And no bears found us~

Colorado Bucket List 2013-Item #8
"To be a witness to the sunrise and the sunset from the top of Cerro Summit~"

Good morning everyone and good Sunday greetings to you all from wherever this message should find you today.  It's officially the first full day of autumn, my first fall season as a resident of Colorado.  Back in Hutchinson, Kansas the streets around my old neighbourhood on East 14th Street will soon begin to look like this.................

I miss my old part of the world, sometimes just a little bit and other times a whole lot.  Depending upon the weather, the beautiful trees back in Reno County, Kansas can put on their colour show for the better part of a month.  It was always a pleasure just to take a walk and see what the "Artist's" paintbrush was doing on any given day.  

When I came up with my new bucket list just a few days back, one of the things I felt I wanted to do was to find the sunrise and the sunset some day atop Cerro Summit, a land form not even 15 miles from where we live here in Montrose.  So, not willing to "trade daylight for dark" for a whole lot longer, last night we set out to at least find the "sunset" part of it before the cold winter weather that will some day sneak up on us, should arrive.  It was actually a very enjoyable time, all things considered.

When I made the journey here to south western Colorado for the first time back in January of this year, Mike told me that there would be three passes that I would have to cross over before I would find him in Montrose~Monarch Pass and the summits at Blue Mesa and Cerro.  He assured me that if I could climb Monarch that the other two would be easy for me and basically, he was right.  This is what the summit at Cerro looks like as you cross over it on 50 Highway just a few miles outside of Montrose.  That huge pipe carries water from one of the reservoirs over to the other side.  Last night when we were there, we kept hearing this rushing sound of water going from one place to the next.  As we left, Mike found where it was coming from and we stopped to take a look.  I didn't feel like messing around too long looking at it.  Too many stories of bears are going around here and I kind of have a healthy respect for those creatures of the family ursidae.  But we did take a quick photo, shown below.

The trenches where the water rushes through~an audio clip here would have been great.

We arrived about twenty minutes before the sun really started to sink into the western horizon and we had some time to look around at the really beautiful and majestic scenery that this part of the county affords its viewers.  Neither of us had ever been up there before and as I looked around me, I couldn't believe what I saw.  I guess it's what happens when you are in such a hurry to get to one place from the other, that you truly miss what is right alongside you all along.  I got some nice photos of what it looked like from way up there.

The view along the way there~if you want to see sights you have never seen before, "ya gotta" actually leave the place where you are to do it.  The adobes just outside of Montrose, going to the east.  They are all around us.

Have to admit my ignorance here.  This plant was beautiful and all around.  I supposed it could be like a milkweed but not sure.  It was beautiful nonetheless.  

Although it is not quite like seeing in the "flatlands", I guess it could be said that you could see from here quite a ways out.  Some day I am going to figure out how to bulldoze a huge hole in the mountains that extends all the way from here to Reno County, Kansas.

I have actually lived here long enough to be able to pay attention to the various landforms that there are in this part of the state.  It felt good to look out from that vantage point and recognize the beautiful Grand Mesa in the background.  This truly was a beautiful sight to behold and it goes on forever and ever, AMEN.

What in the heck is it with this state?  LOL, "Signs, signs everywhere a sign!"  Guess that's all I'd better say or else I'll find myself in hot water for using the words of that famous song of the 70's but no kidding!  I know there's probably plenty of good reason for how they post usage for everything around here but sometimes all of the "signs" really do clutter up an otherwise gorgeous landscape.  I'll stop short of referring to this as another act of quiet and random, civil disobedience on my part.

                                                   A guy and his dog

Finally, a little after 7:00 p.m. MST, the sunset arrived.  It was beautiful up there and a different vantage point than we normally witness, at 1,000 feet lower.  The Creator really knows how to put on a "show".  God's handiwork at its finest of hours, I believe.  

Well, the sun has arisen and the clock says it's just about 12 hours later.  A  new day has begun here in Colorado.  If you are reading this, well then the way I figure it, the same God that made that beautiful sky shown above has determined that you should go out and find your destiny for this day.  The same goes for me as well.  Please dear friends and family, wherever you live go out and look for the things that are right before your eyes.  I've missed a lot of great things in this life of mine because I was just too wrapped up in things that when all was said and done, meant very little to the overall scheme of this life.  To that way of living, I say "no more".  Take care of yourselves, one and all.  I'm thinking of you all this morning.  Oh yeah~Reno County....see you in less than 3 weeks now :)  Not that I'm watching the calendar or anything you know.

                   Alive and well along the Western Slopes of Colorado.....