empire of the gymnosperms
Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, indeed. At the top of the Horsetail Falls/Pony Falls/Triple Falls trail (which this dude photographed far better than I) lies a verdant glen of mossy rocks and ferns, which made me think of the days before flowering plants evolved, when Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. I sat in the green light and imagined the dinosaurs. They were warlike but honorable. They practiced a version of Athenian-style direct democracy, and the carnivores provided for the common defense so that the herbivores had time to write tragedies and prove theorems in geometry. All this Herodotus is getting to me.
