Living As A Crow Flies

The valley behind the sanctuary is green now.   The same vibrant green one finds in box of basic crayons.  The range-land as far as the eye can see is a flowing carpet of this green, interspersed with the blue-gray hues of the sage.  The range is cradled between volcanic mountains, ridges and bluffs pushed up from the flat eons ago when the earth was trying to decide what its face should look like.

This is open range county, all this green and gray and dark brown slate.  Its hard for most people to grasp the idea or even the reality of open range.  Most people live divided and segmented lives with roads, fences, houses and yards breaking up any idea of what is meant by "as a crow flies".  Nothing can be reached in a straight line.

But out here neither the carpet of green nor a line of sight has segments.  Its all one long free flowing horizon.  A person could start a walk from any place on the sanctuary and just keep walking, uninhibited by walls, barriers or gated communities.  A walk could start at the sanctuary and days later end somewhere in Nevada with only the barest glimpse of other people.

This is what I love about my now green world.  Its vast and unimpeded horizon gives me wings that stretch way out....and out...and out.  Here I am free.  If I stretch out my arms I do not need to say "this is how much space I need", the amount of space some researcher said every human needs.  Out here I stretch out my arms and look down one of them to my finger and beyond, to a space that is 10, 20 miles off in the distance and I say "this is how much space I need". 

This is how much space we all need.  Even if we don't live here.  Even if we only hear about it or see it in a photo or read about it on someones weblog.  We all need to know its out here.  Untouched.  Undeveloped.  Unfenced.  A place that is open and sometimes like the green in a crayon box.

Comments

[Louise Vertefeuille]

When I found out about this place I did not even know there was such a thing as Lassen County. I got my California map out and searched for it... It's sure far from L.A.!!! and marked by very few roads. Even the map gave a sense of vast open land. Ravendale, a small dot in a sea of emptiness...

Then, I discovered the amazing photos and realized that it is not emptiness but--- S P A C E--- like I forgot existed...Thank you for reminding me and for sharing it through your words and beautiful pictures. Now I know...

[Animal Rights Activist]

Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us!