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Year in photos: A look back at Southwest Colorado in 2024

Each year brings some of the new and some of the old – breaking news and cherished traditions. It is the people, their emotions, different cultures and varied forms of entertainment that make for impactful images. Add to that Southwest Colorado’s gorgeous scenery, abundant wildlife and range of weather events, and you have the makings for stunning photos. We hope you enjoy Photo Editor Jerry McBride’s photos from 2024.

Bo Deans Towing and Repair uses two heavy tow trucks April 18 to recover the semi truck and trailer that drove off U.S. Highway 550 at the Cascade Creek turn. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Sidney Charles, 11, of Albuquerque, hangs onto a sled Jan. 4 as she wipes out flying down the hill at Buckley Park. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Roberto Delgado Reyes, a mixologist at El Moro Spirits & Tavern, makes a flaming cocktail tower Jan. 18 at the tavern. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Debbie Kurz on Jan. 31 at Snowdown Fashion Dos & Don’ts in the Exhibit Hall at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Team Cheech & Chong empty out of the outhouse after squeezing in 19 people on Jan. 27 during the Snowdown Outhouse Stuffing competition at Gazpacho Restaurant. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
An American Airlines passenger jet is de-iced Feb. 8 before takeoff at Durango-La Plata County Airport. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango High School robotics team Robo Demons members, Kai Brocker, 16, left, Peri Wright, 17, center, and Linus Prothero, 15, make adjustments to their task-completing robot on Feb. 15 at DHS. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango Fire Protection District firefighters train March 8 inside the River City Hall building. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Grace Harrington, 18, is pulled up Chapman Ski Area on March 6 by the historic big tow that was retired at the end of the ski season. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Brian Hayward fills out his ballot on March 5 at the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder’s Office. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
From left, Tony Blevins, IDR Contracting, Kasey Correia, executive director of Dancing Spirit, Tammie Winterhawk, volunteer, Shawna Hein, adult pottery teacher and Todd Gaver, of Clearheart Designs, meet inside the new Dancing Spirit Center for the Arts Gallery and Studio on Feb. 16 in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Members of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad stand in front of steam engine 481 on March 23 for its last time pulling cars on the tracks powered by coal. The locomotive was converted to burn oil. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Dozens of children take off at the start of the city of Durango’s Easter Egg Scramble on March 30 at Santa Rita Park. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Fireman Jonathan Neuer, with Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, shovels coal into the firebox of steam engine 481 on March 23 before pulling out of the depot for the last time powered by coal. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango Fire Protection District firefighters spray a foam and water mix on a car that caught fire April 3 at the Marathon gas station at Carbon Junction and Camino del Rio near Walmart. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Becky Guillet stands shaken up and in disbelief after a vehicle crashed through the wall of her Shear Mischief studio hair salon on April 30 at 2929 Main Ave. # A7 while she was working on a client. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Sabrina Lopez, with Ballet Folklórico de Durango, dances up Main Avenue during Durango’s Earth Day Parade. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Dalhia Viramontes holds her son Santiago, 4, wrapped in blankets before a Rio Rapids Durango Soccer Club game on April 6 with temperatures in the low 30s at Riverview Sports Complex. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Julie Constan, Colorado Department of Transportation Southwest regional director, speaks on May 9 on top of the Gulch A bridge during a public preview and drive-thru of the U.S. Highway 550 realignment project. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Sharon Kusenberger smokes a cigarette on April 25 at Orios Roadhouse in Durango. The bar went smoke-free in 2024. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Fort Lewis College graduates throw mortarboards into the air May 4 at the end of the commencement ceremony on the Ray Dennison Memorial Field. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Mild to Wild Rafting guide trainees climb onto an upside down raft on June 6 during boat flip training day on the Animas River, flowing at 3,200 cubic feet per second. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Alisha Cargill plays with the family dog, Taz, on April 4, at the Spanish Trails Inn where she stays with her husband and two children. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Law enforcement from several agencies participate in active threat training on June 27 at Park Elementary School. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
A canoeist makes his way down the Animas River that is flowing at 1,950 cubic feet per second on June 28 after peaking earlier in the day at 2,250 cfs thanks to heavy rains that fell in the mountains. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks for the first time since 2019. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Carter Robinson, 12, is serious about winning the Oscars Pie Eating Contest at Durango Beer & Ice Co. on July 5. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Ahmed Bernard, of Tripple Threat, lands a punch on his opponent Jose Quiroz, Knockout Cancer, on July 6 during the Animus on the Animas: 1st Annual Durango Boxing Classic at the Durango Main Mall hosted by The Good Fight Boxing Gym in Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Emmett Greer, 13, rests on his cow No. 85 while Henry Greer, 8, talks with him as Mykah Meshew, 14, left, and Emma Stephenson, 14, relax against the cow during the La Plata County Fair on Aug. 10 at the fairgrounds. (Jerry McBride/ Durango Herald)
Amand Coleman Montoya helps clean St. Iglesia De San Antonio Catholic Church in preparation for a wedding on Sept. 13, in Tiffany southeast of Ignacio. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Fireweed begins to change to its red fall colors on Sept. 17 along Missionary Ridge north of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
The new weather radar at Durango-La Plata County Airport will be able to see storms like this one brewing on Aug. 23. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
A Mountain Blade Runner helicopter carries a 70-foot-tall light pole that weighs 1,500 pounds on Oct. 9. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Barbara Middleton winds a barbwire fence on Oct. 10 that community members took down on the disputed U.S. Forest land northeast of Mancos that was put up by the Free Land Holder Committee blocking off 1,460 acres near Chicken Creek. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
The aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, are seen looking over Haviland Lake on Oct. 10 north of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango High School students walk out of classes on Oct. 15 and walk to Buckley Park protesting a decision by Durango School District 9-R to ban certain flags in school. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango High School senior Leo Stephenson, 18, along with Katya Spiecker, center, and Sarah Sanchez Armstrong sit with taped mouths during the Durango School District 9-R board meeting inside the Impact Career Innovation Center at Durango High School. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Durango Fire Protection District and Silverton San Juan Fire & Rescue Authority personnel remove two occupants from a car on Oct. 18 that went down an embankment on Coal Bank Pass off the west side of U.S. Highway 550. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
La Plata County Sheriff’s Office investigators prepare to enter the house where a fatal stabbing took place on Oct. 24 in the Southwest Horizon Ranch subdivision southeast of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Cody Petersen adjusts some of the hundreds of halloween decorations in his front yard at 15 Edgemont Way on Oct. 24 in the Edgemont subdivision northeast of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Riders participate in the Fort Lewis College and community cyclecross practice on Nov. 6 as fresh snow covers the campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Deer hang out in the trees on Nov. 6 as snow falls in the county south of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Michael Sirochman, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Frisoco Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation manager, releases three bear cubs on Nov. 20 into an undisclosed area in forest lands. The cubs spent time at the facility to be fattened up for their release into the wild. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
A tree-lined driveway is seen Nov. 6 as snow falls south of Durango. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
La Plata County Detention Center inmate Shante Webb at his bunk in the trustees unit of the facility. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Juniper School students Ruby McCall, 11, and Lorelei Morgan, 10, skateboard during recess on Sept. 4 at the school. The school added skateboarding and scooters as a form of social emotional learning and physical education. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Aaron Pryor and Brandon Baue battle it out in the fourth fight of Legends on the Animas boxing showdown on Oct. 13 as the sun sets behind the La Plata County Fairgrounds. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Cowboys and cowgirls lower their heads in prayer at the start of the Montezuma County Fair Ranch Rodeo on Aug. 2 at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds in Cortez. (Jerry McBride/ Durango Herald)
Tosh Black, Open Space ranger with the city of Durango, talks with a person he found at an illegal camp on July 11 along the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Animas High School math teacher Andy Lloyd manually launches a prototype water rocket on Sept. 5 after a remote launch malfunction at the Smith Sports Complex at Fort Lewis College. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Shane Evans, a Fort Lewis College student enrolled in the Ranching Apprentice program at the Old Fort, is seen July 31 at the Old Fort south of Hesperus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Darryl Burton, co-founder of the Miracle of Innocence Project, greets a packed Good Fight Boxing Gym as he takes the ring on Sept. 10 to tell his story of wrongful conviction and incarceration, exoneration and transformation. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Jim Kennedy takes down a barbwire fence on Oct. 10 along with others on the disputed U.S. Forest Service land northeast of Mancos that was put up by the Free Land Holder Committee blocking off 1,460 acres near Chicken Creek. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Rozin Archuleta, 5, is ready for his nap on Aug. 8 during the La Plata County Fair. (Jerry McBride/ Durango Herald)
Durango resident Heather Haaland watches her son, Myles Drinker, 3, swing while holding her baby Reece Drinker, 12 weeks, on June 26, at the playground in Three Springs. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Vietnam veteran Byron Dare salutes while taps is played after a wreath was placed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Iris Park on March 30 during a National Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)


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