I\u2019m thinking about Ouray, Colorado.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
For me, it was love at second sight. I first came here with the family in the \u201880s to swim in the town\u2019s famous hot springs pool. But it was just a day trip, and all I remember is that the kids cut their feet on a rough cement bottom.<\/p>\n
Then, in 1999, Charlotte, Joni and I drove my Toyota 4 X 4 pickup from Lake City over precarious Engineer Pass and into America\u2019s Little Switzerland. While eating lunch, sitting on an outside deck, gawking at majestic peaks that rise abruptly on three sides, it happened.<\/p>\n
I fell in love. With a place.<\/p>\n
Since then Charlotte and I visit Ouray most every year, and I hike the same trails each time\u2014Upper Cascade Falls, Chief Ouray\u2019s Mine, Twin Peaks.<\/p>\n
Steve Garber says \u201cwe do not flourish as human being when we belong to no place and no place cares about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation: We love hiking best in places we love best.<\/p>\n
**Parts of this blog were taken from my book The Best Retirement Gifts Are Free<\/em>, 2022.<\/p>\n **Do the paths we walk change us? My next blogs will be about place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m thinking about Ouray, Colorado. 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 family in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3454,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453\/revisions\/3454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}