Pagosa
June 18, 2019

It matters not one whit how many times I have toured in the Pagosa area, I can never bring to recall just how stunning that countryside really is until I see it again.  How to convey the grandeur?  Words escape me, and photographs are paltry in comparison to the experience.   My mind can scarcely accept the magnificence of what my eyes are observing.

Although Mother Nature was wholly uncooperative with our desire to be out and about in this wild land, she fully compensated by providing even more grandeur.  We were treated to thunderstorms and all that comes with them to accentuate the views as they swept across the mountains and valleys.  Pagosa Peak in the photo below was revealed for a few minutes before it was obscured again by drenching rain, more of the moisture that has brought incredibly lush greenery to the region.

 And the flowers!  They literally carpet every hillside and valley!

The Piedra River, like all the snowmelt water courses in this land, is roaring far beyond any what we have ever seen in our times here.  We had intended to hike in the Piedra River gorge, which is one of our favorite places, but heavy rain, large hail and lightning called a halt to that plan.

I never get enough of this meandering creek that makes its serpentine way nearly circling back on itself for miles as it flows slowly along its beautiful wide valley.

As we lunched in the dry safety of the truck overlooking a pond, we began our trip bird list.  There and along the way, we identified American crow, western meadowlark, American coot, ruddy duck, ringneck duck, barn swallow, Canada goose, turkey vulture, mallard, Brewer's blackbird, redwing blackbird and yellow-headed blackbird.

William Henry Walker (1840-1908) . . .

As is our habit, we visited Hilltop Cemetery to put flowers on the grave of William Walker, my cousin Jerry's two-greats grandfather.  It is a lovely resting place secure in the tall trees and decorated with wildflowers.

This visit, though, we had a big surprise.  As we pulled up by Walker's grave, I spotted two deer bedded down just beyond at another gravesite.  Even when we disembarked, they took little notice of us and remained in their chosen place.