Commuting was never like this in Atlanta!

I've been commuting to Pueblo from Westcliffe for the last two weeks, and while the commute is about 10 minutes longer than my commute in Atlanta, the nature of the commute is totally different. No traffic to fight, no noise, and lots of beautiful scenery. The picture is of the San Isabel National Forest, and it looks very similar to the part I drive through every morning and evening--twisty and turny through a canyon with trees everywhere. When I get to Wetmore, which is roughly halfway, the scenery begins to change and I come out of the mountains onto a wide, flat prairie with Pike's Peak on one side and the Spanish Peaks on the other in the distance. By the time I reach Pueblo, I have come down 3000'+ in altitude and entered a town that looks more like New Mexico than Colorado. I've been having trouble with my sinuses lately and am wondering if it has anything to do with the daily change in altitude, or if it's just the change in the seasons.