….The ZMM Narrator’s High Country , BOTH Physical Landscape and Mental-Philosophic Landscape.

…. “Soon stunted pines disappear entirely and we’re in alpine meadows. There’s not a tree anywhere, only grass everywhere … We’ve reached the high country, above the timberline. “

On Beartooth Highway, 1.5 Straight Line Miles SouthSouthEast Of Rock Creek Vista Point First Roadside Rest Area, ~14 Miles South of Red Lodge, MT.
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Ever Since Laurel MT => We (With The ZMM Narrator) Have Been Moving Up & Towards => ….The Narrator’s “High Country “
….THE ZMM NARRATIVE IS NOW **IN** “ THE HIGH COUNTRY “ AND **AT** “THE SOURCE” OF => BOTH =>
….1) The Melt Water of Rock Creek AND
….2) The Source Of Western Philosophy,
At which point (one page after the above ZMM Passage), the ZMM Narrator takes up the discussion of his own version of The Historical Development of Western Philosophy: This Narrator’s High Country “ is on the last half of ZMM page 110 plus 1/2 of page 111: AND is poetically getting us ready, by analogy, for the “ High Country of the Mind. “.
…This is the Narrator’s way of introducing us to his next 9 pages of his Chautauqua on Western Philosophy. These lectures cover the Narrator’s version of how our 20th Century thinking came to be as it is, as well as related rationality/scientific developments. ….The motorcycle is used as a concrete illustration of “a priori concepts“.
…. He also shows the ugly consequences of these modes of thinking in our culture.
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The ZMM Narrative Is Building To A Climax, As We Move Towards The Narrator’s “High Country ‘Summit’.
…..Below Is A Brief Synopsis Of Road Ahead, And Sights Along The Way. “
…After US-212 had completed several more switchbacks, we have as seen in the /\ Above /\ Photo, climbed to the higher somewhat level area of the Beartooth Plateau: Here we see in the distance the cut of Rock Creek Canyon (Narrator’s gorge). And as we traveled further South, the plateau scenery will continue to be similar, and we will be moving further away from Rock Creek Canyon.
….Click on the Photo several times to get the largest view, then look closely to the right, where you see the cut of Wyoming Creek. …. The Rock Creek Vista Point Rest Area is unseen, below where you see these two “cuts” meet.
…. Along US-212, we will see Rock Creek Canyon again in the distance, while overlooking The “Twin Lakes & The “Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area”.
….After this, the highway takes us Southeast and away from Rock Creek Canyon.
…. Finally, the road swings West by Northwest to a kind of “Land-Bridge Formation”, which in this Photo Album is called. “The Hogback”: As was fully illustrated in Previous Interlude => a) Aerial Photo, b) Satellite View, and c) Topographical Map => this Formation is very important for the Beartooth Plateau, in that it is the ONLY practical way for Humans to move (highways or hunters, or prospectors, or otherwise), North-South, between Two Otherwise Separated Major Hi Altitude Land Surfaces.
….More-Over, you will see how VERY steep is the slope on this sides of this “Hogback”: This steep slope & sharp top edge, Act Upon Snow Carrying Overflowing Eastward Winter Winds coming Eastward along connecting valleys, from the relatively close Rock Creek Canyon => Here do an aerodynamic “up-sweep + swirl” action, that nicely drops deep layers of snow hereabouts => One such dramatic area of really deep snow area, of which the ZMM Narrator says “The banks become four feet high, then six feet, then twelve feet high. We move through twin walls, almost a tunnel of snow.”
… … Similar geographic features also cause deep snow, at the “Beartooth Highway’s Summer Ski Area”, above mentioned earlier along the Beartooth Highway.

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(Photo = 106-0620cz2.0 ...... ZMM Page = 110 ...... WayPt =136i. Photo at 136`|k|' 9554ft)