How Many States Can One Leave Their Heart In The West?

The following is a my love story with the American West. A big, wide open land that's always in jeopardy of being exploited to its demise. Where I see a land full of precious life, others see $$. I would hope everyone would get a chance to experience the wilds of our beautiful western lands and understand why its so important to save them. 

Beautiful California. My home state. Beaches, mountains and deserts just hours away. I've enjoyed watching sunsets on the sands at Huntington Beach, from Inspiration Point high in the San Gabriel Mountains and deep in Heart of the Mojave Desert. I've cruised up and down Hwy 395 along the stunning Eastern Sierra over and over and over again. I've been humbled by the Redwoods in the forests deep. I've watched whales and dolphins and seals and birds off the miles-long coastline. CA is a beautiful state no doubt.

Then I saw Arizona.  A land that speaks to my very soul. I've sat by a legendary river slashing its way though rock and sand creating chasms on a grandiose scale. I've seen rugged, distant landscapes in shades of browns and reds and greens. I've seen rattlesnakes, burros, vultures and cactus that stretch their mighty arms towards the sky. Then I looked north. Forests of junipers and cypress turn to tall pines and snow-capped peaks alive with elk and deer and bear. Indian ponies wander through canyons dotted with hogans. AZ is a beautiful state no doubt.

But oh...oh...oh...   Nevada. I learned early on there's more to Nevada than The Meadows, or more commonly known, Las Vegas. A benign name for such a place. But beyond the glow of the strip is a vast and beautiful land that abounds with wildlife and basins and ranges. Mustangs, pronghorns, deer, oceans of sage and glacial-carved canyons that rival the alps. When I saw the Great Basin I felt I'd come home. NV is a beautiful state no doubt.

Utah...what can one say about Utah that would do it justice. Red rock adorned in evergreen. Spires and hoodoos and arches and canyons that go on forever. Land as old as time and stories yours for the finding. The ancients left their mark in a land that takes ones breath away. Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. The stunning Uinta and Wasatch Mountains in fall... UT is a beautiful state no doubt.

Proof that even one's wildest dreams can come true...Alaska. Glacier Bay is towering, jagged, snow-capped peaks, the sheer force of calving glaciers and brown bears ambling on the shore. Skagway is tales of gold and trains and massive boulders collapsing on miners and mules burying them for all time. Juneau is the most amazing blue ice fields, wild rivers and fresh-out-of-the-water salmon. AK is a beautiful state no doubt.

"Rocky mountain high, in Colorado..." "It's a long way from LA to Denver..." I fell in love with Colorado long before I set foot in the state. I fell in love with John Denver in my tumultuous early teens. He was my beacon of hope. "To The Wild Country, where I belong..." I was 16 when I visited Colorado Springs and surrounds. I was awed by a real mountain river. I was mesmerized...an actual garden where Gods hung out. Later in life I flew across the continental divide multiple times behind the love of my life on a Harley Davidson, took a steam train up the Animas River from Durango to Silverton and even visited Mr. & Mrs. Cody on Lookout Mountain. CO is a beautiful state no doubt.

Enchanted...that's how I used to describe myself as a young person. I was enchanted with the West for sure. From Mexico to Canada, I wanted to see it all. New Mexico was a must see. We've traveled the Turquoise Trail. One of my favorite pieces of turquoise came from Cerrillos. We oohed and awed our way up to High Finance & the Sandia Crest to watch an amazing sunset over the Upper Rio Grande Basin. We respectfully explored a living pueblo and discovered ancient rock art just out Albuquerque. NM is a beautiful state no doubt.

I've always felt the pull of the Pacific Northwest just as much as the American Southwest. Both areas have native cultures that excel in art, story-telling, community and are shaped by the unique environment in which they live. A ride down the Pacific Northwest coast from Washington to Oregon and into Northern California was a trip of a lifetime. Lake Quinault is Washington at it's best, complete with banana slugs and rainforests. I admit to sheepishly hoping to see a vampire in Forks on the way to Hurricane Ridge. Heaven is a long weekend at the Waterhouse on San Juan Island, with a front row to the Olympic Peninsula glowing across the Straits of Juan de Fuca. And... I hear Orcas live in these waters:-) Maybe someday...WA is a beautiful state no doubt.

Oregon... Sampling cheeses in Tillamook and beers at Rogue Ales Public House in Newport. A lake as deep and blue as I've ever seen.  A wild Rogue River that slices through a stunning forest. I hear there's wild horses with Spanish blood coursing through their veins up in the Steens that I must see someday. OR is a beautiful state no doubt.

And now Wyoming. Home of Buffalo Bill Cody. Home to bison and elk and moose and bear and wolf and fox and antelope and mustang and so much more it's hard to comprehend. Wyoming embodies the Wild West. The immense beauty and prolific wildlife in Yellowstone is beyond anything I've ever seen. The mountain ranges are larger than life. We gratefully enjoyed the Wind River Range, the Absaroka's and the Tetons. We gazed in awe at the Big Horn Range off on in the distance. Wyoming is a wild big land. I love that about it. When I was young Wyoming would have definitely fit my dream. It's a big land with seemingly enough room for all living things.

McCullough Peaks Wild Horses...

Stallion Medicine Hat and his mare Tigress out on the wide open. 

Medicine Hat patiently hangs out behind Tigress as she grazes.

To watch wild horses is a gift. 

Wapiti (Elk):

From the cabin window. In the field below.

Aw Mom...

The bugle of a bull is a quintessential call of the wild. 

Bison:

Bison are amazing creatures. Not only as themselves, but for all that they provide... food, clothing, shelter, tools. A true partner for one's existence in the west. The American Bison was the center of life on the plains of the American West. Its unfortunate they can't be reintroduced in more of their home range. It just seems it should be so.

Pronghorns:

Pronghorns... I wish we had Pronghorns in the Mojave. We used to. Fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere...impressive! I love the land where the deer and the antelope play!

Chipmunk:

Fox: 

Such focus and energy! I wish I could focus like a fox.

Moose:

What a special treat to spot this moose cow and calf. 

Grizzly!:

How fortunate to witness this griz make his way along a valley edge and up and over the ridge.  

Great Gray Owl: 

Wyoming is a special place. One that beckons and pulls at my spirit, softly, yet strongly begging for me to come back. The wilds of Wyoming will never stop calling. 

This land I live in is beyond incredible. The American West will always be my home. My restless, wild Western Heart will always search out the next adventure in this beautiful corner of Earth.

Thankful for this life I live...

Photo credit to my loving husband for some of these.