Crossing the Great Divide at Milner Pass

North America is broken up into three major drainage areas, wherein water flows to either the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Oceans.  Mexico and the vast majority of the United States drains either to the Atlantic or Pacific bodies, whereas a very small part of the northern continental United States (Alaska is a different story) and much of Canada contains areas that flow to all three vast expanses of sea.  In Montana, one can actually stand on Triple Divide Peak and set one foot on ground that will have precipitation run down to all three oceans, which, if you ask me, is way more impressive than standing on four states at once.  Now, in some places, the divide is very apparent, and grand crests stand up that daunted travelers trying to make passage across the breadth of the continent.  Without the convenience of a vehicle, and even with one, the passage over the divide is pretty rough.  This picture was taken in May, close to the divide on I-70 in Colorado.

In other areas, the crest is shockingly low, even nearby where it might have been ridiculously high and seemingly impassable.  Passes certainly do exist in mountain ranges; North America would otherwise be very difficult to venture through, as the great north-south mountain ranges have long served as a boundary between both cultures and eco-regions, and even weather patterns.  South pass in Wyoming, for example, is a fairly level venture devoid of rugged mountain scenery that nearly every migrant took getting to destinations beyond the Rockies.  In some areas, though, the Great Divide and its pass comes as a surprise, and might be far lower than surrounding peaks, as it is here in Colorado:

This is Milner Pass, which is nearly three thousand feet lower than nearby peaks, and it runs northeast-southwest rather than the east-west one would expect from the divide being in the Rockies.  The second picture is of the eastern side of the pass, a little rocky maybe, but something that would not look too out of place in the Canadian Shield.  The western side, in the third picture, is a gentle slope with loads of pine, spruce, and fir on it, and only slopes up a mere 100 feet within the visual horizon.  So what, you might ask?  Well, this is how it looks in the surrounding area, not a mile away:

Milner Pass is very, very deceptive.  The pass lies within one of the most dramatic sections of mountain in the United States, and yet is fairly level, and nestled between ridges so neatly that it gives off the appearance of being from somewhere in north-eastern boreal Canada.  The actual rise between the watersheds was covered with ten feet of snow at the time I was there, but there was no mistaking how relatively demure it felt in the presence of otherwise dramatic scenery.  A simple rise of a few inches is all that separates water from flowing to oceans thousand of miles apart.  Take a look at this shot, viewing the pass a half mile away on the "Atlantic" side.  If it were not for the peaks in the distant background, one would hardly figure they were on the great spine of a continent.

Furthermore, Milner Pass lies within one of the source tributaries of the Colorado River, which not even 20 miles from its source is already carving out grandiose canyons and valleys.  Here, however, are some of the humble beginnings of the powerful torrent.  Passes are also known as gaps and saddles, but here we have a pass that would be better termed cradle.