The Garden Of The Gods

It was the summer of 1973 and my wife Stephanie had convinced me to take our two year old daughter Elena on The Great Tour of The American West. We ventured into Montana after spending a few days in Sheridan, Wyoming with photographer Dick Kehrwald and his family. I knew Dick through a mutual photographer friend, Bob Greger. Dick and I did some fly fishing for trout in a couple of mountain streams in the Big Horn Mountains nearby.

We spent a few days in Denver visiting one of Steph's cousins as well as a friend who'd moved there from Miami. Throughout the trip I shot roll upon roll of slides for stock. I guess it took a few years to recoup the cost of the trip that way. Some photos sold, others languished. In retrospect I wish I'd shot less color and more black and white. This shot was taken in Colorado.

Then it was off to Las Vegas! Stephanie's dad was living there with his second wife and her son. I'd been miserable enough trying to breath the rarified air in Denver, "The Mile High City". I'd spent my entire life at sea level. Las Vegas was over 100 degrees f everyday, dry, no humidity at all. I wanted to leave her there and visit another photographer friend, Nick Pattengill, in San Diego for a few days, but she wouldn't hear of it! I've never made another trip west, and I never did get to California. Elena was only two and doesn't remember anything at all about the trip.