Sand Hill Cranes in flight heading along the North Platte River looking to roost at sunset.

In the course of a week I have witnessed the two extremes of Mother Nature’s charge.

Last Friday and Saturday I sat quietly in the early evening hours with my wife and friends Jerry and Bridget in the confines of an exquisite blind watching and photographing the Sand Hill and Whooping Crane migration along the North Platte River in central Nebraska. Jerry and Bridget have been working the past five years as administrators of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, revitalizing this grand ribbon of water into an even more appealing habitat for the majestic birds.

The site and sounds of this natural ritual , orchestrated over millions of years, will forever penetrate your  heart and etch it’s primal instinct in your sacred memory bank. On wing and with their eerily prehistoric call, one can certainly consider the experience one for the “bucket list”.

Upon returning to Colorado and settling into our work week , we were alerted Monday evening by local network news that a wild fire had broke out in Conifer Colorado approximately eight miles south of our home. Being Colorado natives living in a domain of coniferous forests, spring always reminds us of two things. Either wet heavy snows created by the clash of cold Northern Pacific air with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico or extremely dry conditions precipitated by strong continuous pummeling winds activated by an unruly jet stream.

This spring we have gotten outrageous winds, some upwards to 90 miles an hour certain days. Talk had already begun circulating among friends and neighbors about fire danger weeks before the Lower North Fork fire erupted.

For those of us that live amongst nature’s finest array of beauty we are reminded that part of that precious balance is viciousness and natural selection.

Wild fire, including Conifer Colorado's Lower North Fork fire, is an ever present reminder of the turbulent lifestyle mountain dwellers face each year.

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