M is for Mountains

Long overdue, I bring you ... MOUNTAINS!

M is for Mountains
Alas, I'm using few of my own pictures, as I simply was not a competent mountain photographer this time (that and when I was, I was using non-digital means).

As we drove from Maine to Vermont last week, we went through the White Mountains

(go here for the full size pic).
These White Mountains are in New Hampshire where there is a lovely National Forest that I have loved driving through each year.

Most years, we drive all the way out, which means we also get to cross the Green Mountains
(original photo here)
(where there is, of course, another National Forest). One of the favorite peaks in the Green Mountains around Burlington is the Camel's Hump,
(original photo here)
(which I've climbed a few times, though not yet with the kids)

Driving across the country, I've also enjoyed trips through the Adirondacks in New York, which we see here looking across Lake Champlain

Over the years, I seem to repeatedly visit the same mountains time and again... in shifts.  Currently, while the kids are young and the grandparents are East... we seem to visit the mountains of the North Eastern US.   There was a time when I spent more time in or near the Rockies.  In particular, I recall the summer I spent in Boulder, loving the view of the Flatirons
(pic from here )

I loved seeing the Flatirons every morning.  And I loved driving up Canyon Road at the end of a mediocre ... or bad... day, and feeling refreshed simply by being up in the mountain, and sitting on a rock looking down over the town.

I'd visited several years before, when I got to  enjoy the incredible splendor of driving all the way through the Rocky mountains! (Boulder to San Francisco)

(image from here)
That's when I first knew awe.

I drove past Tahoe, and saw the lake from the road....

Later that summer, I took a train through the Grand Tetons.  They're also awesome.
(pic from here)

In fact, ten years flew by before I got to see the Rockies in the Winter!
I came to love skiing in them.

I learned at Keystone
And since then have skied Copper Mountain, Telluride, Vail, Aspen, Arapahoe Basin, Snowmass and Beaver Creek in Colorado, Big Sky in Montana and Salt Lake, Deer Valley, and Wolf Valley in Utah.    But there are only so many ski slope pictures you want to see -- especially if I've not managed to scan in the ones I took on "old style" 35 mm cameras yet...

But there are still MORE mountains in the US. (and we don't have to leave the Continental US to find them).

Many years ago, I spent three weeks at Deep Springs College in Deep Springs California.  There, looking one way, we saw California's White Mountains.  I remember very clearly, sleeping out by the reservoir (the only way to get me to go to sleep, since every night the sky was so full of incredible stars I couldn't bring myself to go inside to go to bed), and waking at dawn one morning, to see the sun clear the Sierra's Mountains behind me, and turn the White Mountains pink ...  this picture is actually from a sunset shot, so it doesn't quite match my memory, but it's close:

Looking west, we saw things like these mountains from the Ritter Range in the Sierra Nevadas
 

When I went, I had to drive through Yosemite National Park, and it's lovely mountains.  This image
looks like it must be Tuolumne Meadows....

And no, I'm not forgetting Mount Hood, or St. Helens... or those at the far western edge of the country... but I've only seen those from a distance.

What's the unifying theme here? for me?  I always feel good when I'm in the mountains... even being where they're in view lets me feel better about the universe.  Mountains are magical.

What AM I doing living so far away from any of them???

Comments

[TJ]

What ARE you doing living so far away? LOL

I love the mountains too! The Tetons are so beautiful. At our old house in WA, we could see the Cascades.

[Scout]

Fun post! I love all of the pictures. I used to live in Vermont AND Boulder!

[Cathy]

Very nice! I remember seeing the Camel's Hump while passing thru about 15 yrs ago - on a horse buying trip. Next time you are here, we'll head up to the Medicine Bows.

[Carrie K]

I think I would miss the mountains more than the beach, which after all I have to drive to, whereas all I have to do is look up to see Mt. Diablo.

Beautiful pix. Beautiful.