I am reading a wonderful book about a pair of sisters, The Dickersons, who lived on the Mummy Range in the early 1900’s, called “Apples of the Mummy’s Eyes”. They viewed the profile of the “mummy” from the off the grid cabin they lived in for 80+ years! From the age of 5-6, they worked with teams of horses to pull stumps and did all sorts of hard labor. Helen was a real homebody, like me, and made pine needle baskets, candies, woven blankets, which she sold at a store on the edge of their property.

Here at McGraw Ranch, we have two guardians, Pulpit Rock and Indian Head. In fact at some point, the ranch was called the Indian Head Ranch.

It just seems like a strong profile to me but nonetheless, he is our protector. The first thing we see every morning.

We took advantage of several beautiful, warm days this week and hiked in the backyard. Tim went to Balanced Rock. I opted to skip the elevation gain and looked at pine cones instead. We have beautiful Ponderosa Pines all around us and their pinecones reminded me of a rose.

The next walk we took was along the Northern Boundary trail into the Comanche Peak Wilderness, where we caught a glimpse into the next valley. It’s easy to imagine what it must have been like to ride horses into this territory when this was a dude ranch.

We didn’t realize we could see Longs Peak, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park at 14,256 feet, for a good part of the walk but it was clear to us on the way back.

There was a sundog on the way down. A sundog occurs on either side of the sun when it is low on the horizon and is called a sundog because it sits beside the sun like a loyal dog. My best capture of this was in Maine when we wintered at Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park.

But now the weather is turning colder once again, single digits for the next couple of days. Space heaters are back in use and water is left dripping from all the faucets.

We stopped by the Stanley Hotel, the setting for Stephen King’s “The Shining”, while in town yesterday. They have special rates, more not less, for rooms with paranormal activity. Stephen King shot his own miniseries here but the hotel promotes the Jack Nicholson version.

What’s not clear is that it sits right at the edge of Estes Park and is not at all remote.

Although we are only 15 minutes from town, our setting is remote. Just the way we like it.