We sit behind a spiral staircase, in a room once a miner’s cabin, then a blacksmith’s shop. Nothing but stories now.

The inn next door has been put up for sale: too much for one man to cook and wait tables and check in guests and clean, 7 days a week. We slept there one night: Will it be the same when we return?

First night: Cradled by
the most comfortable bed in our travels.

In Antonito, a struggling town in the San Luis Valley, we board a bus for Chama. In Chama, we board a narrow-gauge train for Antonito. This small circle part of the larger loop of this trip. The train tracks almost circle back on themselves so the steel wheels can climb steel rails laid on a steep grade.

Leaning out of the open car,
my camera over the drop.

My feet barely sink into the sand dunes, hardened by the wind across the San Luis Valley. We pose at the first ridge, dunes unfolding beyond.

A father descends the dune on a pink snowboard.
His son spirals down.