About a week and a half ago we drove out to the North Fork again.
It was our second trip out there and we are now officially on "Game Watch".
During the summer a lot of the wild life that calls the North Fork home lives high in the mountains, hidden from the inquisitive eyes of humans.
Hidden by rock and lush growth, they disappear from view for many months.
As winter begins to set in, more and more buffalo, deer and big horn sheep move down to the lower valley where weather conditions are (somewhat) more moderate and where food is more abundant.
From late fall, each time you head out to the North Fork you see more and more wild life, until finally (deep into winter) everywhere you look there are animals.
The winding two lane highway (that takes you from Cody to the East Gate of Yellowstone National Park) becomes quieter and quieter until it feels as though there is nobody else left in the world.
Nobody but you and the massive and lumbering bison that is slowly bypassing your parked car along the side of the road.
Winter is a magical time in the North Fork..............
Pictures of Buffalo Bill Reservoir.
We have to stop there every trip to let our hysterical dog walk for a few minutes.
She has to walk to wear down some of boundless energy in her system, before we can continue on................
With our adventurous dog temporarily quietened, we continued further.
We didn't have to go far before pulling over again.
To our right, and about two football-fields-length away from us, was a herd of probably 200 elk, all walking and sitting together in a huge snow covered field..................
I finally got that new camera I was talking about.
It's not top of the line.
Nowhere near it.
I go through too many cameras to waste money on high end.
But this one zooms where my other one didn't, and considering how far these guys were from us, I am pleased with how these pictures came out.
We ended up watching the elk for almost 30 minutes while talking with an older couple who were doing the same thing we were doing.
Taking a drive down the North Fork just to see how many animals had come out of the mountains so far this fall.................
Click on any picture and all of them will enlarge................
Looking back towards Cedar and Rattlesnake Mountains and in the direction of Cody...................
The elk had wandered down out of the mountains and settled in a huge field that was actually private property.
Somebody bought a huge swatch of land many years ago (long before we arrived in Cody the first time back in 2011).
They had subdivided the land into lots, invested in putting in power to each of the lots, and then they waited for folks to buy up the lots.
Let the home building begin!
Only............that never happened and I am not exactly sure why.
There is only one thing I can think of: A Montana developer bought up a lot of land in the North Fork and then subdivided the land into small lots (some as small as a 1/4 acre).
There is no water access to these lots and because of water rights issues there never WILL be water access to these lots.
And the developer did not share that little piece of information when he sold off these lots to people all over the country who bought up the properties sight unseen, with the idea of one day Living The Wyoming Dream.
Did someone do something similar with this piece of land?
I would guess yes.
Overpriced land doesn't scare off everyone here so it's not that.
It is the only thing that makes sense.
A beautiful metal sculpture at the entrance to the Subdivision That Wasn't..................
The Smith Mansion:
As we drove further into isolation we began to see more and more big horn sheep.
There would be many more in a few months, but for now these were wonderful to see.................
Going further.
Seeing more.
A favorite expression of ours when we are on an adventure "Let's go further and see more".......................
The sheep had indeed begun to come down out of the mountains.
As we slowed the Tahoe to watch one small group after another grazing alongside the road I realized that I had forgotten something.
Many of the herds contained mothers with yearlings.
The young sheep were still traveling with their mothers and the last time we were here we had referred to these small groups as "nurseries'.
After watching this small herd for a while I turned to look at LC. He was enjoying our trip as much as I was.
I smiled at him and for a few moments we shared in the mutual pleasure of this trip.
Let's go further and see more......................
God bless you in Wyoming. It's very boring and the most isolated place on Earth.................RuPaul
Wyoming - God bless you in Wyoming - it's very boring, and it's the most isolated place on Earth.
RuPaul
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/wyoming
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/wyoming
No comments:
Post a Comment