"Above the Fruited Plains" (photoblog)

I have lived in Colorado all my life and on August 1st of this year my beloved home state will turn 132 years old and I will turn 51.  My family comes from upstate New York, Missouri, Massachusetts and points up and down the eastern coast of America.  In 1914 my paternal grandfather ran away from home in Easton, New York and came west to join the Army, when World War I ended and his enlistment was up he returned to the high dry plains of Colorado,  My grandmother's father travelled from Nebraska to eastern Colorado in 1902 riding in a covered wagon to find a piece of earth to call his own and homestead.  Although the conditions were harsh, they stayed, and lived and scraped and survived through the dustbowl and the Great Depression.  Grandma said the worst thing about the drylands was the wind and the lack of trees, but when she went east to visit relatives she found she missed the wide open skies and the air filled with the smell of sagebrush.

Last year for the first time in forty years I  left Colorado and went on a cross-country trip to find my roots and do genealogical research.  Much to my surprise I found a country full of wild beautiful places.  It is my hope that we fight to keep these parts of America wild.  

In August when our party convenes in Denver to do the important work of nominating the next President of the United States I hope some of you take some personal time and explore Colorado.  There are many sites to see and a good number of them are easily accesible from Denver.  Katherine Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" after being inspired by the scenery of our state and whenever I hear the lines "For purple mountain majesties  Above the fruited plain ",  I think of home.  

The pictures below are of Mt Evans located 60 miles west of Denver and owner of the bragging rights to the highest paved road in North America. (Photos courtesy of my husband and a family friend)

Trail to the summit of Mt. Evans

More of the scenery on your way up

Mt. Evans trail

Glacial lake, Mt. Evans

Summit of Mt. Evans Colorado, looking west towards Longs Peak at 14,264 feet

Lastly, the Pawnee Buttes and sunset at the Pawnee National Grasslands about 113 miles northeast of Denver.  Nomadic Native American tribes hunted deer, antelope and buffalo here.  There are teepee rings, wildflowers, excellent bird watching opportunities and glorious clean dry air.  It is a special place to me, as a small child I lived in a tightly knit farming community on the grasslands... and at night the coyotes sang me to sleep.

Pawnee Buttes

"O Beautiful"