MOUNTAIN REVELATIONS

inspirations from the top of Bridger Peak on the Sierra Madre section of the Continental Divide

  I live in a narrow world, filled with self-centered tiny yards and 6 ft. privacy fences. It’s a world where a distant vista is sky scrapers 2 miles away, where 60 to 80 foot deciduous oak, maple, walnut trees are everywhere filling the view, where rich black loamy soil easily grows grass gardens and weeds, and where the sounds of people, traffic, revelry, trains, sirens, and hand guns can be heard 24 hours a day.  

 

I endure a self-made hectic, pressured, scheduled, life on a one acre lot with 1,600 organized square feet under roof on an old street with mature shade trees obscuring sunsets and sunrises. 

 

Why do I love this?  Because I’m surrounded by family, love, growth, and the promise of children’s futures. Because roots are deep and I know what to expect.

 

But today I stand in a wide place, a place with grandeur, a place of larger magnitude.  I stand at 12,860 feet above sea level on Bridger Peak in the Sierra Madre section of the Continental Divide in south central Wyoming.  Cool thin air fills my lungs. Only the sound of wind through the trees and rocks, a distant bird ‘scree,’ and an occasional chipmonk scamper breach the silence.

 

I slowly turn around and behold beneath the large sky east past Battle Peak to the high desert plains, Encampment, Wyoming with Snowy Ridge pass beyond, and slightly south to Black Hall mountain where I stood yesterday.  

 

I see southeast to Long’s Peak where I know Trail Ridge Road descends to Grand Lake and southwest to Hahn’s Peak above Mt Werner where skiers descend into Steamboat Springs Colorado.

 

I look west to Wyoming’s high desert plateau region and north along a series of other peaks on the Continental Divide.

 

The grandeur, the scale, the reality are breathtaking and humbling.  I absorb the view through clear, clean air 50 miles away.  I imprint the view into my heart and mind for transport and review in the future.

 

Centered on top of this natural monument is a small metal building,a steel tower and a crumbling stone structure.  A testament to man’s arrogance and nature’s ability to prevail and to patiently overcome.  I look down to the perspective-shrunk tiny trail traversed to reach this towering pinnacle of nature and anticipate the return trip.

 

I do not belong here, but am proud to have visited this rare place.

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

wow this is awesome. It truly conveys that expansive breath stealing feeling - that top of the mountain thing when we get away from the constricting urbanity....well penned. I sure have missed your writing.

[C.T. Bailey]

Wonderful essay, superlative descriptive language. I know and love that feeling of quiet...the cool air, the stillness. Only the wind through the rocks - it is a hallowed feeling, intense with emotion. Enjoyable read and made even better with the contrasts that you offered the reader. Super piece of writing...
CTB

[Helen Woodward]

Gosh Ed...I want to go there now! How beautifully you have expressed your experience and with such detail that your reader actually feels like they are standing atop that mountain. A very pleasurable read that took me away from the humdrum for a while...that is what a good writer does, they transport you to within their imagery.
Thank you and good to see you back my friend.
Helen :-)