Scribe-ls

Happily, it's another green spring in that grassy basin known as South Park.  One of the best sights you'll see anywhere is when you come over the top of Kenosha Pass and look down upon lush, green pastures and meandering waterways hosting large herds of horses, cattle, elk and antelope under a brilliant blue sky guarded by majestic snowcapped peaks.  Some recent years, it's not been so lush and herds have been small, but to my eyes, it's looking like a banner year so far.  Let's hope it stays that way so the ranchers will persist and not give in the the pressures of the Breckenridge spill-over.   

I noticed over by Hartsel that the green just hasn't quite realized.  The gravel-based high plains there tend to drink down the water and secret it away in underground creeks and lakes.  It takes a huge surplus to put water in Cowboy Mike's pond or to puddle the gulch crossing my land.  At 8,500 or so feet, it may be a bit early yet for the prairie to spring to life.  Walking around the range at the South Fork Ranches, I saw plenty of promise in many, many buds on the short-barrel cactus.  Next weekend, it'll be a sea of fragile pink blooms.  Will the lovely Indian paintbrush and loud rabbitbrush make another appearance this year?  The bluebells didn't look especially vigorous, a little thirsty, in fact.  I'm hoping the circle grass will wave tall this summer, too.  It's a remarkable sight when it all undulates in the nearly ever-present wind.  Nonetheless, the high plains around Hartsel are always a mystically lovely place of sun and wind, earth and sky.  You can remember what it is to be just human out there.