User blog comment:Lalainee/Near Death Experiences!/@comment-1874924-20101104061311

I once had a near-death experience of a very different sort. About 20 years ago, I was returning home after visiting a friend in Telluride (in SW Colorado, about an 8 hour drive from Denver) for Thanksgiving. On the way home, I decided to stop by a scenic overlook of the Black Canyon, so named because it has a stretch so deep and so narrow that direct sunlight can't reach the bottom. The place was deserted, because it was the offseason and the overlook was a fair distance from the highway.

The viewing area was close to the parking area, and had a low railing perhaps 3 feet high. The bottom of the canyon was visible from this vantage point; but while the canyon walls were very steep at that point, it wasn't quite a sheer drop.

Beyond the railing was a short distance of 20 feet or so on a walkable grade, ending in what was essentially a sheer drop of a very great distance. The railing was not an obstacle to anyone who consciously tried to cross. I was alone. It was a difficult period in my life and...well, long story short, that was the only time in my life that I ever seriously contemplated suicide. I haven't thought about the incident in many years, and you are the only people I've ever told about it.