Fire in The Sky – Hello Colorado

I’m not sure when this love affair really began.  I think it was sung to me when I was a child.  Somehow melodies and words quietly crept into my making.   It didn’t take long and for some reason, a boy born in Boston, raised in New York and teen aged  in the hills of Tennessee, finds himself longing for the allure, mystery and majesty of the Colorado mountains. 

At 13 I was given a guitar and along with that came a songbook from one of the voices that I had heard from birth – John Denver.   I created my first chord, wrote my first song (written  in one chord) and something inside of me began painting mountain passes and singing river songs. Before long I knew three chords on the guitar and Colorado would somehow echo from every strum I would make.   I couldn’t help it.  It just oozed out like I was a Colorado native, though the west was really just a carousel in my boyhood dreams.

But here I am today.  51 and finally in the Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado.  I’m searching for the place, the space and the rabbit hole into the songs in my head.  Is everything I sang and told myself somehow a part of me?  Are the Rocky Mountains kindred to my soul? We snap pictures at the Blue Lakes trail head and begin the 6 mile accent up the 14000 ft mountain.   Ten steps in and my nose tickles.  Clean, crisp air.  Sweet pine.   I inhale deeper.  I stroll past a blue spruce and pluck a tip of her spring growth and wave it past my nose.   Heavenly!  So good I have to put a few petals in my mouth as I hike on.    The mountain instantly demands as the trail inclines, the path traverses with switchbacks and we go around a field of building sized boulders.   We scramble, catch our breath,  keep looking down, watch our step, and meander on.   A few creek crossings and aspen thickets later the forest suddenly opens and we stop.  It was a 360 view!    The woods were below us and we were wrapped in the most amazing, heavenly, breathtaking, awe, beautiful, hold your breath, magnificent splendor!

Aspens

I really do feel you Colorado.  I can smell the wild sage when the afternoon summer rains fill the sky.  I’m learning your birds.  They laugh when I try to sing to them, but they still sing back to me.  Your trees pull at my smile and how the sight of a path into your forest beckons that same place that calls to a boy like a ride at the fair.   I tread lightly across your streams and can be mesmerized by the sounds of your ripple.

My foot stumbles upon your stone along the trail, but how I love to reach your summit, to soak in your vista, to feel your wind play with my hair…. and to catch my breath.   I love to sit upon your fallen log and gaze upon all that this day is and drift off thinking how it was, trying to imagine the view this pinon oak tree must have from its tallest limbs.

As we descent back down the mountain the afternoon storm clouds fill the sky and we pull out our ponchos.   I gaze again at the size of the monstrous peaks around us, still dipped in winter snow.  I look to the east and the sun was still shining upon the rugged peaks around the town of Ouray and hear John Denver sing  “I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky”.    We walk slowly down the trail as the drops of rain find my poncho and loud echos of thunder boom in the distance.   “You can talk to God and listen to the Casual Reply…..”    I glance up and see something take flight with mighty wings.   Could it be?   “I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly”.    Ok, it was a turkey buzzard, but it didn’t stop me from singing all the way down the mountain.

Rocky Mountain High!!!

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Coming home to a place he’d never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away
On the road and hanging by a song
But the string’s already broken and he doesn’t really care
It keeps changing fast and it don’t last for long

But the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high (Colorado)

He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept his memory

Now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake

And the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply
Rocky mountain high

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land

And the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky mountain high – John Denver

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