Vividly colored rock monuments gave Colorado parks a strange beauty in snow

Evidence

It did look very grand as we entered it by a narrow pass guarded by two buttes, or isolated upright masses of rock, bright red, and about 300 feet in height. The pines were very large, and the narrow canyons which came down on the park gloomily magnificent. It is remarkable also from a quantity of “monumental” rocks, from 50 to 300 feet in height, bright vermilion, green, buff, orange, and sometimes all combined, their gay tinting a contrast to the disastrous-looking snow and the somber pines. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 165

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: Red buttes, ice-crusted canyons, and painted monumental rocks under falling snow make a ready-made setting for a western travel narrative or a scene of a woman riding alone into unmapped country.
• CANDY: Rock spires up to 300 feet tall painted vermilion, green, buff, and orange in one formation is a genuinely striking elevator fact.
• XREF: connects to: Light and snow transforms the Colorado mountains into fairyland scenery — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 108; Sudden heavy snowfall transformed the Colorado landscape overnight. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 168; Colorado’s mountain parks are hundreds of hidden high valleys from 6,000 to 11,000 feet — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 273

Broader Connections

• Colorado’s mountain parks are hundreds of hidden high valleys from 6,000 to 11,000 feet #expands (0.95) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 273
• Sudden heavy snowfall transformed the Colorado landscape overnight. #complicates (0.85) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 168