Pretty Things along the Path

 Flying on a plane, you’ll see a map view of what lies beneath. From a car, you can see the big pictures, the mountain peaks as they stand next to each other, forests of green that look like carpet, the images moving quickly like on television. It is on hikes that you see the tree itself, or the flower, drops of morning dew hanging from pine needles, or smell the white bushy flowers that filled the air with something like sweet honeysuckle or jasmine, hear the wind through the trees, or the sound of rushing water or, occasionally, a remarkable and rare. . . quiet.  A bird entertained us on the way back from Bridal Veil Falls with his rhythmic exercises: a descending minor third to a repeated tone, mostly in groups of four but, when we listened closely, occasionally five, sometimes three, or even two.

These photographs are a few of the small things that made the hike along Cow Creek in Estes Park so memorable.