In mid-June, Clear Creek runs loud and cold with the last of the high snow, and the grass along it comes up late but comes up thick. Blackstone Rivers Ranch keeps Idaho Springs ground looking its part through that short mountain green season — mowing, edging, trimming around rock and bank, fertilizing thin soil, aerating, and cleaning up as spring and fall each arrive in a hurry. Up here a lawn is never a rectangle; it is whatever flat ground the canyon allowed, wrapped around pine and stone. Cutting it well means knowing where the water sits and where the sun only reaches for four hours. When it is done right a meadow at seven thousand feet looks effortless, which is the standing joke of the entire trade.