Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Crossing North Park


Driving toward Cameron Pass, I came across this group of big horned sheep on the road. When they turn their backs, they almost blend into the snowbank.








In
crossing the pass, I'm intent on the skiing the other side of the Divide. Cross-country anywhere the snow and informal trails along the road look good. Downhill at the "resorts," Winter Park and Steamboat.

The ride through North Park,
though, always introduces a pause, a chance to reflect on the expanse of this high plain: the sweep of its landscape; the loneliness of its vistas; the ring of mountain ranges - the Park Range, the Never Summers, the Medicine Bows - that surround its ranches and public lands.

Coming up from Granby last week, the snow was falling lightly and the sky was grey.
Here and there ranch buildings appeared against a sodden sky which brightened toward the town of Walden.


But yesterday, the sky was brilliant, intense blue against the snow laden trees, and the Medicine Bows and their foothills were sharply defined along the edge of the high plain. North Park is a transition zone from life on the Front Range and life on the other side of the Great Divide.