Mountains

I always thought it odd that the Poconos (in northern Pennsylvania) were called mountains. In actuality, they are no more than hills and have a highest elevation of 2200′ +/-.

When I was growing up, my family lived for awhile in central Washington state — sagebrush country and desert. But we had to travel to visit relatives by going through real mountains — the Rockies — and did that several times over the 4 years we were out west. I remember in my mind’s eye the amazing view of the Rockies as we drove west on the flat prairie of eastern Colorado.

At first, the tops of the Rockies looked like small hills, but the further west we drove, the higher they rose in front of us until — miles out from the foot of the mountains they became riveting in their height and hazy blue color. We were a day’s journey from them as we watched with wonder at the height and sharpness of their peaks. And then, we knew, we had to drive through them.

I remember dark tunnels bored out of rock and twisty roads and a hairpin curve that scared my eight year old self. I remember my mother (and me, too) turning from the window and not looking down at the drop of thousands of feet to our right.

The Rockies. Those are mountains — 14,000′ plus! I would love to see them again!

I just got back from a retreat I led in the Blue Ridge Mountains. These ridges deserve to be called mountains as well, although the highest peaks among them are just over 6,600′. They are older than the Rockies and time has ground them down to slightly rounded tops (unlike the jaggedness of the Rockies) and lesser heights. But their valleys are narrow and the sides of the mountains rise steeply from the valley floors. The summits are often shrouded in mist and wind-raked. And blue (see picture above). The Blue Ridge nickname is earned by the isoprene (a product of tree metabolism — beyond that, I don’t know . . . ) given off by trees that reflects blue light. The color is spellbinding and captures one’s attention because of the unusual color. And the shades of blue are multihued giving depth to the scene of multiple ridges layered into the distance.

Whether you are a flatlander or a mountaineer — or perhaps a hills and valleys person — I hope you will delight in looking around you after you read this and wonder in the God-created geography that surrounds you.