My Mountains are Better than your Mountains

First off, if your mind went to someplace dirty with that title, you should be ashamed of yourself. Seriously.

Now, when I sat down to write today, I really didn't know what I wanted to write about. So, this post comes with inspiration from Matt, who kindly reads and edits this blog every day. I asked: "What should I write about?" He said: "Mountains." And so mountains it is.

Now when I think about mountains, my mind immediately goes back to my West Coast homeland and the majestic Cascade mountain range (right near the Olympic Mountain range, which is home to one of the world's only remaining temperate rainforests). These mountain ranges (like the Rockies) are formed by tectonic plates mashing up against each other. Geologically speaking, these ranges are all pretty recent. On the other hand, the puny Appalachian Mountain Range (which is really all the East Coast can answer to our West Coast mountain might) is practically geriatric. Because of their great age, the mountains in the Appalachian range have been worn down by the sands of time (literally). Thus they are shorter, flatter, and overall, much lamer.

Look at those jagged Cascade peaks!

As you can tell, I have quite a bit of loyalty for my West Coast mountain ranges (hey, some people are loyal to basketball teams, some people prefer mountains). Now, if geologic time is too broad of a span for you, take more recent history as proof of the West Coast mountain awesomeness. When Europeans first settled the American continent, their biggest barrier to crossing the Appalachians wasn't the mountains themselves, but rather the people (Native Americans) who lived on the other side of the mountains. Now, a couple hundred years later when the Oregon Trail started up, the Rockies and other western mountain rages were a huge issue. Many explorers thought they were straight up uncrossable.

These are the Cascades in central Washington. Can you imagine seeing this from a wagon (like the folks on the Oregon Trail did)? The whole horizon is mountains! Also, this picture was taken at a place called Noble Nob. West Coast mountain names are also much better than East Coast mountain names. Take, for example, Three Fingered Jack Mountain, Mount Rainier (clearly a subtle allusion the the fact that it is rainier there than most places, duh), Mt. Shasta (say it with some swagga, or alternatively, say it like you're in a Fanta commercial), Glacier Peak, and the Three Sisters (I think of the three sisters like those three witches in Macbeth- they form such a craggy, evil-looking mountain group).

Anyways, the moral of the story is that West Coast mountains and mountain ranges are clearly much better than East Coast mountains and mountain ranges. I mean, we have volcanoes. Not just dormant ones, but active volcanoes. Take that. Also, there is definitely no subliminal dirty message here. None whatsoever.

Side note: The picture below is of Mt. Bachelor (left), Broken Top (middle), and the Three Sisters (right). Interesting arrangement. Hrm...