A beautiful place with some hard edges

Crestone, Colo., has been getting some buzz as "the new Sedona." Don't believe it. Sedona has become something of a New Age tourist trap. I've never been comfortable with the way Native American rituals and practices have been bent there to meet the needs of caucasian seekers. When you strip one element of a culture from its context (such as the sweat lodge, or fasting, or one tribe's concept of God) and then commercialize it, you risk all kinds of distortions. And outright danger. That appears to be the case in the sweat lodge deaths in Sedona in October.

Crestone's evolution as a tourist destination is happening in a much different way. There are 22 religious retreat centers in the area, but they are almost all attached to larger institutions and disciplines (Catholic, various branches of Buddhism and Hinduism). There isn't much in the way of tourist infrastructure in Crestone, but there are places to meditate for hours on end, places to chant and places to pray. The people I talked to there where distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of endowing the landscape (which is stunning) with special powers to relieve spiritual woes. Instead, they emphasize the idea of discipline and practice, of doing the work of the religion, whether it is Christian, Sufi, Hindu or Buddhist. See my story and photos in the Dec. 13 Minneapolis Star Tribune Travel section here.