The Brocken Spectre atop Longs Peak
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The Diamond on Longs Peak, 14,255 feet, Rocky Mountain National Park. For readers interested in the Brocken Specter phenomenon, they can consult John Muir’s Mountains of California, in the chapter entitled “The South Dome.”Photo by Richard F. Fleck
We all look up at an eclipsing
moon high in the sky as we
approach the dark North Face
in very crisp air of three a.m.
Way toward Wyoming, streaks
of Northern Lights shimmer
while we inch our way to
the summit over icy granite.
At five a.m. we plant our feet
atop block-shaped Longs Peak
to wait in early light for a
bright and rising sun somewhere
over Kansas with lots of prairie
in-between, and then it happens.
As the sun bobs up, the shadow
of our high cold mountain moves
slowly westward stretching out to
Utah and revealing our planet’s
unending whirl through space.
