A Bit About Crestone
This journal entry will amble about in an organic manner, and I hope to leave you with some anecdotes and ideas about our fair town, what might be happening out this way on any day of the week, and aspects about how I reinvent my life; recreating myself, if you will.
The very first time I came to Crestone was to look for a new home, back in September, 2006. I had already seen Crestone in a “vision” some time back. I was clear about where I was being guided, and so I came here with definition. After several trips over from The Big City, we found the home a few months later, sold our home in Boulder in a jiffy, and moved here in late June 2007. As we moved in on that June afternoon, a magnificent double rainbow appeared drapped over the 14,000 foot mountains towering up to our east. I could see the placement of both ends of the rainbow. Usually you only see one end, but here one usually sees both ends. It’s a spectacle here, these rainbows stretched out across the big mountains. This rainbow marked a portal, and the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
I describe Crestone as an enclave; a distinct territorial, cultural, and social unit enclosed within itself out here at the end of Saguache County Road T. It is the finest place I have ever lived, and I believe that one day Crestone will become one of the important rebirthing centers of a more advanced and conscious human civilization. It is a community of independent, resourceful, and resilient cultural creatives, artists, spiritualists, and earthy people with wide ranging skill sets.
The community is arranged on about 14,000 acres. Some Crestonians consider the true geophysical proportions to really be about 12 X 12 miles square. (Hanne Strong told me that. She is the matriarchal patron of all of Crestone’s spiritual centers and venues.) If you were to consider from the Sand Dunes up north to Crestone and then out west to Highway 17, you would arrive at an area of 144 square miles. This number is of numerological significance to some thinkers that I have listened to.
Crestone town, plus the subdivisions, have a honeycomb of about 82 miles of roads stringing along the mountain sides. On an average day there are maybe 1000 inhabitants, a number that can balloon up to 1500 on a busy day, like when we have our annual music festival in early August. Crestone is situated in Saguache County, a land mass about the size of Rhode Island.
We have no stop lights in this county, but we do have stop signs, and folks do come to a stop here. The most common motor vehicle accident is the event of a motor vehicle impacting a deer or elk, which can be significant in many regards. The motorist is usually unharmed, the vehicle is damaged or totalled, the animal dies and is harvested by the locals: coyotes, magpies, crows, ravens, eagles, hawks, and humans.
The Roadkill Section–if you don’t want to read a non gruesome account about roadkill in Crestone, please scroll down to the Next Section.
The road killed animals in the Crestone-Baca community are harvested by our collection of local residents on a first come, first serve basis. If you are the human, you will want to get there first.
I once harvested a road killed elk cow out on the T Road back in August 2008. She was made to let go of her elk ghost by an unassuming huntress in a Prius. The huntress escaped unharmed, but the Prius and the cow experienced demise. My friend Dave Levine and I beat the other locals to the scene, and were able to save the backstraps and 3 of the quarters. A passing motorist stopped, excitedly fascinated, as she thought we were assisting in an elk birthing (wrong time of year). She wanted to assist us. Dave diplomatically handled the explanation of the true scope of practice in our roadside clinic.
About Dave, an above average man, and Crestonian. Dave is way past above average, maybe out to way advanced, a unique and wonderful man, one of my mentors on matters Crestone and matters life. His website, www.dharmamedicines.com, reveals one of his spiritual gifts. Very fine medicine. He is the most naturally connected human I know, a natural spiritualist.
He came here from Manhattan some years back, and built his own home, a common Crestonian endeavor and for some folks here this activity becomes a chronic pastime . Dave designed this website you are on right now. He’s very artistic and creative. He is an extraordinary mountain man, hunter, plays guitar and sings, and he makes the best home brewed beer and mead one can find. His wife Jenn, another gifted creative, is a writer, a professional journalist, a stylist, a local pottery artisan, and she also is from Manhattan. Her accomplishments are noted at www.jennweede.com. They are both 36 years these days, transplanted Big City folks, and are typical of the friends we hang out with. Back to the Journal line…
The elk cow we harvested still tastes good, especially when prepared in a vacuum marinade tumbler (a device called a Reveo) with my favorite mix of spices (a “secret” Moroccan sauce), buttermilk, or both, and then grilled. I’m down to my last frozen package of her, which I have hidden beneath surrounding packs of venison, other elk, lamb, bison, pheasant, and locally raised turkey and chickens. I must be saving her last remains for something special; perhaps to cook up for a special guest who will remark favorably about the recherche and rechaffe. Two years old road killed elk…it’s awright.
When friends come over for an evening meal, you might be wondering if I am going to serve them meat harvested by the utilization of a motor vehicle, a firearm, or an arrow. The secret is in the sauce. I could prepare a sample of all 3 methods of take for your dining pleasure, and you couldn’t tell the difference, even if you were a psychic culinary master.
The meat from a local wild animal is one of the possible remedies for vegetarianism. I was a vegetarian for about 6 years back in my 20’s and 30’s when I got holy and mystical. I missed the carnitine, an amino acid molecule in meat that is essential for mitochondrial production of ATP, the energy molecule. I was a young father, a husband, and a surgical resident. My brain and adrenal glands kept wondering, “Hey, where’s the carnitine?”
One must ingest carnitine. It comes from meat. It is also in my supplement regime, being critical for cardiovascular, neurological, immune system, adrenal, and liver functions. One does not have to give up one’s vegetarianism; one can simply take a high quality carnitine supplement. This is what you can learn from reading about road killed meat. This is my journalistic attempt to demystify the road killed phenomenon. Let’s amble into another realm about the reinvention of one’s life in Crestone…
The Next Section–Composting Human Doodoo–if you don’t want to read an account about humanure and how some folks here handle human waste, please scroll down to The Next Section.
This roadkill recycling experience is somewhat analogous to the Sun Mar composting toilet (www.sun-mar.com) in use in the office bathroom over at the HLC&R. I look on it all as a means of recycling. Human doodoo makes a very fine compost, and is one way I can recycle some of those fine and expensive nutritional supplements I gobble down daily.
I recycle extensively, reusing all sorts of things over and over. It is a form of fastidious frugality. In addition, I collect for monthly runs up to Salida, CO, where the city has put up a nice recycling center. Over in The Big City (Boulder, CO) we had roadside recycling, and even then, I found that many inhabitants were oblivious and uncaring to the process.
Well, not a lot of Crestonians recycle either, and that’s too bad for Gaia. Junk piles up that could be reused. Americans are addicted consumerists, to a serious fault. It will be interesting to see how people respond when their money has no value, the grid is down, and they can’t get their stuff. This is a time when the smart ones will say, “Bye Bye Big City.”
The recycling of human doodoo is not voodoo. This process goes on in all municipal waste treatment plants. Crestone does have a waste treatment plant. Our water and sanitation boss man, Steve Harrell is also a friend. I called him up one day, and requested a tour of the facilty. He toured me through the facilty, and educated me about the process of how the waste is cleaned up and released back into nature from whence it came. Pretty fascinating technology to watch doodoo turn into reusable biomass.
My friends want me to use the human doodoo compost on the fruit trees only. The tree will clean it up, you see, and it won’t get up into the fruit. This is true, and it’s also somewhat hilarious. What else would you expect from a former general surgeon but a writing on roadkill harvesting and the recycling of BM in the AM that you created in the PM.
My friends are not up to speed on Sun Mar toilets, and some may have even forgotten that the refrigerator/freezer phenomenon is a relatively new way of prolonging the edibility of excellent meat. I figure that the goodness of human doodoo compost will be revealed in the sweetness of the fruit. Perhaps this will placate my overly concerned friends. Then I will move on to experiment in, say, just one of the garden beds.
You wonder if I’m going to get back to writing about Crestone proper. OK……..
The Next Section–Back to Crestone
The word Crestone means “cock’s comb,” refering to the shape of one of the 14,000 foot peaks here which goes by the name Crestone Peak. Some of the 20’s something crowd here call this place “The Stone.” This nickname may be an apt indicator of said crowd’s neurotransmitter status. I cast no aspersions (calumniations), or stones…
We have a real town of Crestone, a charming and bustling affair, which features: a post office, a bank (Credit Union), a town hall, several quaint shops, a hotel, several excellent eateries, a liquor store, an excellent and large organic grocery (over 25 years old, same owners), a large conventional grocery (opened last week), a hardware store, a laundromat, a gasoline pump, and a medical marijuana dispensory and clinic. There is a town hall, a thrift shop, a “free bin,” a flower shop, a wonderful Saturday morning farmer’s market where anyone can set up and sell anything, a food co-op, a tea house, a barber shop, a pottery guild, a knitting shop cafe, and a yoga studio which doubles as a lecture hall and venue for other events. There is a cemetery, a tiny Episcopal Church, and a larger Baptist Church. The old hanging tree is still living, dogs wander about, and children ride their tricycles, bicycles, and skateboards right down the streets of our happy town.
These children are educated in our charter school, and over in nearby Moffat, Colorado at the high school. We have 2 excellent fire departments with highly trained volunteer personel. These people are dedicated, and train every week. A number of our firefighters also serve on our well managed Emergency Medical Service team and our Search and Rescue team. They inspire me in a variety of ways, and so we hang out with them a lot, and both my wife and I train with them in various efforts. They seem to know just about everything, and so I carry on with some of them and they educate me in important subjects.
Out the T Road, a short distance, we have a library, a 9 hole golf course which wastes water, a tennis court, a basketball court, and a firearms practice range. The POA administrative facilities are out here, as is the ambulance “barn” where we have meetings and trainings. There is a refrigerator in a small kitchen at the POA hall, and the ambulance director leaves me a half gallon of raw goat milk a couple times a week during the warm months when her goats are suckling. She has a nice little herd of multiplying goats. The young babes hatch out after a 5 month gestation anywhere between February and May.
The young kids will suck on your finger if you put your hand through the fence. If you didn’t suck your thumb when you were a child, then you can quickly make up for any perceived deficit regarding this infant practice of your past inner child development by letting a young goat suck on your fingers and thumb.
This is some for real and serious digit sucking, and is actually rather kinesthetically extraordinary. Since a good number of your meridians end and begin in the digits of your hands, you can also consider this experience for its chi balancing therapeutic value. Letting a kid goat suck on your finger parts will also give you a comparative experience against which you may quantify and qualify you own personal and intimate thumb sucking experience, at the very least. Just saying………….,
………..oh, yes, there is another marvelous kinesthetic experience which awaits you…………at the…………..
Hot Springs and Spas
It is important to mention a really nice local amenity which can be enjoyed by taking a 25 minute ride down the T Road and turning north on Highway 17 for another 12 miles. You will arrive at the Joyful Journey Hot Springs and Spa, which is owned and run by my friend Elaine Blumenhein. You can see more about this popular amenity at http://www.joyfuljourneyhotsprings.com/home.htm.
This is a very nice facility. All of our 30 something children love it, as does everyone else that comes here to visit. There are 3 different temperature soaking tubs from warm to quite warm, all fed by natural mineral rich hot springs. You can watch the moon rise, the sun set, and the stars come out, and the snow flakes fall. You can stay in their hotel rooms. You can walk inside of a 42 foot geodesic growing dome and learn about the phenomenon of the geodesic growing dome. Fabulous. See www.growingspaces.com. Recommended.
For the sake of completeness, I will mention the presence of another hot springs experience which is not far from Joyful Journey, just up a dirt road a bit into the higher ground. This place is called Valley View Hot Springs. It is more rustic than Joyful Journey, and clothing is optional. I have never experienced this hot springs spa; I have only seen it from the roadside, and so that’s about all I can say about that.
Back to Crestone
The town of Crestone sprang up back in 1880 as a mining town. It was rough and tumble. The hanging tree took on a new role other than being a nice ponderosa. These days Crestone is very peaceful. The only violence I have come close to knowing about was a conflict between 2 young men, which I managed to interrupt. I did that by unknowingly showing up at the right place at the right time with an offering. It’s a good story which I call “The Angel from Montgomery” (song by John Prine) and I shall have to journal it sometime. It is a small story about the part we all play in the web of life.
Crestone is under its own management, being incorporated in 1901. It has its own mayor and fire department, and is home to the venues described above. We have also have a holistic dentist, and umpteen other types of healers. I sometimes consult with an authored astrologer, Louis Acker, who speaks circles around me when it comes to how transdimensional energetics become manifest. He also has the coolest metal work shop around. All of the bell and wind gongs out at the HLC&R were made by Louis, and they release healing tones that quiet the brian chatter.
A couple of weekends ago I took a chainsaw class with the mayor, a retired physician, and some of the firefighters. The class was hosted by our fire captain and one of his assistants. I had recently killed one chainsaw by seizing the power head from too lean of a fuel mixture, and I figured I probably had developed some other unsafe operational habits. So I went to this class, seeking some expert professional training. It is one of the finest classes of any sort that I have ever participated in, and I have sat in on quite a number.
You can get educated down here at the end of this county road on about anything that strikes your curiosity and interest. There is bound to be some kind of pro on the subject, and folks put on some very nice classes here. For instance, this past weekend we learned about how to become bee guardians and how to manage a top bar hive. It’s important for our local ecology, and will provide the personal benefits of honey and honeycomb and cross pollination for the plants on our land.
One is a guardian of the bees first and foremost, which is more important than reaping the bee treasures. The bees are having a rough go of it, and for the sake of the planet, we all should try to help them out. Please visit www.backyardhive.com, and learn about the top bar hive and the work of our teacher Corwin Bell, who came down from The Big City to help us learn.
Aside from the township of Crestone, which encompasses 200 acres, we refer to the community of Crestone as a larger entity which includes the Baca Grande Subdivision, a large tract which was originally part of the Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca Ranch Land Grant from Mexico in 1823. The Baca subdivision was developed in 1971, originally as a retirement location for military personel. The Baca Grande Property Owner’s Association (the POA) was created in 1972 to manage the land and growth, and the POA keeps all the rules and regs, has a revolving Board, helps manage infrastructure, etc. We pay yearly dues to the POA which allows it to operate.
Originally about 10,800 lots, the Baca, as we call this collection, was subdivided into 5 units: Chalet Units I, II, and III, the Grants, and the Mobile Home Estates, aka Casita Park. The Chalets are on the high ground of the mountain slopes, the Grants are on the more western flats stretching out into the Valley, and Casita Park is a couple miles out on the T Road.
The Baca Grande Water and Sanitation District was organized in 1972 to provide domestic water and sewer services to the Chalets. Homes in the Grants are on individual well water and septic systems. For instance, my wife Jean Ann and I live in Chalet I and are on the BGWSD services. The Haelan LifeStream Center and Retreat (HLC&R) is out in the Grants and is supplied by delicious alpine water, a septic system, and a composting toilet. Please refer to the Photo Gallery on this web site. In some of those pictures, the view is to the east, looking up to the Chalets which stretch out on the higher ground across the mountain sides.
Our Monthly Newspaper
Crestone has the finest free press newspaper I have ever read. It is a monthly publication, and is called The Crestone Eagle. It printed by some of the good local folk, who write about the important local information and news that helps to move us along to notable community events. Any Crestonian can write an article and contribute. Everything we need to know is there. It cost $1.00 to have a copy. You can order a subscription also. See www.crestoneeagle.com. Circulation is worldwide.
Imagine that, an independent free press with excellent and diverse articles. A whole page is devoted to the month’s astrology, unlike those tiny clips in mainstream press. The next page over is all about what’s happening in the skies over Crestone for the month. Other sections depict activities of Crestone’s 22 different spiritual retreat centers and traditions. Another section is about all the animals here that are not the 2 legged type. Two whole pages editorialize on the world geopolitical scene. There is several pages of a real estate section, and I pray that all of the right people with the needed gifts will be arriving to live in those homes and on those lots.
Police Presence
Police coverage for our community is supplied by the Saguache County Sherriff’’s Office over in our county seat in Saguache, Colorado. Mike Norris is the sheriff. They are a good team. They have also provided me with other types of instruction of a tactical nature. I keep good relations with our force. We also have Colorado State Troopers who manage to make the 12 mile journey down the T Road, and their presence is appreciated. We don’t have a lot of speeders here. The top speed limit is 35 mph, and if you exceed it, your chances of being ticketed, or hitting a slow moving deer are increased.
As alluded to above, if you hit a 4 legged animal on these roads, just keep your cool, call 911 for help, and stay safe. If you know any stalwart Crestonians, just call them up, should you be carrying that extraordinary electromagnetic device known as a cell phone. One of Crestone’s dependable humanitarians will arrive very soon to assist you, the suffering animal, your vehicle, and act as an excellent intermediary for you, the EMS folks, and the law enforcement folks should you be in a state of dissociative traumatic withdrawal.
Crestone Standard Time
Things are not rushed here. We are on Crestone Standard Time, and everything is arranged by the Organizational Grid and the Alignment of Divine Timing. If you would like to experience that phenomenon, then I hope you will pay us a visit. If you ever wondered about the now commonly circulated terminology of “space-time,” then this is the place where you want to come for a practical experiential knowledge acquisition of “what is space-time?,” as well as a accompanying smorgasbord of intellectuals who will offer their own definitive version on the subject matter of space-time.
I can offer you a word abstraction thesis on horizontal time, vertical time, Now time, circular (sacred) time, and how this theoretical melange really works inside of your Heart and the life you want to manifest. No problemo.
Identity Crisis Considerations
I rarely drive around with my wallet and driver’s license, unless I need to go buy something downtown, or go travelling to distant towns. I just grab the keys and take off. The nice police officers will possibly pull me over one day for something, and I will have to provide evidence as to my identity.
Back in The Big City where I had the heebie jeebies, I had an identity crisis, and so I needed an ID of some sort. These days, I’m more at home, and wander about freely without an identity issue. I have more of a sense about who I am out here on these county roads, admixed as I am with Nature, and no stop lights and such. I’ll probably get ticketed anyhow, you know, just for being me.
A special consideration about Crestone that you can ponder should you ever come here for a visit and meet some Crestonians is this: Is there a collective Identity crisis in Crestone? Do people come here to escape an identity, and/or hope to find (create) a new identity? Why are you coming here?
I have pondered that question. The reason I have pondered that question is because Crestone’s citizenry has quite an interesting collective of independent and strong minded folks, who all freely admit that they are not feigning any airs about having figured “it” all out. Yes, there are a few whackos, and fringed out marginalized types, as in any community. We all try to help these folks out as is necessary. The community is a work in progress.
97% of the people here that I know are solid. A few of them even understand tackle football. There is not a one of them that I would consider messing around with should I catch a case of mischievousness. They also show up when and if you should need them.
Medical Facilities
Medical coverage is provided at the Moffat Medical Center, just 12 miles out to where the T Road turns into Moffat at the junction of State Highway 17. I carry my wallet and driver’s license out in that region of space. In Crestone we have the Baca-Crestone Ambulance service which provides Emergency Medical Service (EMS) coverage to the northeastern portion of Saguache County, about 528 square miles from the Sand Dunes down south, out to Highway 17 to the west, several miles north of Crestone proper to one mile north of County Road AA, and then we have the Sangres to border the eastern limit of our ambulance coverage. We are a 501c3 and receive funding from our ambulance district, tax fees, and some fee for service.
The EMS is managed by a paramedic, Pam Gripp, who is really expert, and we all love her. Aside from our excellent manager, there are some 8 volunteers consisting of one RN (my wife), Intermediate and Basic EMT’s, First Responders, and 2 MD’s, myself included. We need more EMT volunteers to staff our small service, and so, if you are reading this Journal entry, and if you want to come and live here and provide such a service, then you are most welcome to come and see and be….here….now.
We have 2 ambulances; one of them is brand new as of this week. We run our patients primarily down to San Luis Regional Medical Center, the excellent hospital in Alamosa, CO, 45 miles south. We also run up over Poncha Pass in the northern Valley to Heart of the Rockies, the excellent hospital in Salida, CO, 50 miles north.
On an as needed basis, we will call in helicopter transport (Flight for Life), or fixed wing transport out of Alamosa (Eagle Air Med). If we call in the helicopters to Crestone, they usually land in the South Crestone Park by one of the fire stations. We will stabilize and transport to Alamosa or Salida, and can also have the identified flying object waiting on us there. We may also call in a helicopter in to Crestone to assist with Search and Rescue missions into the high country to help hikers and mountaineers who have encountered serious difficulties. This happens several times each summer. Some folks make it, and some folks Make It.
The Crestonians who volunteer in this service are very strong people, and they are saviors. Search and Rescue missions in these mountains is arduous and demands real experts who live in strong bodies, have strong Hearts, and have Brain smarts. They have to get up there, find the people, and bring them out, usually on stretcher. God Bless.
We have an anthroposophical M.D. who helps out alot. He practices holistically from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner.
There is also an allopathic M.D. in downtown Crestone who provides very mainstream services in a small office she has opened up next to the knitting shop and cafe.
We also have a botox doctor who a Board Certified plastic surgeon M.D. She also performs other minor procedures.
There are also a number of very nice retired M.D.s who live here, and they pinch hit real good if you want yet another opinion.
There is a retired general surgeon who used to do what I used to do. He was on staff at the University of Colorado Medical School, being very instrumental there in upgrading trauma services through ut the state. He then went and trained in a residency program for psychiatry, and is Board Certified in this specialty, which he practices here. Aside from this service, he is a high level black belt in one of the martial arts forms and he teaches this to local students.
I respect my medical peers in Crestone, Colorado.
If you want to have a home birth of your child here, well you can just do just that. We have a very excellent certified midwife, Alycia Chambers. Home birthing is the most common way babes enter into Crestone.
There is also a doula who practices midwifery here, but I can’t remember her name. I went over to her home once to meet folks and share a few helpful words about perinatal trauma. The dwelling where this meeting was held had a central living room with a fireplace which was masterfully constructed and plastered into the wall as a huge vagina, from the intoitus to the labia minora to the labia majora to the clitoris. And inside was the very fire of creativity, you know, billowing out the smoking signature. As they say, “Where there is smoke, there’s fire.”
In addition to these practitioners there is a wide variety of many types of holistic practitioners who work inside of their niched offerings.
Crestone Lodging
There are a number of lodging choices for visitors, from the Sangre de Cristo Inn in bustling downtown Crestone to a variety of B&B’s which are advertised in The Crestone Eagle newspaper to some other offerings at the Crestone Area Visitors Agency (http://crestonevisit.com/index.html). The White Eagle Lodge out on the T Road is a bigger facility, is now under new management, and is undergoing an extensive and drawn out renovation.
I have been told that the finest accomodations for an individual or a couple is at the Haelan LifeStream Center and Retreat, which you can read all about on this web site. See the Photo Gallery slide show above. The domicile will also readily accomodate a total of 4 people, but is ideal for a couple.
The HLC&R is a high quality elegant off grid strawbale construction which you will never forget. It features a very fine kitchen, excellent well water, an attached growing space, outside organic growing beds, a solar oven to learn about (best way to cook food, and too simple), a true sense of privacy inside of the grounds enclosures, extensive outside stonework patios which will take you away, and a seasoned physician who comes and goes to check on the solar system, visit with his clients, and assist the rental inhabitants.
Crestone Weather
Crestone and environs see about 330 sunny days per year. Average annual precipitation is some 10 inches per year, and so this is a high desert ecosystem. There is plenty of water, in so much as Crestone is adjacent to the second largest underground aquifer in the North American continent.
You can study up on Crestone’s meteorological conditions, and surrounding places, at Crestone’s Weather Center which can be viewed at http://www.keno.org/vws/. A gentleman named Keno runs this web site, which is updated every 10 minutes with new data from his weather station collection system. It is a very nice little service. He also publishes a monthly meteorological report in our newspaper.
Open Air Cremation Services
Crestone is the only place in the western hemisphere that I know of which offers a sublime way of honoring a life that has passed on.
If one should give up the ghost (move on to Life after Life) while living in Crestone, and if one has lived here at least 3 months prior to moving on into The Light, and if one has made one’s end of Life choices known, then one may choose to have their body handled via a unique experience. Crestone is the only town in America which offers its residents the option of open air cremation of the deceased body.
You can read more about this terrific service in my recent Journal entry entitled “The Bee’s Knees.” This entry was posted on April 25, 2010, and you can view this writing at http://haelanlifestream.com/wordpress/the-bees-knees/. I hope that you will read it. It may help to assuage some of your angst about living and dying. Simple version: we don’t die. We live on. I covered alot of theory and writing on this life mystery issue in the past Life after Life series of Journal entries. You can scroll back in the Archives to locate this series should you wish.
You can also go to www.crestoneendoflifeproject.org. There you can learn about another one of Crestone’s unique spiritual offerings.
Geophysical Location
So, where is Crestone, Colorado?
Easily put, for the aspiring journeyman, Crestone is in south central Colorado about 12 miles north of the Great Sand Dunes. Crestone is situated at 8000 feet of altitude above sea level on the rising slopes of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range which tower upwards to our east. We look out over the San Luis Valley for some 50 miles, or more, over to the San Juan mountain range to the west.
The sun and moon rise up over our 14,000 foot Sangre peaks, and set to the west over the San Juans. Afternoon sunsets, and morning settings of full moons, are special. Sunsets color the Sangre de Cristo peaks with a red hue, from which the name is derived; the full translation of which is “The Blood of Christ.” It is mighty mightily beautiful. You’re never the same, having seen it. I don’t think I have ever met anyone who has come to Crestone just once.
The night skies here are (in)describable. You have never seen so many stars in the sky. The Milky Way is prominently visible. I have looked up into these skies at night with a night vision device, and marvelled in wonderment. Night vision devices open new visual abilities that ordinary eyes miss. On a clear night with no moonlight about, the enormity and depth of Creation enters your optic pathways, and it changes you.
Looking up into the crucible of Creation will put fire in your eyes, life in your step, and make childbirth a pleasure!
These descriptions are just some examples of what you can visit with here.
You might even figure out that Identity issue mentioned above, and fall in love—with you! Removed from the compressive distractions and speed of The Big City, you may become a believer in a guiding Intelligence that you are an essential part of. Then you may leave here, go back to your place, forget all about your true Identity, cook up another identity crisis, and then develop a longing to come back here to recapture the magic of you.
Then, at some point, some of you may figure that you want a home here. There are alot of homes and empty lots on the market right now, and it is a buyer’s market. Pretty soon, some smart folks will figure out that they want to be out here in order to escape coming chaos. They will be coming with cash to buy those homes and lots.
Signing off from Crestone and Beyond,
A Local Personality