Tuesday --- Memories

Mom and Dad loved to go for a drive and just see the scenery. They would pile us kids in the car and just go. Sometimes they had a plan but more often there was no destination and the goal was to see something of interest.
In the spring the deer and elk antlers would be covered in velvet like the elk in my header and the creeks would be full of snow melt and running wild. In early summer the wild flowers would bloom and long days were great for an adventure on a back road. Fall, there would be aspen leaves turning gold and elk bugling and berry picking trips. Winter was a time of quiet and lazy day drives didn't happen much and when they did it was a sightseeing trip with a destination. Snowy roads were to be respected and travel was more of a necessity and less a pleasure.
Dad loved the mountains and the history of the settlers and of the Indians that were there before that.
The Ute Indians claimed most of the area that we lived in or near. As he drove he would point out thing like a hill west of Granby where he had heard there was a battle between the Utes and another tribe. He would say,"See up there? Old Bill told me that's the spot where they clashed and if you hike up there you might find arrow heads or something." We would drive past the hot springs and he would tell us he had heard that the Indians believed that the springs would cure most anything, they would even take their horses in the caves with them if they thought something was wrong with them, or just to warm them up on cold days. We would be driving up across the Trough Road and he would point out a dugout and speculate on the type of brave pioneer that had made his home in there and how he may have had to live while he was there.
He knew the names of the steams and the mountains and if he didn't he would name them.
Lunch was packed from home and eaten in the car or at some place where Dad could pull off the road and we could have a picnic.
I wonder now, if Mom and Dad had known how this oil crisis was to play out, if we would have found another way to entertain ourselves.