Flat Tops For the past few months I have been reading my way through most of Zane Grey's western novels. Most of the stories were set sometime in the late 19th century. If such characters as Lassiter, Venters, Bess, Fay Larkin or Jane Witherstein do not ring a bell, you are missing something. If you are not a fan of Zane Grey's you will not know how much effort he puts into the detail of describing each scene or locale. Honestly, sometimes even I think he goes a bit long, but that is just Grey's style.
This morning however I came across a narrative Grey had written that wasn't a story of fiction at all. It was more like a written documentary of some of his travels throughout Utah and Colorado. What caught my attention at about 5:30 AM was his description of a few days spent in Colorado's Flat Top mountains, a range that I am quite familiar with extending from Yampa on the East nearly to Meeker on the West. Again, due to the level of detail that Grey always uses, I felt as if I was actually there at places like Big Fish, Wall Lake or standing on the shore of Little Trappers Lake. Well, actually I had been. What made this read so welcoming was that in a few instances, I could tell that Grey and I both had stood in nearly the same spot separated only by 90 years or so, he in the late 1920s, me in the early 2000's. Truthfully, very little seemed to have changed in almost 100 years. That is what made it so special.
This morning however I came across a narrative Grey had written that wasn't a story of fiction at all. It was more like a written documentary of some of his travels throughout Utah and Colorado. What caught my attention at about 5:30 AM was his description of a few days spent in Colorado's Flat Top mountains, a range that I am quite familiar with extending from Yampa on the East nearly to Meeker on the West. Again, due to the level of detail that Grey always uses, I felt as if I was actually there at places like Big Fish, Wall Lake or standing on the shore of Little Trappers Lake. Well, actually I had been. What made this read so welcoming was that in a few instances, I could tell that Grey and I both had stood in nearly the same spot separated only by 90 years or so, he in the late 1920s, me in the early 2000's. Truthfully, very little seemed to have changed in almost 100 years. That is what made it so special.
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