To be fair to all regions of the West, I am attaching six images of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. The first two images are of Colorado and the last four in Kansas. I wanted to be fair to Kansas. The Colorado images were taken on July 4th. The Kansas images were taken the following day. The focus of the images is western expanses.
1. Blanca: The first image was taken as we were leaving the San Luis Valley in Colorado going eastward. We had stopped at a small roadside park on U.S. 160 for lunch. The stop afforded me the last opportunity to photograph one of my favorite subjects - the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The cone shaped peak, more or less, in the center of the image (farthest one away) is 14,345-foot Blanca Peak. Blanca dominates the Sierra Blanca Massif and is the 4th highest summit in Colorado. Traveling south, you would have to go all the way to the great volcanos of central Mexico to reach a higher elevation. The peak to the left of Blanca in the clouds is Little Bear, another Colorado fourteener. In the foreground sage brush dominates. Eventually a zone of pinyon and juniper is reached. This is spacious country. I have mentioned before that the San Luis Valley is approximately the size of Connecticut. It reflects both its Spanish and Indian heritage.
2. WesternExpanses0: This image was taken east of Walsenberg, CO in a vast area of cattle country. The road in the image leads to a gas field miles away. Cattle are the dominant residents in this part of Colorado and the bovine inhabitants are spread thinly. It is wide open space, and do I ever love it. Sky, sage brush, and cholla cactus. A wonderful combination. Folks who are unable to enjoy these great expanses of space are missing one of life's great experiences.
3. MonicaAtRestStop: This image was taken at a rest stop in western kansas on U.S. Route 50. Prairie flowers were everywhere and my camera clicked away. The Kansas wind was blowing as it almost always is. It may sound odd that we could fall in love with rest stops, but many in Kansas are just delightful. They feel exceptionally peaceful and are appropriately restful. Monica attributes their therapeutic effect to being in the heartland. When she biked across the country, Kansas was one of her favorite states. She still talks about her pleasant experiences biking across Kansas. Oh yes, and she did see one scissor-tailed fly catcher on our path eastward.
4. Pinwheels: This image show gaillardia in abundance. The image was taken at the rest stop of image 3. In places the flower carpets the prairie. It vies with sun flowers for dominance.
5. OldSantaFeTrail2: Farther east, near Dodge City, Kansas we encountered a remnant of the original Santa Fe Trail. By remnant, I mean a place where the impact of the trail can still be seen today in the vegetative cover. The area is the home of both short and tall grasses. It is the transition zone between the two ecosystems. Once there were oceans of grass in the sun flower state. For me, prairie grasses are as captivating as the ocean. But alas, while we have plenty of the latter, the former is in short supply. Still, maybe we can get an inkling of what the travelers of the trail first saw. Take a peek at the last image.
6. OldSantaFeTrail: Natural Kansas is about grasslands and the state's once vast grasslands were home to one of the largest of the bison herds. It roamed western Kansas. There was also a huge herd in Texas and one in a region that includes part of South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana . Of course there were many more bison scattered across the plains and prairies than just in these great herds, but the referenced ones were enormous and often described by chroniclers of the day. The nutritious prairie grasses sustained the giant herds. Today, in this small preserve, all that remain to remind the thoughtful traveler of what life may have been like in those days are grass, sky, and the unrelenting, but blessed wind . It keeps bothersome insects away. The prairie ecosystem is superbly described by the late great John Madson in his book "where the sky began". Any nature lover who has not read this wonderful book has missed one of the classics.
The Santa Fe trail extended 750 miles from Kansas City to old Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico, but then as part of Spain up until around 1830 and then Mexico for another 15 years. It was established in 1608 and made a capital in 1610. It was often dangerous to travel the trail in those days especially in areas where Comanche, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne ruled. Those tribes/nations were the lords of the southern plains.
I have a book that I have been reading, putting down, and reading this summer. So rich is it land and forest analogies that like the surfeit that comes from too much chocolate or honey, it is easy to take my fill. It is written by Rick Bass, and called "The Wild Marsh". While it was published first in 2009, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [Boston, NewYork], Bass began this Thoreauvian journal of sorts some 8 years prior, dedicating it to his daughters, that they may look back upon themselves in wonder at the world he tries to daily show them. Bass chronicles a year in remote Yaak Valley, Montana where he and his family have lived on and off for some twenty years.
In the chapter April, he hikes with his daughter Lowry into an old-growth grove, as the sun pushes the snow patches further and further back. I quote from page 125,
"Again, the snow is pulled back farther. A hike with Lowry to a nearby grove reveals a carpet of deer bones, the mass boneyard of a mountain lion's winter cache: a dozen whitened legs strewn atop of one another, beneath the boughs of a big cedar. Old stories from the winter gone by being revealed, even as the onrush of new ones comes muscling in, honking in, flapping in, surging.
I tell Lowry the usual nature rap-the oldest story of all. The bones will dissolve, and the cedar will absorb their nutrients. The deer will be lifted into the sky. The cedar will grow even taller and thicker, even shadier. Deer will wait out heavy snowstorms beneath the protective spread of its boughs. The old deer legs will be caught up within the sweet grain of the wood, between the growth rings of one year and the next- the deer traveling vertically now, in the xylem and phloem, as they once picked their way gingerly and horizontally through the old forest in winter, pausing sometimes to paw at the snow with shiny black hoofs and nibble at an exposed frond of cedar seedling.”
Elsewhere, but in a low profile way, Bass bemoans that the gain in forage after a logging of old-growth forest, for deer coming out of a harsh winter needing immediate energy laden and abundant forbs, only to have lost the protection that the now-cut old-growth forests would have offered the following winter. He vowed at the start to restrain his activist tendency. In his introduction, on page 6, he says,
“This book, unlike so many of my other Yaak-based books, aims to be all celebration and all observation, without judgment or advocacy. I’m not sure why I made that choice, with this book; perhaps in order to simply stay sane a while longer. One of the dreams and hopes I have for the Yaak is the establishment of an intricate biological survey, a series of ecological transects and measurements aimed at identifying the presence, distribution, and if possible population counts of as many different species as possible, to serve as a baseline data point for the coming century.”
Were I a younger person seeking a topic for post undergraduate study, I’d be ringing Mr. Bass up. I have a few more snippets to excerpt for WNTS/ENTS discussion, and they will follow upon my return to Anchorage later this week.
-Don
PS: In his first introductory paragraph he writes “Whether it’s true or not, I find it wonderful that Thoreau’s last words were reported to have been “Moose. Indians” More economical than even a haiku, the two words twine perfectly the occasionally but not always harmonious relationship between landscape and humanity”.
Thanks for sharing. I have always known you to be a prolific reader, but you are a very good writer as well. I'm interested in reading the Berotlette Chronicles.
----- Original Message ----- From: "DON BERTOLETTE" <forestorat...@msn.com> To: "Western Native Tree Society" <wnts@googlegroups.com>, ents@googlegroups.com Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2009 10:38:57 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [WNTS] The Wild Marsh...
WENTS/ENTS-
I have a book that I have been reading, putting down, and reading this summer. So rich is it land and forest analogies that like the surfeit that comes from too much chocolate or honey, it is easy to take my fill. It is written by Rick Bass, and called "The Wild Marsh". While it was published first in 2009, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [Boston, NewYork], Bass began this Thoreauvian journal of sorts some 8 years prior, dedicating it to his daughters, that they may look back upon themselves in wonder at the world he tries to daily show them. Bass chronicles a year in remote Yaak Valley, Montana where he and his family have lived on and off for some twenty years.
In the chapter April, he hikes with his daughter Lowry into an old-growth grove, as the sun pushes the snow patches further and further back. I quote from page 125,
"Again, the snow is pulled back farther. A hike with Lowry to a nearby grove reveals a carpet of deer bones, the mass boneyard of a mountain lion's winter cache: a dozen whitened legs strewn atop of one another, beneath the boughs of a big cedar. Old stories from the winter gone by being revealed, even as the onrush of new ones comes muscling in, honking in, flapping in, surging.
I tell Lowry the usual nature rap-the oldest story of all. The bones will dissolve, and the cedar will absorb their nutrients. The deer will be lifted into the sky. The cedar will grow even taller and thicker, even shadier. Deer will wait out heavy snowstorms beneath the protective spread of its boughs. The old deer legs will be caught up within the sweet grain of the wood, between the growth rings of one year and the next- the deer traveling vertically now, in the xylem and phloem, as they once picked their way gingerly and horizontally through the old forest in winter, pausing sometimes to paw at the snow with shiny black hoofs and nibble at an exposed frond of cedar seedling.”
Elsewhere, but in a low profile way, Bass bemoans that the gain in forage after a logging of old-growth forest, for deer coming out of a harsh winter needing immediate energy laden and abundant forbs, only to have lost the protection that the now-cut old-growth forests would have offered the following winter. He vowed at the start to restrain his activist tendency. In his introduction, on page 6, he says,
“This book, unlike so many of my other Yaak-based books, aims to be all celebration and all observation, without judgment or advocacy. I’m not sure why I made that choice, with this book; perhaps in order to simply stay sane a while longer. One of the dreams and hopes I have for the Yaak is the establishment of an intricate biological survey, a series of ecological transects and measurements aimed at identifying the presence, distribution, and if possible population counts of as many different species as possible, to serve as a baseline data point for the coming century.”
Were I a younger person seeking a topic for post undergraduate study, I’d be ringing Mr. Bass up. I have a few more snippets to excerpt for WNTS/ENTS discussion, and they will follow upon my return to Anchorage later this week.
-Don
PS: In his first introductory paragraph he writes “Whether it’s true or not, I find it wonderful that Thoreau’s last words were reported to have been “Moose. Indians” More economical than even a haiku, the two words twine perfectly the occasionally but not always harmonious relationship between landscape and humanity”.
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We were 3 or 4 miles I think. From that vantage point, the dunes stick up between 650 and 850 feet above the sage brush flats. The actual highest elevation change attainable is from the western side of the dunes, the Sand Creek side. You can log an elevation change of 904 feet, which is a lot more than the 700 advertised figure commonly quoted for the height of the dunes.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcboston" <m...@hillsidenurseries.com> To: "ENTSTrees" <entstrees@googlegroups.com> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 10:45:58 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Re: Western Expanses
Great shots! I really want to explore that region of Colorado, looks very similar to the eastern Sierra. About how far from the first picture are you from Great Sand Dune N.Park?
On Jul 17, 9:04 pm, dbhg...@comcast.net wrote: > ENTS,WNTS,
> To be fair to all regions of the West, I am attaching six images of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. The first two images are of Colorado and the last four in Kansas. I wanted to be fair to Kansas. The Colorado images were taken on July 4th. The Kansas images were taken the following day. The focus of the images is western expanses.
> 1. Blanca: The first image was taken as we were leaving the San Luis Valley in Colorado going eastward. We had stopped at a small roadside park on U.S. 160 for lunch. The stop afforded me the last opportunity to photograph one of my favorite subjects - the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The cone shaped peak, more or less, in the center of the image (farthest one away) is 14,345-foot Blanca Peak. Blanca dominates the Sierra Blanca Massif and is the 4th highest summit in Colorado. Traveling south, you would have to go all the way to the great volcanos of central Mexico to reach a higher elevation. The peak to the left of Blanca in the clouds is Little Bear, another Colorado fourteener. In the foreground sage brush dominates. Eventually a zone of pinyon and juniper is reached. This is spacious country. I have mentioned before that the San Luis Valley is approximately the size of Connecticut. It reflects both its Spanish and Indian heritage.
> 2. WesternExpanses0: This image was taken east of Walsenberg, CO in a vast area of cattle country. The road in the image leads to a gas field miles away. Cattle are the dominant residents in this part of Colorado and the bovine inhabitants are spread thinly. It is wide open space, and do I ever love it. Sky, sage brush, and cholla cactus. A wonderful combination. Folks who are unable to enjoy these great expanses of space are missing one of life's great experiences.
> 3. MonicaAtRestStop: This image was taken at a rest stop in western kansas on U.S. Route 50. Prairie flowers were everywhere and my camera clicked away. The Kansas wind was blowing as it almost always is. It may sound odd that we could fall in love with rest stops, but many in Kansas are just delightful. They feel exceptionally peaceful and are appropriately restful. Monica attributes their therapeutic effect to being in the heartland. When she biked across the country, Kansas was one of her favorite states. She still talks about her pleasant experiences biking across Kansas. Oh yes, and she did see one scissor-tailed fly catcher on our path eastward.
> 4. Pinwheels: This image show gaillardia in abundance. The image was taken at the rest stop of image 3. In places the flower carpets the prairie. It vies with sun flowers for dominance.
> 5. OldSantaFeTrail2: Farther east, near Dodge City, Kansas we encountered a remnant of the original Santa Fe Trail. > By remnant, I mean a place where the impact of the trail can still be seen today in the vegetative cover. The area is the home of both short and tall grasses. It is the transition zone between the two ecosystems. Once there were oceans of grass in the sun flower state. For me, prairie grasses are as captivating as the ocean. But alas, while we have plenty of the latter, the former is in short supply. Still, maybe we can get an inkling of what the travelers of the trail first saw. Take a peek at the last image.
> 6. OldSantaFeTrail: Natural Kansas is about grasslands and the state's once vast grasslands were home to one of the largest of the bison herds. It roamed western Kansas. There was also a huge herd in Texas and one in a region that includes part of South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana . Of course there were many more bison scattered across the plains and prairies than just in these great herds, but the referenced ones were enormous and often described by chroniclers of the day. The nutritious prairie grasses sustained the giant herds. Today, in this small preserve, all that remain to remind the thoughtful traveler of what life may have been like in those days are grass, sky, and the unrelenting, but blessed wind . It keeps bothersome insects away. The prairie ecosystem is superbly described by the late great John Madson in his book "where the sky began". Any nature lover who has not read this wonderful book has missed one of the classics.
> The Santa Fe trail extended 750 miles from Kansas City to old Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico, but then as part of Spain up until around 1830 and then Mexico for another 15 years. It was established in 1608 and made a capital in 1610. It was often dangerous to travel the trail in those days especially in areas where Comanche, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne ruled. Those tribes/nations were the lords of the southern plains.
