I have been using the word prairie, maybe because of how it expands horizontally in your mouth. It is not a demonstrative word but expansive with its returning “r,” like it could continue on forever. The word is not wrong to describe this place, especially if qualified as “short grass” prairie. The Canadians freely use it to describe the same conditions to the north. But “Great Plains” is more common here, beginning at the eastern edge of the Rockies and extending east through short, mixed, and tall grassland. There is a lot in a word and I recognize that “prairie” and its beautiful long velvet sound attracts a girl whose mind has been long crowded with the angularity of the Cascade Range. In the end there is no word that really describes the feeling of having the Rockies to your back, a long horizon in front of you, every kind of grass at your feet, and more birds than you can identify occupying the air.
