Locations: Opinion Published Jan. 19, 2022

To trap an elk in 1972...

By John Armstrong

CVEPA Views

The 500-pound cow elk was wild-eyed as she kept trying to escape the trap.

She continued to jump up on the eight-foot-tall walls of her plywood pen until she finally broke down a section. The “wapiti” (the Shawnee and Cree word for elk) struggled… read more →

Locations: Letters, Opinion Published Jan. 12, 2022

Money is great. If we have any extra, we ought to spread it out to help others. It is satisfying if done correctly, which means being guided by good intentions. But, don’t forget, we are also great. Even better than money. So we ought… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion By Geneviève Villamizar Published Jan. 12, 2022

Branching out: Oh, my god, the shoveling?

Geneviéve Villamizar.

It’s been 15 years since I’ve lived in a natural setting, and wow. Overnight. Lifestyle. Change.

At a slower rate, I’ve been shuttling for three weeks, moving to our new digs. Every time I pass Sunfire, the mouth of the canyon whispers, This is serious stuff.… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion Published Jan. 5, 2022

My first run in porcelain

Cartoon by Larry Day

By Dyana Z. Furmansky

I don’t ski, so answering The Sopris Sun’s year-end dare to its reporters, to “do something you’ve never done before,” with my first descent down a double black diamond run, was one possibility. Except, for me, ski resorts are like factory farms for winter… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion By Jeannie Perry Published Jan. 5, 2022

Ps & Qs: It's how to play the game

Happy new year! Oh boy, these days it seems like each year is better than the next… just kidding — sort of. We went through the ringer last year: pestilence, poverty, politicians who were ready to burn it all down and hang the vice president on the front… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion Published Jan. 5, 2022

Digging the dark

James Steindler begins to understand why people would willingly crawl around underground — to enjoy the solitude and beauty of hard-to-get-to places like the Glenwood Caverns' Black Grotto. Photo by Will Grandbois

By James Steindler

Sometimes it takes friends to get you out of your comfort zone. It takes even better ones to get you to cross that proverbial boundary while at your side every step of the way. So, with a little help from my friends, for 2022 I…

Year-end reflections from Mayor Dan

For as long as I can remember, my goal in life has been to change the world — for the better. I started off my career focused on clean energy and sustainability in the built environment because it was the most interesting way for me to change the world. After… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion By Raleigh Burleigh Published Dec. 29, 2021

A toast to the stories yet untold

How to sum up a year like 2021? Chinese Astrology deemed it the “Year of the Metal Ox,” which I associate with a lot of hard work. And indeed it was.

Mentally, emotionally, physically — we’ve all been challenged to rise above exceedingly difficult circumstances. Or, at least, to rise… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion Published Dec. 29, 2021

Are our relationships at a healing junction?

The journey back to healthy relationships may require a 180° turn. Courtesy graphic

By Will Evans

A junction point is a meeting place where trails converge. In modern times we may think of an intersection where two streets or highways cross.

Our world is much more than street intersections. Our world is a beautiful web of life-sustaining junction points. Originally, our ancestors were… read more →

Locations: Columns, Opinion Published Dec. 23, 2021

A miracle in the Bronx

Of course there’s a Santa Claus. I saw him up close in the Bronx, in 1959, in the employee bathroom at Alexander’s Department Store. We stood silently, as men do at adjoining urinals, finished our business and returned to our work: he to the Children’s Department on the second floor,… read more →