God's Own Country: Kerala West

We got back last Sunday afternoon from a long weekend fishing trip. We left Wednesday night, fished all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and a few hours this morning before driving back today. We in Estes Park, at the cabin of one of our guides, Ron. From the driveway we could see Long’s Peak, one of Colorado’s fourteeners (a peak at least 14 thousand feet high). Ron, by the way, has climbed Longs Peak- more than once. In fact he has climbed all but 9 of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners. The man is amazing.

There’s several things I could, and probably will, talk about this trip, but right now the context I want to focus on is just the amazing beauty of this place. I’ve seen natural wonders like it a few times in my life. As a kid we took a few vacations to some places like the Grand Canyon and the Teton Mountain range. Those were spectacular too, but I think I am able to more fully appreciate the beauty of those trips now more than when I was younger.

I’ve also seen some other great places in the world. Two years ago I went to South Africa and Swaziland, then a few months ago I went to India. All of those were amazingly beautiful- mountains all around, yawning savannahs and grasslands, lush forests amidst a rocky peak. The place I spent the most time in India was the southern state, called Kerala. It is much more developed than many other parts of the country, but has a large amount of tourism to the many areas of natural beauty that it has. In fact, Kerala has so much natural beauty of so many kinds that it is called “God’s Own Country”. It is the state motto and on all the tourism literature and such. More on this in a bit…

So we fished just off the road in a river near the cabin several days but on Saturday we drove up to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. From the parking lot we had to hike several miles up a trail on the mountain to get to the lake. The trail continued on to get to other lakes as well and see more of the park. But we stopped at the lake, unpacked our gear, and proceeded to fish it for probably about five hours or more, although it felt like maybe 45 minutes or so. I fished mostly with Ron and Campbell on the far side of the lake, out on some rocks 20 yards or so into the water. Several times throughout the day I would stop and look, or Campbell would point out to me the amazing view all around us. Beautiful mountains high above us to one side, even though we were at over 10,000 feet, some more mountains in the distance in the other direction, it was amazing. He and I also stopped a few times on the hike up to admire and take pictures of the view from the trail. The water itself was a stunning clear greenish color. I only caught one fish that day, the least of any of the full days we fished, but I didn’t mind at all because of where we were. It was an experience beyond words to even be in that place, in that water, surrounded by that beauty as well as the company I was with.

We’ve noticed it some other times too just around Colorado Springs. We live on the side of a mountain. Every day going to work we see Pikes Peak and other mountains in that range. A guy once told us early on that if we’re ever having a bad day at work or anything, just turn around and look at that and pointed to Pikes Peak. Shortly after that I told Campbell about seeing similar things in Africa and India, and about Kerala- God’s own country. This place, Colorado, I told him seems to me like Kerala West, it is just as beautiful in so many ways as any place I’ve ever seen. I suppose it is no coincidence that so many Christian ministries and organizations are based in Colorado Springs. God is here, there is something about so much nature and beauty that make Him easier to see and feel in everything. I can’t imagine any better place. The Indian state may have the official title, but this place truly is God’s Own Country.