We'll
come back to that later, but first...
When my
hubby and I got married and moved to Wyoming for the first time, one
of our favorite things to do was to go driving. We would take a day
(or half a day) and head out in the car with the dogs and go
exploring. We liked looking for wildlife, taking pictures, getting
out and hiking with the dogs, picking out places we'd like to live
and so on. We haven't done a lot of that lately, for a couple of
reasons: 1) Gas costs $3.21/gallon (that figure is already
outdated...)
and 2) Kids don't sit in the car for long periods of
time quite as well as dogs do. But, this past Saturday was just a
beautiful, clear day, and we hadn't done a family activity in a
little while, so off we went! In the car with snacks, boots, hats
and coats... and The Wheels on the Bus cd... we made a stop at the
store for batteries for the camera and a stop for gas and we were on
our way.
I refuse
to bring the portable DVD player along when we do stuff like this.
Sure, we usually have to endure some degree of whining, but I feel
like when we go for drives like this if we just stick the kids in
front of a movie for the whole time then they aren't really a part of
the activity. And if there's nothing to see in the car... they will
look out the windows! It is amazing how much they notice, even with
as young as they are. They will comment on stuff they see and ask
questions about it, ask questions about stuff that we are talking
about that we saw, etc. Our son is just over three and a half, and
he knew that we were driving down a road that was unfamiliar to him,
because about ten minutes into the trip he started saying that he
didn't know where we were going, he didn't know this road, and he was
worried because he didn't know how to get back home. (Of course we
reassured him that daddy knew exactly where he was going and how to
get home.) Lately whenever we get in the car and start driving,
he'll tell us where a certain road that we're on goes (to the storage
unit, to the post office, to his friend's house, etc.), and he's
rarely wrong! They really do notice more than you'd think! On our
trip this day, we had stopped at one point and I was taking some
pictures of a group of deer that were pretty close to the road. I
was not thinking about what our daughter was doing in the backseat,
but when we started to pull away she waved and said, “Bye-bye,
deer!” She's not even two yet, but she can spot a deer in the
sagebrush like you would not believe! (We see them regularly right
beside our apartment building, so she has lots of practice. She's
even spotted them on days when I have missed them!)
I took
this picture right from our apartment window a few days ago:
As we
drove, we saw:
Bighorn
Sheep (Just some ewes this time. At this time of the year most of
the rams have started to move back up into the remote mountain
regions since the breeding season is finished.)
Pronghorn
(I caught these critters as they were going under a fence. It was
funny watching them. They lined up single file and went through one
at a time.)
Mule deer
Whitetail
deer, red-tailed hawks and chukars. (Sorry, I didn't get pictures of
these guys.)
We also
picked out a number of places that we would really like to live! We
dream of having a place with a few acres so we can garden and raise a
few animals and give our kids the country life like we both had
growing up. There's just something about it...
The
scenery was just gorgeous, especially as we got back farther into the
valley. It always is... but I love it even more with all the snow on
the mountains.
It was a
really windy day, and one tall snow-capped mountain was covered by a
haze of blowing snow. It was really wild looking.
Coming
back to our previous question about the ice, I personally would
think, “Wow! Look at that – how beautiful!”, or something
along those lines, and then I would probably take a picture of it. In fact, that's exactly what I did do.
However, there are some people in this world that see something like
that and say, “Cool! Let's climb it!” Which camp are you in???
If ice
climbing sounds exciting to you, you might want to come to Wyoming in
winter! You may not have known that our area is a popular
destination for ice climbers, but it's true – we're not just known
for rodeo! As we drove, we passed by a number of vehicles parked
along the road and at the trailheads. We drove through a small
campground and it was pretty full – including some tenters. I
mean, it was a nice day... but it was still pretty COLD (especially
up in the mountains), and it was snowy – not my idea of camping
weather. When we got to the end of the road, the parking lot at the
trailhead there was full of vehicles. Apparently it was a great day
for ice climbing. (We did find out later that it was the weekend of
the annual ice climbing festival.)
We
stopped there for a little while so that I could get out and take
some pictures of the mountains. It was a great day for taking
pictures, too! As I was exiting the car, I mentioned to my hubby
that it would be neat if we could see some people ice climbing (at
first glance, we didn't see anyone on the mountain). While I was
snapping away, he was watching the mountain. There was one large ice
formation that we could see pretty good from where we were, and after
a few minutes he rolled the window down and told me that he thought
he could see someone moving up there. We had forgotten the
binoculars, so I zoomed my camera in as far as it would go, took a
picture, then reviewed it and zoomed in even more and lo and
behold...
Climbers!
I'm willing to bet you didn't spot them in the picture at the very
beginning... but if you did – good for you! You must have eagle
eyes!
Here's a
zoomed out view of where they were climbing. Pretty impressive, I
think!
Those
guys look pretty tiny compared to that massive mountain. And the
distance they would have had to hike from the parking lot is pretty
impressive in and of itself! (And this was probably one of the
closer climbs to the parking lot, since it was the only one we could
really see.) I wish we would have remembered to bring our
binoculars. I would have liked to sit there for a little while
longer and watch them climb. But, we turned around and headed back
home.
We had
been planning to get out of the car and go for a short walk near that
parking area, let the kids tromp in the snow a little, but our son
had fallen asleep and it was pretty chilly out there so we decided to
skip it. An hour later, when we got home and he woke up, he was
horribly disappointed. I felt so bad. I didn't know he was counting
on it so much. There were tears... We'll have to get out again
soon. Unfortunately the kids and I have all been battling colds for
the past week or two, so we've been spending a lot of time cooped up
in our little apartment. I think we're all going a little
stir-crazy. Time to get healthy already!!!
So, all
in all our trip took less than three hours, we drove about 100 miles
round trip on pavement and gravel, we saw gorgeous scenery, people
involved in extreme sports, four species of big game animals and
several different types of birds... Have I mentioned that I love
where I live?!?
“For
the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
In
his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong
to him.”
-Psalm
95: 3-4 (NIV 1984)
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