The Tundra

We were over two miles up--Elias, JR, and I--above the tree line, up where there was still some patches of snow. Tiny rugged scrubby plants live up there and not much else. I'll admit, to get that high, I had to close my eyes. The road was too narrow and the drop-off too sharp for me--your chicken-shit host--to stand it. Below the tree line, I was fine. I just kept looking up. But eventually, there was no more up to look. Just me and the sky and the cold wind and, far below us, some evergreens and aspens just starting to golden. Everything in the world looked up from beneath us. I was dizzy and sun-burned and I had to sit down. I half-heartedly suggested they just leave me there to die, but JR and Elias bundled me back in the car and slowly twisted and turned the vehicle back down to earth. Then, to make up for scaring the shit out of me, they took me to Bear Lake and I saw a glacier. It's so beautiful here I don't even know how to tell you about it, and so varied. In the span of a day, we went from flat land to mountains, aspen groves to tundra, clear placid lakes to rocky streams. The mountains vary too. I saw charcoal grays and blacks and greens and reds, depending on what the sun was up to. It's really incredible.