Don “Donnie” Long  wears many hats at Planet Pagosa since he is the creative director, photographer, and advertising manager of PlanetPagosa.com.

The concept was born the third morning of our first visit to Pagosa Springs in July of 1999. I was walking around in the wilderness when I realized Pagosa Springs truly is like being on another planet compared to most places I’ve been. In a nutshell, Susie and I returned to our ocean view home in San Clemente, CA and quickly discovered a week in Pagosa Springs had altered our focus on life. Five more trips to Pagosa gave us a peek at a small mountain town in transition and a community we wanted to be a part of. It’s pretty simple, really: We wanted out of So. CA. We couldn’t sell our house fast enough.

I bought the URL and immediately penciled out a business plan. We started work on the design concept; Susie and I took a number of Adobe Photoshop classes in Durango. A thousand digitals later, networking with area photographers, and the rest is history.

My dream could not have materialized without the expertise of Marcy Mitchell of MTECH. Marcy’s commitment to the website’s evolution and corporate background was what I was looking for. I met her and Bart at the Archuleta County Fair right when I needed her business development skills, and software knowledge. "Good things happen in Pagosa.”