The mountains are great.



When you've got time, you might look into what creeks and creekbeds look like. Watercourses don't just run in a shallow channel of dirt; water is both strong and heavy, and once it's found the lowest/easiest course, it fills it and erodes it AND the ground immediately around it, whether by sweeping some of it away with every high water or flood, or just soaking it so it eventually slumps into mud and is washed downstream.



Watercourse edges also support different kinds of plants than dryer dirt does, including reeds and sedges and a good deal more, plus the fact that other local vegetation often grows better and taller there because the roots get more water, birds and animals drinking there may leave extra fertilizer, and so on.



And yes, I had to be told all of this myself a few years ago....