|
People who would choose to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere are the kind I’m generally curious about. The people of Rico were great! I expected to find some real characters, such as mountain men. But the city slickers living there, a surprise to me, were interesting in their own right. The citizenry of Rico are very warm and down-to-earth. Once they accepted me as an outsider, the hospitality rolled out.
|
The magazine always needs overview shots to show what a place looks like. I spotted a mountain ridge that looked like a good location for taking photographs at sunset, but there were no roads that went up high enough. So I inquired about a way to get up there. One guy told me we could hike up in snowshoes, but it would take seven or eight hours round trip. Then I found out that I could get permission to borrow snowmobiles from the mountain rescue squad.
Even with snowmobiles, it was a difficult excursion. We were out in the middle of nowhere, which made me a little nervous. I wanted to be in place at sunset, but that meant that as soon as I took the picture it would be getting dark. And once that happened, we might not be able to find our way back. We were on slopes with about 20 feet (6 meters) of new snow, just past where it was safe to be. If there was an avalanche or if anything went wrong, we would be in trouble.
Fortunately, everything turned out fine, but I was a little unsettled about being in such a risky situation.
|
I was in Rico during a blizzard that lasted two or three days. We got anywhere from 14 to 18 inches (36 to 46 centimeters) of snow in 24 hours. This is a mountain town, so I figured the bars would be busy serving beer to people who would have a few, then load into their pickup trucks and head home. But, in the middle of this whole thing, one of the local guys decided to invite the whole town to a fancy sushi party at the hotel he operates. It was the kind of party you expect to attend in a sophisticated city. It didn’t seem to fit Rico. But people showed up in flannel shirts, suspenders, and mukluks and had a great time.
|
