Appalachians

I would like to travelogue my recent journeys into the Carolinas. This is actually a combinations of two different Carolina trips. The first part was heading over the Appalachians. Those in the west wouldn't necessarily consider these mountains. The elevation signs at the top of the passes are typically be in the 3,000's. Since my home out west is in a basin and still listed at 4,100 feet, the height of the Appalachians is not all the impressive to me.

In spite of that, the Appalachians are quite impressive in other ways. The colonies would have looked a lot different without being bordered by them. That is why when they found an opening like the Cumberland Gap it was such a big deal. Even though they aren't that tall, they're wide and it probably would a little tougher time getting through them on a horse than in my fearless car.
Another interesting thing about them is that they seem to be made up of a lot of clumps of mini-ranges. Maybe I'm wrong in this, but within the Applachians, there seem to be the Adirondack, Poconos, Catskills, Cumberland, Alleghenies, the Blue Ridge Mountains, etc. For my journey, I was going through the Blue Ridge Mountains. After driving out of it, its as flat as can be.


I noticed something like that flying in for a layover in Denver a couple years ago. From the plane, it looked like Denver was right on a divide. It looked like it was the Rocky Mountains on the west and to the east was the Great Plains. I'm not exactly sure how Denver was established, but I'm guessing there were pioneers headed out west and got their first look at the Rockies. "OK, let's settle for here."