The cover of the current American Photo magazine played to my love of travel photography and hooked me with their cover teaser of the 25 Top Places for Photos. I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting photo destinations to dream about and set my sights on as future goals. The cover photo of some fire dancers also pulled me in — I got to shoot some a couple years ago in Mexico.

I flipped through and found the article, broken into five sections: landscape, architecture, wildlife, etc. There were a few expected favorites and some new surprises. Among the expected was the Four Corners region, with the contributing photographers noting the amount and quality of available light and the seemingly endless supply of great subjects.

The next destination me, but it may have not surprised others.  Listed as one of the world’s top 25 photo spots are the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. The contributing photographers cited the fall colors and the spring wildflowers as reasons to visit, with the Durango airport serving as a natural gateway to the area and connecting to the much more accessible Denver airport.

In the past the Mentor Series, a global series of photography workshops sponsored by Nikon, has made stops in Durango along with notable stops including this year’s in Egypt, New York City, Botswana and others.

The article served as a reminder to me that we are sitting at the doorstep of two of the areas of the world that many landscape photographers from across the U.S. and around the world would love to put on their itineraries. We’re fortunate that, within minutes, most of us can be on the edge of a lake to capture great reflections and gorgeous sunsets. Within a short drive we can find ourselves in the ever-changing and iconic American Southwest.

With this in mind I made the drive up to William’s Creek Wednesday night to take my camera out of the bag and play around in our Top 25 spot. It was good to have a refreshed sense of where I am and how lucky we are to have so many photographic opportunities at our doorstep.