GOOGLE EARTH SATELLITE VIEW: Eastern Montana, US12 From Elevation 3159 Ft To Elevation 3117 Ft. Plus Related Passages From Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.,

In ZMM Route Segment 5 … Contrasting Darker Green Areas, At the Ridge Top, Which Is 10 Miles East Of Miles City MT. AND Further West =>A Slope Down To The Yellowstone River, Which Looks Nearly Completely Barren Of Any Life!

….In the above image, focus your attention on the Yellow Google Map PinPoint, Which Marks the road intersection of US 12, with Main Ridge Road.
Please notice
….A) About 1 inch Northwest, is an oblong yellowish area along the North side of US 12, This is a slope of a major road cut, which is seen in many of Henry Gurr’s photos taken near this location. Remember this road-cut, since you will see it again, in the next photo, right side.
….B) Northeast of the PinPoint: The nearly Continuous, even much darker green areas, showing the evident positive effect of its higher rain fall, here on this ridge (~3300 Ft).
….C) And contrast B) with Southwest of the PinPoint: The less solid patch of darker green in south center of image, where forest & meadows surround a near top of ridge Micro Wave Tower..
….D) This C) “patch of darker green may well be the Narrator’s “Sylvia and Chris have walked into the meadow among the flowers under pines through which I can see the far side of the valley, away and below.”
….DE) Especially also notice how barren looking are the slopes to the West, of this “patch!! These slopes o/c have plenty of vegetation, but it can’t much green! Here note that => These are West facing slopes, down the Yellowstone Valley and Miles City MT, and are apparently barren looking, from a combination of hot afternoon sun, and prevailing winds, mostly going East with the rain happening, only after the clouds get move over the the top of the “ridge”,

Here Is What The ZMM Narrator Says: =>
….”Overhead a small cloud appears. Rain perhaps? Perhaps. Meadows must have rain. And these now have flowers in them. Strange how all this has changed. Nothing to show it on the map. And the consciousness of memory has disappeared too. Phædrus must not have come this way. But there was no other road. Strange. It keeps rising upward.
The sun angles toward the cloud, which now has grown downward to touch the horizon above us, in which there are trees, pines, and a cold wind comes down with pine smells from the trees. The flowers in the meadow blow in the wind and the cycle leans a little and we are suddenly cool.