The earliest settlers of this beautiful land said the Spanish Peaks in Southern Colorado were sacred. It feels holy here. (The East Spanish Peak is on the left.) The locals call them the breasts of the earth, or Wahatoya, using the Comanche word. Geologists call them the Spanish Peaks. The great twin mountains, the East Spanish …
While memoirs are written from one person’s perspective, the lives of families and friends naturally become part of the telling. All those affected by the East Peak Fire share the story I tell in Burn Scars: A Memoir of the Land and Its Loss. I am heartened, energized and, yes, relieved, that those whose lives …
I can see the pirate on the mountain from the window in front of my desk in the cabin. It’s a formation of trees and rocks that create a Johnny Depp sort of swashbuckler, with features defined by 50-foot ponderosa pines poking out of granite skin. He has a pert nose, neat beard, and a …
An honest and vulnerable meditation on the trauma of life in contemporary Colorado, put to the page with uncommon grace and insight. Prijatel is a compassionate guide in exploring that chaotic time. Most important, she offers hope for recovery and resilience. Laura Pritchett, Author, Sky Bridge, winner of the WILLA Award A tiny cabin in …
Journalist Patricia Prijatel and her family built a tiny cabin in a remote Colorado mountain valley where they embraced the silent, the wild, and the beautiful—until June 2013 and the East Peak Fire. Their cabin survived, but their woodlands became a burn-scarred landscape of splintered trunks and blackened branches. After the fire, the ruin of …
WE HAVE A WINNER! CHECK OUT THE PUBLISHED BOOK ON AMAZON. Can you help me choose the best title and subtitle for my upcoming memoir on the aftermath of a wildfire? The titles are all illustrated below, but I am not married to any design or photograph at this point. To vote, just leave the …
When you live in a mountain valley, you sometimes lose cell service in your cabin. What to do? Put your computer in a backpack and climb up to the top of a foothill to do your work by the outbuildings.
President Franklin Roosevelt called forests the “lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Forests absorb potentially dangerous carbon dioxide while producing healthy oxygen. They trap dust, ash, pollen, and smoke, keeping them out of the air and our lungs. According to American Forests, a single tree can produce …
On June 27, 2018, the Spring Fire in southern Colorado was started by a man grilling meat in an outdoor pit. Within two weeks, it had become the state’s second largest fire in history, burning more than 108,000 acres. The fire was both a natural and an unnatural disaster. Wildfires have always been a fixture …
Hawks and other raptors eventually returned after the fire. This guy settled on a large scrub oak, with the grey and burned face of the East Spanish Peak in the background. The photo was taken in 2016, three years after the fire.