I came up to Manhattan with Tom for a few days. We were taking a road trip prior to his graduation from Georgetown Law School.
The landscapes of New York, the city, and Colorado have always seemed so similar. The horizontal lines of the rivers and New York Bay parallel the lines of the plains that stretch from our mountains east a thousand miles to the Mississippi. And the upper floors of upper east side apartments in Manhattan...they seem so like the heights, still snow-covered, of the mountain peaks. And both landscapes invite exploration and hiking...walking in the canyons of the city are a form of urban hiking...one is always encountering the unexpected around a corner or, in the Rockies, around a sharp turn in the trail.
I grew up across from Manhattan on the cliffs that line the western shore of the Hudson. The horizontal of the river sets the lower frame of the skyline of midtown...the skyline changes as day gives way to evening and the lights of the city come on and reflect in the dark waters. The juxtaposition of sight lines reaching to the sky or to the horizon provide a landscape frame for finding yourself.
