Horses and Mt. Princeton, Colorado. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

This photo above was taken just a few miles south of Buena Vista, Colorado on U.S. 285. I have filmed this scene on several occasions. The fall colors on this trip were an added photographic bonus.

The drive down U.S. 285 from Denver to the San Luis Valley is one of my favorites. Highlights of the drive (from north to south) are Kenosha Pass about an hour south of Denver (with nice aspen in the fall), the drive down into and across the austere and barren beauty of South Park, the town of Fairplay (made famous by the South Park cartoons on TV), the Arkansas River Valley (where this photo was taken) with the Collegiate Peaks to the west (including Mt. Princeton), Poncha Pass and the drive down into the high desert plateau of the San Luis Valley with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east, and Great Sand Dunes National Park toward the southern end of the Sangre de Cristos.

Side trips include Guanella Pass (beginning near Grant and going north to Georgetown) and Marshall Pass (begining south of Poncha Springs and heading west to Sargents and U.S. 50). Both passes are beautiful fall color drives.