At 34, after years of climbing the ranks of a Wall Street law firm, I was burned out and deeply disconnected from the natural world.
Unsure of where I wanted to live, after leaving my job, I spent a year camping in the American West. During that trip, I visited Telluride, Colorado, and was immediately awed by the rose-emerald hues, toothy ridgelines, and elk herds roaming the valley.
It was the sort of place I often fantasized about escaping to, and it was easy to see why it’s routinely voted one of the best mountain towns in the US.
In early 2017, ready to settle in one spot, I moved to a valley just south of Telluride, certain I’d find a…
