Taos, NM We left Taos at 4:00 a.m. The crisp, 45 degree air brought me awake completely to greet the stillness. The mountains to the northeast were just beginning to glow with the very start of dawn, and the moon and the stars hung heavily over our heads. With Billie Holiday as the soundtrack and Laura asleep in the passenger seat, I was left alone to watch the sun rise in the review mirror. The sun started to splash its color behind the mountains as the car was climbing through the Carson National Forest, so the views only got more spectacular as we went. At one clearing at an especially high peak, the mountains, the sun, the colors and the trees were so beautiful I quite literally caught my breath in a gasp, and could have cried at the exquisiteness. Mountains, draped in a hazy pink and purple stretched back, one range on top of another for infinity, and the closest peaks were framed orange, pink, yellow, and red. Something about being up so early, completely alone in such gorgeous surroundings lent an almost religious feeling to the morning. I was lost in a reverie, ready to stop the car and simply live among these woods for the rest of my life.