Thoughts about the West

How many things are there about the West that you just love?  Horses, mountains, deserts, cactus, turquoise, red rock canyons?

The Navajo set up along the roadside selling crafts, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Scottsdale, Arizona!   Hatch Chile's, roasted hatch chile's, roadside chile' roasters, eating a chile fresh out of the roaster with some salt.....oooohhhh heaven.  New Mexico food, green chile not red.

The mountains, the smell of the pine forests, a quick glimpse of a Mule deer or an Elk hightailing it away into the woods.  Columbines in the summer at high altitude.   Making snowballs in July in the brilliant sunshine of a mountain pass.  Pinecones, watching Blue Jays scavenge scraps at a roadside table.  The stillness, the quiet, peacefulness shattered by the scream of a hunting hawk that is only a tiny dot above you.  

 
Roaring muddy rivers cutting canyons thru time.  The pictographs left  by ancient ones on those canyon walls.   Floating silently down thru those canyons on a raft and marveling at it all.   Tiny streams and waterfalls only created by melting snow.  Ancient cabins of homesteaders long dead and forgotten.

National Forests, National Parks and Monuments..  The dark brown paint used on every sign, post and building.  Fading warnings from Smokey the Bear.  Cattle guards, cow pies in the road.  Dirt roads that wander thru ranches to large that you cannot imagine their scope.  Mountain lakes so clear and still you can see the clouds and sky reflected in their surface.  And wildflowers you never saw before or will again, so fleeting is their existence.

Dust devils.  The hazy quivering mirage created by heat and distance that tricks the eye in the blasting heat.   Saguaro, Joshua trees, Pinyons and my favorite the Ponderosa Pine.   Sage brush.... everywhere, grab a handful and crush it, stick you nose in it and breath the scent...   The smell of a thunderstorm.  When the wind is just right and you see the storm in the distance you can smell the rain on the sage.  Smell it coming, this is my favorite smell of all.....