Me and My Leper (entry for 5/29/2024) In 1950, just a few months after we moved to Montrose, Colorado, where I had just started the 5 th grade, we took a trip on highway 550, beyond our usual destination of Ouray, up onto what they then called the Million-Dollar Highway. (Because that was how much it had cost to build, back in the day. And to think that today a million bucks can barely pay for one MILE of highway!) Our first stop after Ouray itself, where we of course visited Box Canyon (already one of our favorite places on earth), was at Bear Creek Falls, a short distance above Ouray, going south. Now I have seen many waterfalls in my life, but Bear Creek is still one of my favorites. It’s not as beautiful as Multnomah or as powerful as Niagara, or even as breathtaking as Yosemite, but it has a lot going for it all the same. For one thing, for Colorado it’s BIG. (A lot more water than Multnomah in Oregon.) For another, it’s spectacular. It comes shooting out of a ...