Manito Park is the place to be across all four seasons. I love it in autumn, winter, spring and summer. Growing up on the South Hill, I've enjoyed the colorful foliage of autumn, the phenomenal sledding of winter and the beautiful blooms of the gardens in spring. All year long the entire park is perfect. But nothing surpasses a late evening in midsummer at the Loop Drive bridge.
For a few weeks around the summer solstice, the sun sets not just in the west but almost in the north. During those weeks you can stand to the south and watch the sun pass behind the iconic basalt arch of the bridge. As it passes behind the bridge you can see the light it shines without being blinded by the sun itself. Its rays pass through the towering ponderosa pines and leaves of the Lilac Garden, filtering through the greenery into a diffuse golden glow that coats all that can be seen.
There is a warmth that emanates from under the bridge, but not for long, because soon the sun will pass under the arch itself and return to its blinding ways before ultimately setting into darkness. It can only happen for those few weeks when days are this long, but also only during those late hours in which the sun remains above the horizon. By mid-July, the window is closed. The view is still beautiful, but the shadows cast differently. There is only that fleeting window each year, with a similarly fleeting moment in those few evenings, when the park is illuminated like that from the north. You have to be in the right place, at the right time, on the right day, to see it.
