Looking to the east from a high butte. Tessie explored as hard as she could, saying (I'm sure) "This is the most GLOOOO-RIOUS day of my life!"
Twilla, on the other hand, is not high energy. We were a long ways from her couch. She still had fun, but it was probably not the most glorious day of her life. (She is a glamour girl stuck in a redneck world. Very trying...)
Loved the feeling of being on top of the world!
See those little white buildings off in the distance? That's the shop, my in-laws' house and garage! We spent a lot of time looking for distant buildings, like the pellet mill in Jordan, which you can actually see from this point!
You're going to get plant pictures. That's all there is to it. Everything is about to turn grey and tan, so I am soaking up the little bits of color!
Angus found big mounds of clay and would climb up on them to make clay balls which he DESPERATELY wanted to chuck at someone, but no one would let him. Shocking.
I'm always fascinated by the lichen on the rocks. Isn't it stunning?
And the currant bushes echo the same colors...
A muddy, gunky, yucky little reservoir to swim in! Talk about stinky dogs after this!
A whole day spent with Dad, just exploring, is a big treat.
Oh! Check this out! My Gramps used to tell us to always look at anthills because they excavate all sorts of things like Indian beads and shells. This little anthill had a couple sea shells...see the white one next to the ant? I was kind of astonished that my camera was able to focus and clearly shoot this.
I think sagebrush is beautiful.
We found another reservoir and the kids went to frog hunting.
See the little swirl in the water? That's a frog. Angus totally missed them, and was dejected after half an hour of amphibian-less efforts.
The sand rocks are sculpted by the weather; rain and wind hollow and shape them, unlikely artists but faithful.
We always look for initials and carvings in the rocks. It's irresistible, scraping one's name and date into these stones! I don't know who P.M. is. Nature is wearing away the details...
The grasses are graceful in their last days, aren't they?
The Farmer found a wee pile of purple glass and porcelain chunks scattered in the grass.
I always wonder about who lost precious things out here. And they WOULD be precious, because it would have been so very far from any town, hauled out by rough wagons or carts.
On our way back home, we checked salt'n'minral and jumped a little bunch of mule deer. This picture was taken from the moving side-by-side Honda and is not the best. The deer were in good, fat condition and they didn't run very hard.
COWS!
We stopped to look at tipi rings, too, but the crew was pretty played out by that point. It was hot. We were dirty. The dogs smelled. The tween girl was barely able to tolerate another minute with her brother and mother.
So we went home.
Today it's cold and wet and grey. There's snow in the air and we're pulling out the winter clothes, sadly. I'm grateful we had a day of sunshine together before this hit!
