Big Sky
Pampas. Steppes. Veld. Prairie: Grasslands of the world, a unique natural domain, or biome, so different from our moist, green wooded hills in the eastern forests, a jungle by contrast. Now, I've driven through Custer State Park, but I haven't really been there. If we'd had the time to walk a few miles to the top of one of the long, grassy ridges and watch the stars come out, hear the coyotes, settle into its rhythms, I'd feel I had been there. But we were just passing through. Custer, then Rushmore, then rush home.
For a forest-dweller, it was impressive for its spareness and expanse. A single landscape image is sure to do injustice to both land and sky. The picture above is a panorama of three, and does not give the eye the sense of distance that gives the land its character.
By contrast, our little valley shows us only a tiny patch of sky over a green embracing bowl. This hollow shelters us from the rest of the larger, sprawling world and is comforting, once we get over the hundred-mile horizons of South Dakota.
We live in a jungle of leaves where the air is heavy with moisture and flowing water is so common we take it for granted. Its scarcity has determined the biotic fate of the prairielands, given it its character and face.