Sunday, October 25, 2015

The Tower




As promised, I am posting photos from our trip to Devil's Tower yesterday.

First, though, you must educate yourself by reading this.


We stopped to take a photo as we neared the tower. It is pretty impressive even from a distance.


There is a nice path circling the tower so I took a LOT of photos.  Well, it looks different from different angles.


There were some climbers on the Tower.


Ok, that is Mike. Isn't he funny? 


But there were some real climbers.


They are in some of these photos, I think, but they are just specks.


Jennifer and I asked each other many times, "Why? ". It just didn't seem like a good idea to me to climb on something so big and slippery looking.


It was a perfect day!


We had a delightful guest.


One thing we were aware of was that many tribes consider that area to be a holy place.  


These things tied in trees represent someone's prayers. Although that isn't part of my faith tradition, I kind of liked it.


When we left the Tower, we stopped by a little gopher colony. That was when we learned Jennifer is a gifted gopher whisperer. I think she was maybe surprised to learn that as well! 


I missed the photo but that little guy came right up to her shoe! 

It was a good day, a very good day.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Bison on the Wyoming Prairie

Today was a good day!. Mike and I spent it with Jennifer, our favorite little Aussie/American.

Jennifer's parents were very special friends to us during the early years of our marriage.  Her Dad, a Montana Native, married Anne, an Australian Native. They both taught in Turner, MT where we lived. 

One day when Anne and I were talking, we discovered they had gotten married one week before us. They had gone to Calgary for their honeymoon, one week before we did the same!  We became great friends and a few years later, discovered we were expecting babies, our's due one week after their's, of course! 

Sadly, for us, Jennifer's family moved to Australia when the girls were about 2 1/2 years old. Honestly, I remember breaking down and crying in our car after we said goodbye to them. It was a rotten day.  It was not so easy to keep in touch them as it is now, either.

Years later, Maria and Jennifer reconnected.  One year Jennifer decided to come visit us here in Wyoming. We were so impressed with her courage! She really didn't have much of a memory of Maria, yet she came. Anyway, this is now her 3rd trip to Wyoming and we are always so happy to see her.

Maria and Eric has several responsibilities today so Mike and I asked Jennifer if she would like to go to Devil's Tower with us.  Although it meant another 6 hours of travel, she was willing. Off we went! 

Occasionally when driving the route we were to go today, we have seen a few buffalo so I mentioned to Jennifer that she may see some if we were lucky. As it turned out, we were very lucky! We came upon a giant herd, more than I have ever seen, and they were right by the road!



So many! 


And so close! 


We were happy for the fence and stayed near our vehicle but the buffalo (bison, actually) were not much interested in us anyway. Still, we knew to keep our distance.


For those of you who may not know it, those docile looking creatures are not pets and should NEVER be approached for photo ops.  Like I said, we stayed by the road, behind the fence, near our vehicle.


Fine animals to look at, not to pet.

So, from there we moved on to see Devil's Tower. Since it was 3 hours one way, we enjoyed a really nice visit with Jennifer. We really love that girl! 

Tomorrow I will upload some great photos from Devil's Tower! 





Sunday, October 11, 2015

Mountain Hike

Mike and went on a two hour mountain hike yesterday. Last week end we watched Everest, but I don't think that inspired us. Nope, that movie was about people risking their lives and the lives of others for no good reason.  Our hike didn't seem too risky, although there are bears and mountain lions up there.  Still, we were on a well traveled path so the risk was very, very low.

Anyway, It was a beautiful Fall day. Almost perfect, in fact.



Right away we had company.



I like this walk through rock. It's pretty cool inside!


I admired these little ferns that seem really, really determined to live. 


I told you is was pretty cool inside there!


I like rock. Doesn't everyone?  Really, there is a lot of beauty in most rocks.


I like sunshine, too.  I really like sunshine on rocks.



There were many places where we could look down to see how high we'd already hiked.  It made me feel pretty much like a jock.  Well, if most jocks huff and puff and hear their pulse pounding in their brains.


But the beauty up there was worth the effort!


Another beautiful vista.


I thought of my sister a lot as we hiked.  My sister can't walk and I sometimes feel guilty when I get to have these sorts of adventures. Then, I feel guilty when I don't use my legs as much as I could/should, knowing how much she would love to go on just one hike.  Just one.

Then, I feel guilty about feeling guilty.

So, I take lots of photos.  Tina, I hope you can kind of get the feel of a Fall day on the mountain.


Isn't that tree just stunning?


And I like water.  Sunshine. Rocks. Water.  Perfection.


More gold.


Gratitude. 

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