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| On the road to Westcliff |
One of the joys of road trips in Colorado is the limitless opportunity to take in long vistas, to see landscapes unfolding, mountain ranges rising above and falling behind the car windows, to turn a corner and go "wow" even after living here for the past 15 years. Such views cause the soul to sing.
Which is why folks try to situate themselves to "own" a particular scene. So houses of all kinds try to fit themselves to ridges where they can see out and, for those with money and egos, can in turn be seen. For the person on a road trip, these places then become a kind of housescape rather than landscape. One's attention is drawn to the construction...sometimes quite eccentric.
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| Redwing |
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| Bishop's Castle outside of Rye in the Wet Mountains |
So one's attention gets drawn both to the man made forms and to the land forms. When I got to Cripple Creek on this particular trip the first thing I did in getting into my hotel room was to look out the window. I saw the town below, the ridge lines beyond, and then in the distance the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. And, then, in that mountain range I recognized the pass, Hayden Pass, that low point on the horizon, on other side of which is the Oak House where I had been staying a few days before.
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| Cripple Creek and Hayden Pass in the far distance |
Something about an outlook, a scene laid before you, gives space for reflecting upon your place in the world and the universe. Which is why perhaps (besides the economic and the prestige factors) we have buildings that reach toward the sky. I ended this road trip in Denver, going to get apartment keys from my son Tom who had just moved from DC to join a law firm downtown. I felt a bit chagrined at being in my road clothes (fairly dirty from a week in the mountains), but I went up to his office.
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| 36th floor 1801 California Street |
His view seemed like a fitting end to a road trip whose itinerary included so many long and vast look outs.
