The Uplifted Planet

Approaching the Rockies is an exercise in an optical illusion of monumental scale. The road ahead is flat and straight and the mountains appear to be close. Yet an hour late the distance seems the same though the scenery to the left and right may have changes.  I last approached through cattle ranches with expansive fields, sporadic trees and occasional oil derricks.

Upon examining the increasingly rural side country the mountains remained looming in the distance until all of a sudden they were surrounding us.  Cliffs and boulders and peaks thrust out of the distance and all around us. And they just keep going. Just as distantly as they loomed up until their arrival they were fully enveloping and continuous and uplifting, the earth and anyone who is in them.