... isn’t there something a bit vulgar, even Wagnerian, about mountains?
I fear it may be so. I prefer Pennsylvania's old, low, green mountains to the impersonal grandeur of the Rockies, just as i vastly prefer Chopin to Wagner.
... isn’t there something a bit vulgar, even Wagnerian, about mountains?
I couldn't disagree more.
ReplyDeleteHaving climbed in the Tetons in Wyoming, among other places, I find that to be a very personal grandeur indeed.
I guess that's the proverbial case of your having to be there. I've seen the high mountains from a distance, but have never hiked in them. Guess, like anything, you've got to actually meet them to appreciate them fully. I did climb Mount Adirondack, though, one of the higher ones back east here, and I liked it, except there were too many people - not a problem, I expect, in the Rockies.
ReplyDeleteI've hiked and photographed in the Delaware Water Gap now, too, and the Alleghenies and Adirondacks. They certainly are all lovely hills. One day I want to climb Mt. Washington up in Maine, but my last trip out East didn't afford me the opportunity. Maybe next time.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd really like Colorado. There are some very quiet and private places along the Front Range, where you can get up high into the hills fairly easily, and enjoy both the view and the clean mountain breezes. Truly spectacular country.
One of my new favorite places is Great Basin Natl. Monument, in Nevada. Last time I was there I camped over night in the campground at 10,000 feet, with a view over the open basins to the east. Then in the morning I hiked up to the bristlecone pine groves on the side of the mountain. It's really lovely, wild.
I do grant you that rolling hills of Appalachia are friendlier in somme ways, easier to get around in, to climb. And the Smokies are pretty astounding. But I am drawn to the harsh and wild beauties of the high Rockies even more. If you really seek that desert solitaire experience, that's where to go find it.
I believe Mt. Washington is in New Hampshire. I have climbed Mt. Katahdin in Maine. It's beautiful.
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