It is that Colorado is stunning.
Many years ago in college I took a class called Literature of The American West. As someone who had never camped or climbed or outdoored much I think for a long time I unconsciously felt that I couldn't love the mountains or nature as much as the people who did any of those outdoorsy things could.
But the class gave me the chance to open my perspective of what it really meant to live in and love the beauty that surrounds me. And I realized, I always had.
Because not that many generations ago I come from Europeans who came to America and settled western farmland and I love that heritage. Because I was born with lungs that feel comfortable breathing elevated air, and grew up in a city nestled right up against mountains. And because I had parents who took my siblings and me to national and state parks throughout a handful of western states and taught us to appreciate not only our home, but also the deserts and forests and sheer space that extended beyond the valley in which we lived.
But even as such a cheerleader for the West, somehow next door neighbor Colorado has slipped through the cracks. And when I went to visit Katie last December the trip was short and our drive back to Utah was in the dead of winter and mostly through dead Wyoming (sorry Wyoming).
So I wasn't expecting this time around to be so awed. I didn't expect to stand on the top of a 14,000 ft peak and see out forever and ever.
Or to be in a place so high that clouds came up from rocks beneath you like mist out of a geyser.
I didn't expect to feel the altitude straining my breathing on a long bike ride.
And I didn't expect that coming home along the Colorado River would be so tight that I'd wonder with ever turn how anyone ever originally came through those passes, let alone build roads and highways.
New Mexico, I've still never visited you, but I hope you know you have a lot to live up to.
4 comments:
Pike's Peak truly is incredible.
oh i heart santa fe. you would really love new mexico. especially if you had a rad aunt who lives there like i do.
you takes good pictures.
Sometime, you and Katie should come visit me. You have a lot more mountains to see!
I also love that trip by the river. And there is a bike trail along the river down below the highway from Vail to Glenwood Springs that looks really cool. And Greg says that Royal Gorge near the Springs is also really great. I love it when you love the natural world! And I love it when my children visit each other.
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