Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Separate | Park 34

June 2016 | James

This picture was taken the summer I was in Nepal completing my grad school practicum. J and I started dating the day before I left for Kathmandu, so to say the relationship was fresh and fragile is, well, an understatement.

A couple weeks after I’d left, J went backpacking in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison with good friends of ours. They brought a camera and took dozens of photos that made me more than a little jealous to be missing out when I received the flood of text messages with pictures after they returned to cell reception. But this was the image that jumped out at me. They’d brought equipment to take night photos, including this one, where they spelled my name with flashlights during a long exposure shot. My heart warmed. I might be half the world away, but I’d been remembered.

This became the background on my computer for the next four months until I was back in Colorado to be reunited with J—marking the beginning of our in-person relationship. And the rest, as they say, is history.

March 2016 | Emily

A whimsical, improbable day trip (for context, it’s over a four-hour drive, one-way, from Denver; so this was a long day) to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison with a friend. The weather was cold and clear and the park was completely deserted. Our hike along the upper edge of the canyon was stunning, but left me wanting more. We could just see the green ribbon of the Gunnison River from our vantage point as it wended its way through the gorge. Next time, I hope to be pitching a tent next to it.