Wednesday, September 26

 I am going to make a bold statement: September is the best month here, next to March.  When March rolls around I will share my rant with you about the glories of that month, but for now...  September.  That photo was taken from the gondola on my morning ride to work today.  

1.  After the monsoonal weather patterns of late July and August, the clearing skies and warming days are irresistible.  

2.  Because of this "Indian Summer" (I have been told we should now refer to it as either Native American Summer or First Nation Summer) we have the opportunity to squeeze in some last-minute peaks and longer hikes without the threat of being zapped by lightning and drenched with a freezing downpour.

3.  The sun moves lower in the sky and the resulting light quality is like the difference between standing beside a blazing fire (July) and sitting near some glowing embers (September).

4.  Days like the one above spark the excitement of the coming ski season - goals are talked about for the winter, gear is mulled over, seasonal clothes are swapped, boots are work to work.

5.  The last great bounties of the summer are consumed and stored: softball-weighted tomatoes, slurpy peaches, all sorts of apples, roasted green chilies.  Stored and frozen for those winter days when you need to feel some embers warming you up.

6.  Desert forays become tolerable as the mesas and canyons start to cool down enough for camping trips on our weekends.

7.  The last big festival of the summer comes and goes, Blues and Brews, and with it, the last trickle of visitors from the town, and we become a regular old town full of regular old people just living their lives, going to school and work, paying their bills, planning their futures.

We took the kids to Our Favorite Campsite, near Hovenweep National Monument, after a soccer day in Durango for Anthony.  We set up camp before dark, built a nice toasty fire, watch the kids burn a few marshmallows, then beat on some drums that Grandpa John had made.  

We talked about some memories from the trip in August, some funny stories about Grandma Mary when we were in Vermont, and how much we all loved Grandpa John.

As usual around a fire, they are... transfixed.  Wait, maybe that's the focus of planning the next marshmallow roasting technique.  You can see that Julie came along on this trip.  We made jokes about Ivy, the other American Girl doll, throwing a party in the kids' room, with cigarettes and whatnot.

The next morning on The Point, that overlooks, in an almost complete 180 degree circle: Lone Cone Peak, the Dolores Range, the Wilsons, the La Platas, Mesa Verde, Sleeping Ute, the Chuska Mountains, Canyons of the Ancients, Muley Point, Cedar Mesa, the Bears Ears, and finally the Henry Mountains.  Johnny and the kidlings beat the sun up out of the La Platas to the east, with the homemade drums.

The Johnny distributed a small amount of John's ashes to each of us, twice, and asked us to make a wish for the first tossing.  The second, he asked us to live the kind of life that Grandpa John would, with the same enthusiasm and curiosity that he did.

What did I wish for, you ask? I will let you know when it comes true :)

We then stuffed ourselves on Norwood eggs, bacon, granola and coffee, then did an exploratory hike until it was time to cower in the shade drinking Gatorade and eating cooler-cold avocados, halved, sprinkled with salt, and scooped out for a creamy green snack.  Rose learned how to cut open an avocado by herself.

Then we packed it up and headed to Sand Canyon Pueblo, an ancient Anasazi city you can explore in foot, just outside of Cortez.  Check out how inviting the sign at the trailhead is, with its description of what you can expect to see:

So we walked around some rubble mounds with few visible walls and tried to picture the bustling life of little brown people who would vanish and leave behind little or no clues as to where they went, or why.

We stopped at the Dolores Park on the way back into the mountains, made some peanut butter sandwiches and crunched on sweet sugar snap peas, and then drove back home, mouths agape at the gold gold and more gold aspens.  This is one spectacular display this year.