground with the San Juan Mountains in the backdrop. There are even a couple of cabins for scale. The sky also was beautiful, with some dramatic cloud formations. The other exciting aspect is that I didn’t take this shot during golden hour. The Sun was still pretty high up in the sky. I cannot wait to go back to these mountains.
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Last Dollar Road!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas.