The story
Look at the bones of this place. As the slope opens up you can read the geology plain as a diagram, layered cliffs and washed-out ridges, the whole hillside carved by water that mostly isn't here anymore. This valley below was a sea floor once, then a lake, and the mountains you're descending got shoved up along faults that still twitch under your tires. Deep time is just lying out in the open here, unhidden, no forest to cover it. Few places let you read the earth this nakedly. Take it in as you roll down through the chapters.
