Hart Prairie Color Dance
I notice the colors and shapes first; reddish mounds on an ocher field, muted deep green, warm grays and white speckled with maroon on the steep crest. The contours of Humphreys and Agassiz dominate this open perspective near the base of Fern Mountain. Blue Kendrick comes into view when I glance over my shoulder. The expansive vista from Hart Prairie resonates with a deep voice within me. I experience a quiet calming while I sit among the branched potentilla. The cupped bracts of last years flowers glow with sienna light, echoed in the arched tail feathers of a hawk overhead, and more vibrantly in the red orange rose hip globes woven into gray foliage. Faint traces of spring are emerging in tiny green feathers and blades. In the checkerboard of private property and Forest Service domain, enough wildness remains to refocus from the daily mind chatter and refresh my spirit. I find the same heart space on McMillan Mesa where I have lived and walked for nineteen years. Uncrowded land and sky with the Peaks in sight uplift me. I take particular delight in the sea of aspens flowing between dark green Ponderosas at the juncture with Hart Prairie. On this March day the branches are bare, a gray swath; in October, a golden color dance on the Peaks.