Listening to the wind at the old Howell Ranch, out west of Gunnison

I stopped by the ranch I used to manage, on the north side of the San Juans, while driving between Gunnison and Montrose. I don't pass this way often anymore, but it's always cathartic.

This is the low country at about 7000 ft elevation (in October, before the snow); the high country is up in the aspen at over 9000 ft. We didn't feed cattle through the winter here, just ran a few hundred pairs and some yearlings from the low country up to the high country and back, from May to October.