Colorado

I was about to start writing about my trip to Colorado with Sanika and her mom. However, the thought of merely jotting down the list of places we visited in the last three days seemed boring. I think this was dissuading me from writing. However, now I have decided that I am going to write about my experience rather than describe my itinerary. Hopefully, that will lead to something better.

Colorado is very unlike any other place that I have been to. I have been here twice in a period of little more than a year. I have been completely won over both the times. The natural beauty of this place is unparalleled. In Colorado, at any time, breathtaking views are just a few miles away. Whether it is the winding roads through the rockies or just glimpse of the peaks from my hotel window, it is always impressive. The winding roads here are really special. For the most part tall mountains flank you on both the sides while a small rivulet or headwaters of a river gush through, over the rocky landscape, parallel to your road. It is very easy to get diverted off your tracks into the wilderness where the streaming glistening waters beckon you. The only motivation to stay on track is the knowledge that a grander, more breathtaking sight awaits you at your destination.

Drive to Great Dunes National Park from Colorado Springs

Driving at night on the interior roads is an experience in itself, as many of us have experienced in different corners of the world. It is pitch black. All you can see is the cone of light emanating from your car as you drive through trying to see. But you can’t see much. That light and the reflecting white and yellow lines are just enough to keep you on the road. However, in Colorado there is this knowledge that you are driving through history. You are driving through the time that the mountains have spent standing and growing there. The torrential blinding downpour that we experienced for a short while on one such drive was just the right bit scary to make this experience tilt toward being spiritual.

Garden of the Gods 

I can’t help but feel drowned in a feeling of mystery and wonder when I see the Great Sand Dunes or the sedimentary rocks that adorn places like the Red Rocks amphitheater or the Garden of the Gods. A placard at the Garden of the Gods describes how the huge sedimentary rocks were formed nearly three hundred million years ago out of what once were sand dunes. Making sense of that amount of time seems like an uphill task for my pea-sized brain. It makes me wonder, am I worth my time. It also leads me to think what will happen of the sand dunes in the next hundred million years. Will they turn to rocks like the ones at the Garden of the Gods? Will there be someone like me left to wonder at this wonder of nature? Thoughts like these put me in my place, always. They teach me to look at the bigger picture. They tell me I am not the center of this universe. I am just a tiny someone trying to make sense of my existence, trying to answer my question – why do I exist? They also tell me an important thing; there is not enough time to worry.

The rocky mountain national park has also been a highlight of my travel in Colorado both the times I have been here. Standing in the crystal clear cold water of the Sprague Lake I lost track of time. I kept thinking about the far away glaciers I was seeing while standing in the lake. I wondered how they were spawning off streams that fed lakes like this. I forgot I had a plane to catch in the evening. All I could think about was trying to capture the moment with my lens. I hope I get a chance to camp here in the future. I really want to experience being under the open skies under the stars in the quiet of this place. I am sure that will change me; maybe I will change for good and inch toward making my existence worthwhile.

Sprague Lake

Rocky Mountains

I have seen only a small part of this state yet. I am sure I will be coming back again for more. The calm I felt sitting on top of a hill and looking down at the valley formed by the chain of the Rocky Mountains is what will bring me back. I think every one of us has that innate need to connect with the nature. We might move away from it and pretend that we are city dwellers. But somewhere there is a caveman who begs to go back to nature, at least for a few days.