I grew up in the 70's and probably tripped around 200 times from '73 to 
'76. It seemed like I reached a plateau of sorts...with each trip being 
OK..but not "memorable". At this point in time I gave up doing 
psychedelics altogether.

Last summer an old friend and I decided to go camping. Unknown to me, 
he had just returned from a Dead show with some of "The Best" acid he'd 
done in years. After we set up camp...he looked over at me and said "Do 
you want to get REALLY HIGH?" Thinking he had some bud..I said "sure". 
He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a film container and dumps 8 
hits of blotter out into his hand. A ZILLION thoughts raced through my 
head. 

Not being too sure about tripping again..... I felt reluctant. Then I 
looked around at the mountains and thought "Why not?". Asking about 
dosages...my friend said that 2 was recommended but we should eat 4. 
(Alot of the acid in high school was "4-way"..anyone remember 
windowpane??) I went for it. Jesus..what a ride.

After only 20 minutes...things started getting REAL weird. It was a 
spacial distortion like none other I'd felt. Everything was at a 45 
degree tilt and the ground was totally fluid. All the wildflowers 
seemed to be painted onto a canvas. I tried to get somewhat comfortable 
but was squirming and even shaking at one point. I thought for sure I'd 
gone over the edge.

We were camped on a mesa and the view was AWESOME. After about 2 hours 
the weather started to cloud up and we started to hear thunder. 
Noticing ALOT of trees on the ridge were FRIED from lightning 
strikes...we backed off a bit for the cover of the woods. All of the 
sudden it started to rain. Sheets of wind and rain were cruising 
through just as the sun was going down way off in the West.

Lightning started crashing down in the valley in front of us and when 
you looked up...the clouds were swirling wildly above us. Just then a 
rainbow appeared and started to grow and become more vivid. Then we 
noticed a second rainbow starting to form and also become more vivid.

We were standing there... when all of the sudden the rainbows started 
fluctuating wildly in the sky...growing closer and then farther apart. 
Then they seemed to crash into each other and become one..only to split 
and rejoin again. I looked over at my buddy..thinking it was the acid 
and was MY vision but as our eyes met, I knew he had seen the same 
thing as me. We watched this specticle for over an hour. I was frozen 
in my tracks from the beauty of it all. 

This experience really opened my eyes. It was the first time I ever 
felt anything spiritual or cosmic while I was tripping. I felt very 
small in the whole scheme of things. We sat on the ridge till it got 
dark and the rainbow was visible for over 1 1/2 hours. Then we were 
treated to a star gazing feast til the wee hours of the morning. 

I plan to go back next summer.I'm not sure if I'll do acid again when I 
do or not. Even if I'm totally straight though...I think this place 
holds some incredible powers of it's own. I kind of regret all the 
"meaningless" trips I've been on in past years and will definitely be 
more selective in the future.

If you're ever in Western Colorado..check out Clinetop Mesa

It's good to know it's still out there when you want it.