An early spring day 2010, having left Boulder driving south along Hwy 93 which runs along the front range
of the Rockies, I stopped near the crest of an long incline to look back. As you look north and west, you can see the Flatirons in the center of the picture, a
beautiful valley leading up to NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research - and the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
The Flatirons were named by pioneer women after the flat, metal irons they used to press clothes. They consist of conglomerate sandstone that geologists estimate
to be 290 to 296 million years old. They were lifted and tilted into their present orientation between 35 and 80 million years ago.
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