In case it's confusing in my first photo with the sign, those aren't trees on the mountains in the background, only bushes similar to the ones in the foreground, the tallest plant life you can see from the highway are agave flower stalks, no trees are visible. If you could see a forest of trees like those in the final pic from the road driving into the city, L.A.'s entire image would improve dramatically imho...interesting thing would be to find out whether conifers don't grow near the road now because they were all harvested years ago or because the area around the highway is too hot and dry to support them, or maybe it has too frequent fires to allow more than agaves or shrubs to develop. Sadly, all most people know about this forest are the signs next to treeless scrub that always cause a chuckle. If only they knew...

Thanks for welcoming me to the forum. I've been reading it for a while, before posting. I am normaly not the type to baby the plants out of the zone, roses are the only ones I would protect. We moved to the new house 3 years ago and I have been relandscaping eversince. Last fall I finaly got two huge raised beds were I mix fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. Now I have space for some of experiments. I am putting the Japonica next to rododendron under the shade of the huge spruce, lots of acid soil there, there is hosta and meconopsis there and I will be adding more acid loving shade/part shade plants. Doniki, thanks for advise, so I should not wait for flowers I will be happy with the leaves. The label says zone 4, so it may survive, I will keep you posted on the progress. Ella

Jerry: Our local paper has a great story about Death Hollow in Utah, today! Three guys took it upon themselves to hike into the hollow! What troubles befell them--hiking in and swimming in ice cold water, rappelling down the canyon walls! They hiked as far as they could, in the canyon, but the deepening, icy cold water told them they'd better get back out and come another day! There is also a half-page picture of one of the guys rappeling down the canyon wall! WOW! What a great place to visit, albeit, by way of newspaper articles. How i'd like to go there, but, with advancing age, and gasoline prices being what they are, I'll have to stick to reading about it! Another man took a trip to the Valley of The Gods! He traveled by way of Utah Rt. 261, known locally as the Trail of The Ancients! He says all was going well, until he came to the road that had been dug out to haul uranium back in the 1950's. It runs from Cedar Mesa down into the canyon. He reports there is a bed and breakfast in the area where he stayed. So, have an enjoyable summer, traveling amongst the Mesa's and Buttes! As for me, I'll stay in our beautiful mountains and flat lands of Pennsylvania, where the flowers grow, and the Bluegrass music flows! Have fun: Rusty Jones

It is a person, but looking closely at the original, he is sitting down next to a blue cooler. This zoom on the first image gives a better idea of the size relative to people. According to wikipedia it is 160 ft tall, 1180 ft long at the top, and descends about an inch from one end to the other. It was built to bring water to Nimes, and it only descends 56 ft over the course of its 31 mile length. Truly impressive.