If I believed in reincarnation, I would say I must have once been a Ute Apache. That would explain the connection my spirit has with this former hunting ground of Chief Ouray and company.

For me, it was love at second sight. I first came here with the fam in the 80s to swim in the town’s famous hot springs pool. But it was just a day trip, and all I remember is that the kids cut their feet on the rough cement bottom.

Then, in 1999, Charlotte, Joni and I drove my Toyota 4 X 4 pickup over precarious Engineer Pass and into America’s Little Switzerland. While eating lunch, sitting on an outside deck, gawking at majestic peaks that rise abruptly on three sides, it happened.

I fell in love. With a place.

In The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis suggests that heaven looks like our favorite places on earth, only better. Much better.

I hope so. I really hope so.