All the dying trees....

A drive through the Rockies and over the Continental Divide reveals a lot of dead or dying evergreen trees. Spruce or Pine beetles, I think. Some of the forests look too thick, so this may be nature's way of thinning. It's ugly as hell, but so are burn areas.

I remember the start of this devastation in the 1980's. Some of those areas now don't look so bad. The needles are long gone and some of the trees have fallen down.

I get depressed driving through the mountains. We drove over Berthod Pass and the old ski area is gone. No lodge is there, either. Just a parking area with some porta-potties. Yuck!