Colorado: We expected the Rocky Mountains to look much like the Grand Tetons (rugged) and with a lot more snow than they had. In the western area of Colorado we saw no snow and lots of brown desert.
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Once we climbed over the mountains, we did see small patches of snow in the national park but the rest of the mountains were bare. Where we found trees in the hills, they were mostly pine and easily half are being decimated by the pine bark beetle and have red needles. It was amazing to be able to travel on paved roads to 11,000 feet and higher.
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Tickled us to see the many medical marijuana shops. Some looked official like a doctor's office but even more looked like hippie head shops.
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Once we climbed over the mountains, we did see small patches of snow in the national park but the rest of the mountains were bare. Where we found trees in the hills, they were mostly pine and easily half are being decimated by the pine bark beetle and have red needles. It was amazing to be able to travel on paved roads to 11,000 feet and higher.
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Tickled us to see the many medical marijuana shops. Some looked official like a doctor's office but even more looked like hippie head shops.
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Wyoming was green! I thought the prairies would be dry and brown with sage. But there was a lot of green.
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And many, many antelope out in the fields. Read that the antelope are so speedy that they will browse close to a mountain lion or a bear knowing that they can outrun their foes - so no worry.
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Snow fences. Lots of them, too. Even a few "natural" snow fences - instead of cutting up trees, 3 rows of trees and shrubs are planted in place of a snow fence. Not new technology as the railroads planted nearly 100,000 trees along their tracks by 1909. Major problem with the natural snow fences is getting the new trees established with little water.
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Idaho is really on a campaign to stop the use of Meth. Quite a few murals were up on the sides of buildings and barns with messages like:"Don't Meth with me" "Don't get roped into Meth - not even once" "It's your life, don't Meth it up". Did read that teen use of meth has slackened off since the campaign started. Good.
