Now I understand what John Denver meant...

I have honestly felt like my life has turned into a John Denver song; I could quote you so many things from his songs that describe my new reality... but I digress.

After leaving the Pawnee Buttes, resolving to return properly equipped for a great hike, we stopped and had dinner in Fort Morgan.

We opted to take the scenic drive west home instead of highway the whole time. And boy, oh boy, what a drive it was.

In the song "Rocky Mountain High", John Denver says this: The Colorado Rocky Mountain high, I've seen it raining fire in the sky...

Well, if these sunset photos didn't show exactly that, I don't know what would. It had been a drizzly sort of day, so as we drove into the sunset, there were clouds in the sky with the light burning through. I have to tell you, it was an awe-inspiring sight. I know the photos at this size don't do it justice, but if you can view them larger, you might see what I mean. Especially the bottom photo. I am planning to enlarge this for our wall- it really looked like fire.

And now I know what John Denver meant. In more ways than one.

p.s. I will post the rest of the photos in an album on Webshots and my fb page

Pawnee National Grasslands

A couple of Sundays ago, Rich, Chloe, and I went for a drive; Rich wanted to see Pawnee National Grasslands. Well, it was miles and miles of flat, and no houses for as far as you could see (and that was pretty far) in any direction.

We finally saw a small sign for it and turned onto a dirt road, where we drove for miles and miles more of flat- though along this route we saw the weird sight of leaning power lines... the only explanation we could come up with was that they are being replaced by the straight up ones. Who knows? But it was very startling.

We also saw three missile stations- I guess that is a good place for them, way out in the middle of nowhere.

At some point we saw a sign that said: Pawnee Buttes. Rich told me buttes are small rock formations, kind of like mesas, but smaller. I don't even know how far we drove before we saw them... a LONG way, according to Chloe!

FINALLY we saw them, and it was well worth the drive. Turns out there are some nice hiking trails there, which we weren't prepared for, but we are planning to go back.

While Rich checked the grass for birds' nests, I took the opportunity to take some close up photos of little flowers, and of course a bunch of the buttes.

Colorado is a very beautiful state.