We’re off to see thousands of sandhill cranes on Thursday at Monte Vista National Wildlife Area outside of Alamosa, Colorado! This shot is from January 13, 2014 at a completely different place, and I doubt we’ll get that close, but in Colorado we’ll have snow-capped mountains in the background. To get there means another trip across the vastness northwest of Taos, a region no one who hasn’t been here can imagine, period. Hardly any human beings for the better part of ninety minutes driving. Why do I like this? It’s baseline reality, the way the planet was before we screwed it up. For that matter, so are the cranes. This is precious knowledge. This is why I’m here.
Years ago, driving on the walled-in D.C. beltway, I decided that was no goddamn way to live. Taking the Metro into the city wasn’t any better, never mind the disgusting humidity and heat. What. The. Hell. Moving here was a bitch because I had to do a lot of growing up. (I’m still growing up, it’s hopeless.) But apparently I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)
How can there be any sand hill cranes in Colorado? I thought my mom had them all outside her window in Florida! They really get around.
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