Life Without Drama

 We are in exploration mode right now and went for another drive today to check out the area some more.

Today we drove out to a small town called Meteetsee and then drove south past a small community called South Fork eventually driving all the way to the end of the road, finishing at a trail head in the Shoshone National Forest.

The picture above was taken on the way back to Cody.

There were two deer - one on either side of a fence to a private home.

This deer very much wanted to cross over the fence to partner up with the second deer.

He made one half hearted attempt at jumping the fence, walked along the fence for another few moments, and then effortlessly and with no preamble jumped the fence with one bound.

We saw literally hundreds of deer in large groups throughout our drive.

They are everywhere............

On the way out to the forest we came across these stacked hay bales.

As we drove by we noticed with great pleasure that there were numerous deer happily gorging on the hay.

A veritable smorgasbord of good things to eat.

We turned the truck around to try and take some pictures but these guys spooked easily.

By the time we pulled the truck over and I carefully and quietly climbed out of the truck they had stopped eating and were both wary and watchful of us.............

 

 Farmland, grassland, hills and snow touched mountains throughout our drive...........

 

 Jamie in the back seat of LC's truck watching everything and missing nothing.........

 This is the only oil drill we saw during our drive out to Meteetsee, although we saw many signs indicating that Marathon Oil Company owned much of the land in this area...........

 

I am not certain what this piece of irrigation equipment is actually called, but they can be seen throughout the area.

To this non-farm-girl they are artistic and photograph worthy and I anticipate that I will take many pictures of these things as spring begins to take hold of the area...........

 

 It has become apparent in the past week that every self-respecting ranch entrance looks similar to this one.........

 

 

 This is horse and cattle country.

This entire area was filled with farms hundreds (possibly even thousands) of acres big.

Rolling hills, large flat and grassy spaces, and mountains off in the far distance.

A lovely picture of rolling hills and horses surrounded by mountains.

It was a very beautiful area............

 

 I could not begin to estimate how many deer we saw today.

Many times they could be seen in the center of the many fields.

But I also saw them often along the side of the road, and barely hidden among the trees.

When they were laying and standing in treed areas it was often their ears I saw first..........

 

 

 

 I am enjoying our explorations more than I can say.

The scenery is beautiful and ever changing.

I have never lived in a place that is so wide open.  

Where the highways are so straight and so quiet..............

 

 

 

 As we continued to head south the terrain changed yet again.

The mountains that I had been photographing off and on for 40 miles were getting closer all the time.

By the time we made it to this place the open fields were completely surrounded on three sides by mountains.........

 

 We had seen signs indicating that we were moving into big horn sheep grazing areas (with requests to not crowd them) and finally we did run in to a very large herd of sheep..........

 

I tried to capture what I was seeing in a picture but the space was so vast that pictures just do not do it justice.

This is a picture of three separate herds all peacefully sharing and grazing in one very large field - deer, sheep and horses............... 

 Three sheep grazing on a hillside - two on either side of the tree and one sitting behind the tree.........

 

 Pictures taken at the trail head at the end of our drive.

Snow in the mountains surrounding us.

A rocky, very wide and very dry river bed that I imagine will be filled with water during the mountain spring thaw.

Small pine trees and still more open fields............

 

 

 

 A third herd of sheep seen close to the trail head as we headed back towards Cody.......

 

 There are no stores, no gas stations, no convenience stores for at least 30 miles.

But there are a few very small communities of homes out this way, and I watched for signs of a school after I saw this sign.

A very small white building - the proverbial one or two room school house.............

 On the way out to the Shoshone National Forest my Mountain Boy abruptly pulled the truck over to the side of the road when he saw a prairie dog.

I had never seen one before, and as I slowly started to climb out of the truck to try and take a photograph of the little guy LC suggested that I just take a picture from the truck, letting me know that prairie dogs were skittish creatures.

I ignored the suggestion, slowly climbed out of the truck and sure enough.......he was gone.

On the way back into Cody we saw another one eating on the side of the road.

Learning from my mistake of the morning I stayed in the truck and successfully took these pictures before he made a run for his hole.

Jamie barked hysterically from the back seat the whole time we were stopped, wanting a piece of the action.

Or more likely wanting a piece of the prairie dog.

She also barks non-stop when she sees deer.
But not when she sees big horn sheep.
And definitely not when she sees buffalo.  
When we stopped to take pictures of the buffalo the other day she did not make one move or one sound.  
Just like her momma, she has never seen anything quite like them.........

 

 A large herd of cattle - both adult and baby - grazing in a field in the sun...........

I guess that one day soon I need to change the title of my blog from Living The Juneau Adventure to........something else.

I don't have any inspired blog titles for Wyoming right now, so it will likely stay as is for another short while.

Life is without drama right now.

That is a good thing...........