Travel Essays Archives • Page 39 of 69 • Andrew Crusoe

Has the sky ever smiled at you? One summer day last year, the sky smiled at me.

You’ve probably never heard of Mount Galbraith before, but it’s a fantastic place to hike and appreciate the natural world, which is too often overlooked these days. Mount Galbraith Park is just a half hour drive west of Denver (here it is on gMaps), and when I visited one of its trails I was lucky enough to go on a day when a rainbow appeared in the sky.

I took the Mt. Galbraith loop trail, and at first the trail was pretty rough (not to mention confusing on the way back). But after about a half hour, I arrived at a lookout point, and I realized that all my efforts had completely paid off. From where I stood, the sky itself seemed to smile down on me by presenting me with a stunning rainbow.

The Smile of the Sky

Even though it wasn’t a complete rainbow, it was still incredibly beautiful, and photos certainly don’t do justice to how it looked. I stopped and took lots of photos of the rainbow. Wide ones, vertical ones, but still, none of them can compare to actually seeing it.

Continuing down the trial, I soon saw a huge white letter M marked on the side of a hill. That’s because a well-known Colorado University, the Colorado School of Mines, was nearby. Then I looked to the West and noticed the sun was beginning to set. Looking over the entire valley was calming, and the sunset turned some of the blue clouds orange, creating a really beautiful contrast. (You can find that photo in the A Rainbow above Mt. Galbraith Trail album.)

Was this purple rain?

But even more beautiful sights awaited me farther down the trial. Looking north this time, far off clouds were gently raining down on the plains in the distance, creating deep purple shapes below the clouds. This color mixed with the violet colors of the sunset, creating a uniquely beautiful sight. As far as I can remember, that’s the first time I’d ever seen such a thing. And now that I’m writing this, I experience an odd synchronicity for me as well, because a few days before I began writing this article, I got Prince’s Greatest Hits which, of course, includes the famous song “Purple Rain”. Could this have been what he was talking about?

I started heading back, and by the time I was coming down, the city lights were already beginning to glow in the valley below. And though I didn’t know it then, that wouldn’t be the last time I hiked in Colorado…

Would I make it back in time?

Next time, we’ll journey beyond an immaculate patch of birch trees, past a hidden stream, and look down on a valley below the blue Rocky Mountains, all while storm clouds head towards me. Would I make it back down in time before it rained? Would my camera get wet?

You’ll have to tune in next time to find out!

Continue the journey →

Photos from this trip are in the A Rainbow above Mt. Galbraith Trail – Colorado album. All photos in the Gallery can be used as desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440).

Although I’d already seen many of Denver’s wonders, a few more were still in store before I left, including fountain that may have even been haunted.

Yep, it’s true. But I’m getting ahead of myself. To start, I found out that every sunday in the summer, Denver’s City Park hosts free jazz concerts on their outdoor stage. The program is called City Park Jazz, and the city of Denver sponsors it every summer, usually from the beginning of June to the beginning of August. It’s free, and all you have to do is show up. So, I decided to show up, and I got more than I bargained for.

Free Music and Free Water?

That sunday, an especially groovy jazz fusion band was playing, and after a while, a crowd of dancing people formed in front of the stage! It was wonderful to watch, and a real feeling of community was in the air.

Denver Water company was also there. They may even been have sponsoring the event, but I didn’t ask. I was glad they were there though, because they were giving out free filtered water, and who can say “No” to free filtered water?

Some City Park Jazz Tips

If you’re going to check out Denver’s City Park Jazz, there’s a few things you should know. Here’s the list I wish I would have seen before I went:

1. Get there early to claim your spot.

There tends to be a big picnic crowd that spans for hundreds of meters, so if you want a spot closer to the stage, you should get there at least an hour early. The picture to the right of this list is a good example of how large the crowd can be.

2. Bring snacks.

I headed over to the jazz concert on a whim that afternoon, but I wish that I’d brought some food. Towards the end of the concert, my squirrel-like digestive system was pretty hungry, though I was very lucky that someone actually asked me if I was hungry and offered to share!

3. Either bring a good folding chair or a comfy picnic blanket.

Depending on if you want to have a picnic or not, you should either bring a chair or a blanket. Be aware that this venue has no seating, just grass. It’s flourishing grass, but it’s just grass.

An Unexpected Delight: The Prismatic Electric Fountain

Going to the park and staying until the end of the concert had a surprise bonus for me, though. As the sun sank under the horizon, I noticed that beyond the stage, way out in the middle of Ferril Lake, was an illuminated fountain. Later, I found out that this beautiful fountain is called the Prismatic Electric Fountain (named so because it produces a rainbow of colors just like a prism does), and it’s the 21st century replacement for the original fountain built for City Park in 1908. This new fountain was dedicated in August 2008, one hundred years after the original fountain was completed.

Watching the fountain cycle through reds, indigos, and blues was mesmerizing; and I was very thankful to have my Fujifilm camera on hand so I could use its 10x optical zoom. For this shoot, I decided to keep the film speed at 400 ISO because I didn’t want much noise in the pictures. However, this resulted in longer exposure times, so to make up for the longer exposures, I braced myself on a nearby railing. It worked. 😀

As with any shoot, the more photos you take, the more likely you are to capture a photo that truly suspends the magic of the moment. For instance, I took 21 photos of the fountain, but only 6 of those were worth post-processing and adding to the gallery. In particular, I’m rather pleased at how this red and fuchsia one came out:

And for some of the photos, I allowed the camera to leave the shutter open for a bit longer, and some of those pictures created a ghostly effect for the fountain. Like this one, for instance:

Kinda creepy-looking, isn’t it? That’s because THE FOUNTAIN IS ALIVE.
Just kidding! (Maybe.)

Don’t be a goon! Be jazzy, instead.

So, to recap, if you’re in Denver during the summer and you like jazz, you’d be a goon to miss City Park Jazz. And if you don’t like jazz, you should at least stop by Denver’s City Park at dusk and witness this beautiful prismatic fountain! The City Park Jazz schedule is on their website and more information on the Prismatic Electric Fountain can be on its website.

And if the fountain turns ghosty again, try not to worry to much.
I’m pretty sure it’s benevolent.

Pretty sure.

Next time, we see a rainbow in the clouds from the top of a MOUNTAIN.

Continue the journey →

Photos from this trip are in the Denver City Park Jazz album. All photos in the Gallery can be used as desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440).

Andrew Crusoe

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Category: Travel Essays