So here's the ranger station I lived at, and I tried to (more or less) capture it in Continental Divide. To take this picture, I hiked up the cliffs across the highway from the Ranger Station. So I'm high up, looking down. The brown line in the center is the North Fork of the Shoshone. The Ranger station is in the middle of the picture, in the greenest spot. What I love about this picture is how far back the mountains go. From red to brown to gray to purple to snow-capped.
A few years ago, I wrote an essay about how tough it was to find reading material out in Wyoming. This was a fun problem to "fix" in the novel - Ron gets into Cody Public Library, no problem. I was more or less stranded at the ranger station and so relied on folks to lend me books. I read so much that summer - and I read more widely than I ever had before. I read mysteries and horror and westerns and biographies and even some Hardy Boys. I read whatever tourists abandoned at the campsites or had been left behind by previous occupants of the ranger station.
And then, in the middle of the summer, a box arrived from my parents, full of books. It remains one of the best presents I have ever received. The novel is dedicated to my parents... and I hope this essay, first published in Good Housekeeping, helps to explain why. Enjoy!
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/relationships/a34008/alex-myers-author-essay/