It was the hot, dry, summer of 2005 in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Manitou Springs sits six-thousand four hundred and twelve feet above sea level right at the base of Pikes Peak which reaches over fourteen-thousand feet at its peak.
The elevation provides for some of the most beautiful scenic views I’ve ever experienced. The magnificent rainbows I have seen there were nothing short of magnificent. One however stands out above the rest giving it the title of “most” magnificent as it is always the first one that I recall when my attention is directed to the subject there of.
There was a large get together of friends from around town who frequented the same local watering hole called the Royal Tavern. Unless you have spent any substanial amount of time in this mountain paradise you wouldn’t know that between four and five in the evening when the sun reaches a certain position and the air begins to cool and compress, it will rain a light, crisp, cleansing shower for between five and fifteen minutes almost every day.
I was on the winding switchback that scales red mountains north face, standing in front of Joe Johnson’s tailgate drinking an ice cold Fat tire and smoking a joint when my good friend Nate handed me a hand full of shrooms. I didn’t think about it I just popped them in my mouth and let the beer wash them down.
Three beers later and substantial time to let the second joint kick into full effect I was beginning to feel the psychedelic effects of the magic mushrooms and it really kicked into full swing when out of nowhere came a brisk shower cutting through the golden sunshine dropping the temperature a good five or ten degrees. As I stared out over Colorado Springs and on into western Kansas I realized that there was a rainbow running from one end of The city to the other.
What made it so magnificent was that I was looking down on the rainbow from a birds perspective. I have never seen such a spectacular event. The bright vivid colors radiated a fantastic refraction if light that penetrated my corneas and sent electric impulses crashing through my brain only to be amplified by the effects of the mushrooms causing a kaleidoscope of primary colors that entangled then untangled and melted together into a new color scheme that was comprised of the colors of the rainbow and every color that could possibly be made of any combination possible.
Then all at once the rain ceased, causing the rainbow to dissipate like a light fog blown away by a brisk wind, leaving only an impression of color burnt into the fabric of my mind.
