Shared With My Guy And My Dog - Part 1

A small bright blue bird found in a pine tree at 6000 feet on BLM land behind the house................

After my bike ride and hike on BLM land a few days previously LC, Jamie and I decided to walk it the other day.

I had told LC how beautiful it was "up there" and I was eager to finish climbing up that one last rise that I had left for when we walked the place together.

Unlike the other day, this day was cloudy but we enthusiastically headed out anyway with James walking point as usual..........

We woke up this morning to 20 degrees, a beautiful and very clear blue sky, very little snow remaining in the basin where we live, but snow covering all the high hills and mountains surrounding us.

There are many many trails all over the 1000s of acres of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land behind the house (which is a very exciting thing for me to be able to say), and as we set out I thought I remembered exactly the route that I had biked the other day.

We were initially headed to the shooting range up in the hills, so that LC could sight in his new firearm.

After walking for 20 minutes I looked at my Mountain Boy and sheepishly acknowledged that we may have been taking the scenic route after all.

Eventually we ended up walking off trail and taking a more direct route across country.

One thing we noticed while walking was that Jamie gravitates and seems more comfortable walking on trails than she does trail blazing out in open country.

Maybe because more people and animals travel via trails and she is driven by her nose.

Maybe because she is so used to walking with us on trails both in Alaska and here in Wyoming.

Regardless, I would like to think that she would follow trails if she got away from us.

I would like to think that.

But I also think that if she came across a rabbit that all bets would be off.

As we approached the shooting targets LC continued on, and I stayed about 200 yards back holding on tight to Jamie.

Jamie is terrified of guns and terrified of loud noises - quickly scurrying away to another room when I vacuum and doing the same thing when LC even walks into the house with a firearm.

As my Mountain Boy happily sighted in his gun my scared puppy tried with all her might to get as far away from the noise as she could until I eventually pulled her to me.

I held her tight as she shook like a scared rabbit and quietly reassured her until LC was done.

We rested for a few minutes and then headed higher into the hills.
Those are power line poles behind LC in the picture below...........

Jamie and I walked right by this and LC called me back to look at what he had found.

As we inspected the small hole in the rocks LC seriously asked me if I knew what this was, and I seriously responded that I assumed it was a shelter for a small animal.

He then seriously responded that it was a Westing House.

For one split second I bought into what he was saying and I almost asked him what a Westing House was.

And then I looked at his face and instantly knew that he was screwing with me.

He started to smile and I knew it for sure.

OK I'd bite.
  

What's a Westinghouse?

A Westing House is a pwace for wabbits....

A Westing House for wabbits to west?

Yeah
A Westing House for wittle wabbits to west?
Yeah.  A Westing House for wittle wabbits to west and get their wocks off......
A Westing House for wittle wabbits to west and get their wittle wocks off......

And so it went.

Two grown people heading into the mountains being stupid and laughing like idiots.

It felt good.............

Orange and yellow and blue fungi growing on all of the rock surfaces at elevation.

I took a picture of one of the rocks because when you look at them closely they look very much as though they have been colored by a small child.

Surprisingly artistic and colorful and so different from what I am used to seeing........

Signs of how the rain and wind have carved out these rocks.

I have seen very very interesting rock formations on a much larger scale throughout the region, and especially while heading out towards Yellowstone.

Hugely interesting to see.........

The same natural lake that I saw on my last trip to the top of this section of BLM land............

We stood for a long time looking over the beautiful 360 degree views.

The same views that I had seen on my last hike up to this place.

Today, rather than a warm and very sunny day we were greeted with much less wind but also much more unstable weather.

Even on the trip up we had seen sunshine, then clouds, then short periods of both rain and sleet.

As we looked out over the far distant mountains we could see exactly where it was raining in different parts of the Big Horn Basin.

We live in a huge bowl and are ultimately completely surrounded by a number of different mountain ranges.

Because of that this area deals with multiple weather fronts coming off the mountains.

I took this picture, with its ominous looking sky and child-like-colorful-rocks as we climbed up the last and highest ridge in the area..........

On top of the final ridge.

It was beautiful up there even in unsettled weather.

Glad I waited to share it with my guy and my dog.......

We unexpectedly found, and took, an unexplored trail back down off the high ridges.

I did not realize how many pictures  I had taken until I downloaded them.

Too many pictures to continue this blog entry............