8:26 am PST, 9:26 MST, July 9

I have decided that while I love Colorado, I hate Denver.

First the love. The land here is so gorgeous. Before you get to the rockies you reach the foothills, an area called the hogbacks, typified by dramatic red a brown rock thrusting from the ground in seemingly random places.

In Colorado, you can regularly see the dramatic power of Earth's geology. Everywhere you see the sedimentary layers of rock that formed millions of years ago when the middle of North America was not a mountain range, but an inland sea. These layers are not horizontal but in sharp angles from the ground, a testimony to the intensity of the forces that pushed the Rockies skyward.

Then you get into the Rockies themselves and you find yourself in a Pine forest unlike anything I've seen in the Northwest. Abby pointed out how different the smell is. Washington forests are damp, whereas the Rockies are dry as a bone. The trees are not as soft and there are no ferns to be seen.

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12:36 pm PST, 3:36 EST, June 29

It has been some time since my last post, so I will summarize the last week quickly. Abby and I went up to North Bay on the Ontario Northland Railway and stayed there for a few days with my aunt Audrey. It was not exciting, merely relaxing, the type of time off everyone needs to take.

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