"To a person sitting quietly at home, Rocky Mountain traveling, like Rocky Mountain scenery, must seem very monotonous; but not so to me, to whom the pure, dry mountain air is the elixir of life.' -- Isabella Bird
To me, this quote says it all about my love for mountains. No matter how many photographs I take of them and no matter how many photographs I view of them taken by other photographers, nothing beats the spiritual nature and exhilaration of being there. It is hard to describe the chill in the air and the anticipation that you feel in the pre-dawn hours. It is hard to convey how you are feeling as the sunlight kisses the peaks of the mountains. For me, I feel insignificant when the light slowly lights up the landscape. The silence and the tranquility is so real that you think you can reach out and touch it. Before a trip to the mountains, I think that the reason that I am going is to get great photos of beautiful landscapes. When I am standing there taking in scenes like this, I realize that I am lying to myself. I am there for their beauty and what the experience does to rejuvenate my spirit. While the photos are important they are secondary. They are reminders that I can relive when I get back to real life that helps me to look forward to my next visit.