Almost imperceptibly, winter begins to roll back north into the Canadian provinces whence it came. One day you realize it is really gone. The feel of the warming sun and the windborne scents of the earth s richness tell you that the best is yet to come. Winter leaves behind a stark yet dramatic scene of endless mountain ranges, deep-worn valleys, and wandering waters.
Snow still buries high peaks and fills the contours of north-facing coulees, gulches, and slopes.
West-flowing drainages bristle with the promising greens of fir, spruce, and pine forests through the long winter. Blue sky east-slope landscapes are more bare. Bleak gray-brown grasslands seem to roll on forever. They are highlighted by the last holdouts of snow in sunless folds that define their great windswept vastness. Distant mountain ranges, lonely highways, and cottonwood bottoms help frame such scenes, cutting down the overwhelming immensity of the West into a portion humans can better comprehend.