Atop Aspen Mountain a few days ago When you’re a Santa Fean, there’s nowhere better to go in summer than Aspen. Three hundred miles and a seven-hour drive north through precipitous Independence Pass--reliably only open Memorial Day through September--and I am in nirvana. The two high-profile, high-altitude Rocky Mountain towns have lots in common: Santa Fe at 7,000 feet; Aspen at 8,000 (with Aspen Mountain climbing to 11,000). Artists like Paul Pletka, Jack Silverman, Lee Lyon, and sculptor Mark Yale Harris, and jewelry dealers like Les Ochs, circulate back and forth. Santa Fe has brainiacs like former “Life” and “People” magazine editors Dick Stolley and Hal Wingo; Aspen attracts VIPs like Ted Turner, Leonard Lauder, and Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan. Last night at Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery (www.monroegallery.com) with my friend Amy, I heard Stolley and Wingo reminisce about their days at “Life” exposing the shame of the South during the Civil Rights movement, when a photojournalist hid a camera in a pack of Marlboro’s to get the shot he wanted. A few days before, at the Aspen Institute (www.aspeninstitute.org), we heard Kagan, in a gray striped jacket and pearls, confide about her first year on the Supreme Court and how the minute after she was confirmed the first phone call she got was from chief justice John Roberts telling her it was likely they’d be working together for the next 25 years. The quick-witted Kagan recalled, “I said, `Only 25?’” The Aspen house we stayed at What I loved most about Aspen this trip was staying in a gorgeous wood-planked house near the Ute Trail which I hiked every morning; crisp high-mountain air that dipped down to a refreshing 50 degrees at night; the riotous profusion of flowers everywhere—daisies, petunias, columbines; Maine lobster rolls and Nantucket sea bass at the new BB’s Kitchen; catching Kevin Costner and Modern West (www.kevincostnermodernwest.com) rock out a heartfelt set at Belly Up where former sheriff Bob Braudis told me about his Hunter Thompson book; and immersing myself in bear break-ins and the upcoming USA Pro Cycling Challenge in the Aspen Times (www.aspentimes.com) and Aspen Daily News (www.aspendailynews.com).
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Above: My mustang Ryo in Tesuque, NM. Our barn owner in Malibu described him as Ghandi-esque because Ryo didn't fight for the best feed bin like the other horses. When Ryo died in Tesuque, I turned on my car radio to hear John Lennon singing "Imagine"... that was Ryo "living life in peace." PHOTOS BY WOLF SCHNEIDER
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