What I love about this image is that the clouds above the mountains are mirroring the shape of the mountains but in the sky! It is the reason I call this image "Mountains In The Sky". These are the towering mountains of the Sangre de Cristo (Spanish for "Blood of Christ") the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. This range runs from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast and south, and ends at the Glorieta Pass, just southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here is a link to google maps for the location of this beautiful place. This impressive range used to be called "La Sierra Nevada", or "La Sierra Madre", or "La Sierra", and simply "The Snowies" (used by English speakers). In 1719 the Spanish explorer Antonio Valverde y Cosio named the range "Sangre de Cristo" ("Blood of Christ") mountains after being impressed by the reddish hue of the snowy peaks at sunrise, alpenglow. On the right side of this image is Mount Herald with its 13340 ft / 4066 m peak. Below this is the Great Sand Dunes National Park, containing the tallest sand dunes in North America which rise to a maximum height of 750 feet / 229 m, from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The dunes cover an area of about 19,000 acres / 7,700 ha. Researchers say that the dunes started forming less than 440,000 years ago and were created from sand and soil deposits of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, flowing through the San Luis Valley. Over ages, the glaciers that fed the river and vast lake that existed across the valley melted away, and the water evaporated. Westerly winds picked up the exposed remaining sand particles from the dry lake and river flood plain. As the wind eventually lost power prior to crossing the Sangre de Cristo Range, the sand was deposited on the east edge of the valley, creating the piled up dunes we see today. This process still continues, and the dunes are slowly growing. The wind changes the shape of the dunes daily as it continues to move sand from the middle of the valley northward. 
(Research Source)
(Research Source)
Behind the dunes there is a small creek that runs through that pass to the left of Mount Herald, this is called Sand Creek . In the pass there is a small but pointed peak sticking up in the distance right below the clouds on the horizon, that is Blueberry Peak. Following the ridgeline and continuing up to the left is Cleveland Peak 13,420 ft / 4091 m. Immediately to the left of that is Tijeras Peak at 13604 ft / 4146 m. This is followed by Music Mountain at 13380 ft / 4078 m and then Pico Asilado at 13611 ft / 4148 m. Further to the left is Broken Hand Peak at 13573 ft / 4137 m.
Moving on to the left along the mountain tops we next come to venerable Crestones, a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, here we have Humboldt Peak at 14064 ft / 4287 m, and then Crestone Needle at 14197 ft / 4327 m and Crestone Peak at 14294 ft / 4357 m.And to the far left we have Columbia Point at 13980 ft / 4261 m, then Kit Carson Mountain at 14165 ft / 4317 m. This was named after the famed pioneer and explorer Kit Carson.
And finally the last large mountain on the far left of this image is Challenger Point at 14081 ft / 4291 m. The summit is on the northwest shoulder of Kit Carson Mountain, and is a subpeak of the latter. It was renamed in memory of the seven astronauts who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986.
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This image is from my ongoing project in which I am trying to raise awareness of the 47% of the USA and 90% of Canada that remain unpopulated wilderness.
Where Eagles Fly - The American Wilderness Expedition is my personal mission to introduce people to these amazing locations that surround us.
If you like what you see here upvote then resteemit so that others may experience these wondrous places as well. And if you'd like these images to be part of your feed then follow me.
Yehaw!!
Dear @skypilot wonderful post and it picture is showing a heart touching natural scene ''mountains in the sky'' same thinking i m, after seeing this beautiful scene.
I personally like these natural scenes so I liked your post and especially description you shared is superb dear keep on sharing such posts. well done
Thanks Hamaz! I am glad you enjoyed it.... stay tuned... much more planned for future posts.
Beauty, silence, to live there a week in the mountains, and then this office and the city are already so bored ...
Yes true... it is wonderful knowing that these places exist and that you can always visit them!
Love it, spent the last several months in the area. Planning to climb Mt. Blanca sometime next year.
Nice! Mt. Blanca is an awesome place... don't know if you've seen this image I posted previously about that location.... you might enjoy this. https://steemit.com/photography/@skypilot/sacred-blanca-peak-and-buffalo-bear-on-the-mountain#comments
Thank you for the wonderful photo and the information, so interesting. I'm just glad there are still some vast wild areas left untouched on this planet of ours.
My pleasure, I am very glad you enjoyed it. I am continuously awestruck by the beautiful places I find in my explorations. And I'm very pleased that others enjoy at least virtually experiencing these places. Hopefully it will inspire them to take on their own personal explorations!!
Oh indeed your travels inspire others, can't wait to get up there! Thank you very much
Thanks to post
Awesome, after watching this picture i want say only one thing that is 'world above world'.....thanks for sharing👍👍
I think I told you this before, but just in case I didn't...My dad picked up 60 acres there. Its a part of the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range there. I haven't been there to visit yet, but dad cut a road to the top of the property so we can build something up there eventually.
A few years back half the property got burned from that big fire. I am interested to see more photos of how it looks now. The fire was about 5 years ago I believe.
Yes you did mention that, what a beautiful place. Where along the range is it located? As you probably know the range comes along here as shown in this image and then turns sharply to the south right past the Great Sand Dunes (on the right of this photo) then goes due south till it ends just southeast of Sante Fe, New Mexico. I may already have some images with that property in it.
I will need to ask dad exactly where it is. Its been a while since I google mapped it.
Ok, dad said it was real close to the East Spanish Peaks Boy Scout Camp.
Google maps link
So this is where I fly out of and camp when I am shooting down there... hey we are almost neighbors!! yehaw: Google maps link
That is not far at all. Howdy neighbor 😂
Have you seen this guys YouTube channel?
absolutely....