Impressions of Colorado
The Rocky Mountains are similar to the Presidential Range of New Hampshire in that they are in many places old rounded mountains that have been spiced up by Pleistocene glaciation. I can’t speak for everywhere but many important ranges from the Front Range and Sawatch Range in Colorado to the Beartooth Mountains of Montana share a common appearance: some sides are rugged cliffs scooped out by glacers, but the preglacial erosional surfaces are never far away, in the form of rounded boulder-covered slopes. The glaciers didn’t get everywhere in these mountains, and while the most dramatic terrain lies above U-shaped glacial valleys, there are large areas - whether a side of a mountain or an entire mountain range - that retain their smoothed-over appearance from millions of years of erosion. The strongest impression that the Colorado Rockies left on me was of extensiveness and geologic diversity, more than of steepness and ruggedness. The state has countless mountain ranges exhibiting a