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| Lake Fork of the Gunnison 5x8 gouache |
A couple of weeks ago, as summer was starting to heat up, the Southwest burst into flame. Arizona in particular endured a couple of big wildfires east of Phoenix. Although I live 150 miles from the nearest fire, the smoke enveloped our little valley in a thick, blue haze. We were warned to limit our outdoor activities. Because of the heat—it was hitting the mid-90s—we wanted to do our hiking in the morning, but unfortunately, that was the time of day when the smoke was at its worst. Our daily hike became a short jaunt out to the dog pen so Raku could take care of business.
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| A typical smoke map from before we left. The studio marked by the blue dot. |
So, we decided to head to higher, cooler ground. Our destination: Lake City, Colorado, at 8660 feet.
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| Lake City's a beautiful town with many historic homes and a small downtown. But get there off-season, as it is ATV-crazy in the summer. |
Lake City is in the San Juan Range in the southwestern part of the state. As you may recall, just a few weeks ago we spent some time on the west side of the range, near Dolores and Cortez. This time, we settled on the east side. As with Dolores and Cortez, Lake City is a perfect base camp for hiking and plein air painting. Nearby are the scenic towns of Pagosa Springs, Creede and Gunnison, plus many miles of roads and trails through forest.
Although the smoke didn't follow us to Lake City, the heat did. Even at nearly 9000 feet, afternoons pushed the mercury up into the mid- to high 80s. We hiked in the morning, painted at lunch time, and then hit the shade for the early afternoon. It wasn't until near sundown that things cooled off again for an evening walk. We did find a wonderful trail in a canyon that fell into shade early and edged along a cool creek. We walked that trail every evening.
Because it was a short trip, I only came back with a handful of gouache sketches. But being somewhere cool and smoke-free was the point of it all.
Below are all 5x8 gouache:
