Osborne Russell's Rock

In his book, Journal of a Trapper, mountain man Osborne Russell describes climbing a steep ridge, then sitting to rest on a rock to look over a smooth, grassy vale where "thousands of mountain sheep were scattered up and down feeding on the short grass" while "crowds of little lambs were nimbly skipping and playing upon the banks of snow." It was July 11, 1834, and Russell, tired and cold after the climb, was nonetheless enthralled at the beauty of the scene before him.

I like to think I may have found the very rock he sat on, a rough-edged slab of granite that commands a perfect view of that high alpine meadow, and of the sheep that still graze there.

They're Rocky...