Picnic In Oregon Basin - Part 2

This trip was turning into one of so many other trips we have taken in our travels over the past few years.

We had a general destination in mind, but other than that just planned on taking the day as it came.

Bows were sitting in cases in the bed of the truck - mine left handed and LC's right handed.

We had already spent a couple of hours wandering and picture taking and enjoying the views of the basin and wild flowers and rock formations and antelope.

The hills to the right in the picture (above) were the back side of the hills we can see from our house.

As the crow flew we were only five minutes from the house.

But we were now so far into the basin that we were an hours' drive to the house going back the way we had come, or an hours' walk if we were to hike it up and over the hills before picking up a long downhill BLM trail to home.

We were close to home, but on this day and at this moment it felt like we were a million miles from home.

A magical and beautiful place.

My Mountain Boy - the wonderful and special man who has traveled a million miles with me over these past years - picked a large rock under a tree and turned silently to me, smiled and without asking, asked me "is this OK?"

Without answering him, I answered.

Yes.  It was OK.................

We sat on the rock and under the tree and looked out over the entire basin.

The breeze cooled us off, and as we ate our picnic we quietly talked with each other and looked around us, both of us mesmerized by this unexpectedly beautiful place.

We had never actually been to this very spot before.

I had been in this general area before, but had only explored close to the hills before turning back, hiking back up the trail and then down the trail to pick up my bike again, that I had dropped when I hit the box canyon two years ago.

Together we had both explored all over the top of the hills.

Together we had also explored Wind Rock - which was about 10 minutes from this spot.

So this was all new territory for both of us.

After finishing our lunch, both LC and I wanted to explore the huge rock that was beside us.

There was a pathway naturally built among the rocks and pine trees.

Leaving our small cooler under the tree we eagerly headed for the trail, eager to see what we would find..................

The trail was steep.  Immediately beautiful and hugely interesting.

I was loving this adventure.................

"Our hills" - the ones we see from the house - in the background.

The monumental rock that we were climbing, in the foreground.

Pine trees growing in the smallest breaks in the rock.

As I looked at these trees I was impressed (as I always am when I see them), at their ability to thrive and survive in the harshest wind and sun, and the smallest amounts of dirt and water.

They are wonderful testaments to the determination of nature.

The determination to exist no matter the barriers...............

I had wandered up ahead of LC, and when I turned back to look for him realized that he had stopped and was looking out over the world we had left behind us.

I stood balancing between two rocks, watching him.

Loving him.

Loving the sight of him................

As we continued to climb I looked out over the basin and could see the large pond that was located close to the oil refinery.

It is the only water that I have ever seen in the basin and it is a nasty, alkali filled, nothing-lives-in-it-and-nothing-grows-in-it, foul smelling body of water.

From a distance though, and while standing near the top of a very large rock wall, it looked very lovely.............

When LC and I finally pulled back together at the top of the rocks, it was my turn to point and say "look at those".

The shape of the two cones was so unusual, and immediately my sci-fi, Twighlight Zone, Stephen King brain kicked in and concocted outrageous and unearthly explanations for their shape and existence.

LC inspected them closely and then waved me over.

They were made of dirt.  Not rock as I had expected, and I watched LC break off a couple of pieces at the top of the largest stack with only a small of amount of effort  . 

Surprised, I watched him easily grind the pieces into dust.

THAT I had not expected at all................

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter............Rachel Carson

Picnic In Oregon Basin - Part 1

On a very hot and very dry Sunday a couple of weekends ago we left Jamie in the coolness of the house (much to her disappointment and whining disdain), packed a lunch of sandwiches, cookies and watermelon, grabbed the bows and headed towards the Oregon Basin.

By road the basin is about a 20 minute drive from the house.

By foot it would take well over an hour to walk - from the house, across BLM land to the hills in back, and the Oregon Basin is on the other side of the hills.

The basin is a huge, seemingly endless expanse of flat BLM land.

You can barely see oil company buildings (beige to blend seamlessly with the terrain) in the far distance.

Along large sections of the perimeter of the basin are wonderfully interesting rock formations, small and rugged pine trees that have grown into tortured shapes because of the strong winds, and occasional antelope wandering and grazing and ever watchful..................

After pulling off the Greybull Highway and then travelling slowly along a dry, dirt and gravel road, we passed over a cattle guard and finally reached the basin.

When we first enter the basin the scene in front of us is always a little startling because it is overwhelmingly huge.

An endless, expansive piece of.........nothing.

Hills - endless hills.  Flat - endlessly flat land and sage brush.  The Big Horns to our left but still sixty miles away.  Carter Mountain in front of us but still 50 miles away.

No people.  No noise.  Just an entire world of nothing and everything.  All layed out silently in front of us...............

In all directions there are dirt roads.

Some of them lead to towns such as Burlington or Meeteetse.

When you first see them all meandering in different directions and disappearing into the distance, they look flat and straightforward, much as the terrain does.

In reality the roads contain rolling hills, large rutted out sections, all of them now (early in the summer) lined with endless and highly varied wild flowers.

The flowers can be found everywhere right now.  Not the endless carpets of flowers you would find in forests and grassy mountain sides - this is high desert and the ground is far too barren for such things.

The flowers are found in individual clumps throughout the basin. 

Quickly we picked up a road to the right and headed towards Wind Rock............

Click to enlarge this picture.

Hidden in the grass is a sitting, watchful, barely visible, sole antelope..............

The beauty of the forest is obvious and indisputable.

You have to look a little harder to see beauty on BLM land.

At first glance it looks dry, barren, dead and dormant.

But if you look beyond the obvious you find beauty in large and small places.

This delicate, sweet little yellow flower was growing out of bone dry land...................

After parking the truck in the middle of the dirt road, LC and I wandered briefly looking out over forever and discovering what flowers were growing in the area.

In LC's warped sense of humor, he called my name.

As I walked up to him he pointed down at the ground and said "you have to take a picture of that".

So OK..........here's a picture of daisies next to a cow pile..............

The last time we were here in Wyoming we climbed in and around this huge rock wall.

It was a very windy day and when we reached the top of the wall I stood at the edge, looking out over the entire basin.

The wind was not cold but it was very strong and it battered both of us the entire time we were out.

As I stood on the edge of the rock a strong gust of wind blew my ball cap off my head.

It blew over the cliff and disappeared "somewhere" below.

I was disappointed because it was the only hat I had from the adventure racing group that I had been a part of for many years while living in Tennessee.

LC and I climbed down from the rock wall and spent 20 minutes searching for that hat, hoping that it had simply gotten caught in a sage bush and had not, in fact, disappeared into the basin on the winds.

We didn't find it.

Almost two years later we found ourselves again wandering around the same rock wall, and my Mountain Boy mentioned the hat.

And yes......two years later we found ourselves wandering around below the rock wall searching for a black and green adventure racing cap, that maybe (just maybe) had gotten caught in a sage bush.

It was a useless endeavour and we both knew it, but hey.........how cool would it have been if we HAD actually found the stupid thing??

Heading back to the truck empty handed.

We didn't find my ball cap, but in truth and after all this time it didn't really matter.

What really mattered was that in the brief time LC and I had been out in Oregon Basin, was had already seen endless space, beautiful mountains, interesting rock formations, an antelope, a huge variety of random and colorful wild flowers, an ant hill, and daisies beside a cow patty.

The sun was shining, the sky was a blue that could never be replicated on canvas by even the most proficient painter, and the world was a quiet and warm and beautiful place....................

I have taken pictures of this same tree many times.

It stands alone.

Just a mid-size solitary tree growing out of the rocks and in the barest amount of soil, it survives on little water, sometimes gale force strength winds, unrelenting sun in the summer and unrelenting cold in the winter.

I have always loved the combination of ancient rock, lone pine tree, and endless sky....................

A huge, bright green leafy bush growing straight out of the rocks......................

A couple of years ago I was mountain biking on BLM land behind the house.

When I hit a box canyon I debated briefly whether I should turn around and back out of the canyon so that I could explore some more on bike, or whether I should simply drop my bike and head up the hill on foot to see what was on the other side.

I ended up dropping my bike and bushwhacking up a hill until I unexpectedly found a trail.

Still climbing, I followed the trail to the top of the hill not knowing as I was climbing, exactly what I would find when I got there.

I fully expected to reach the top, enjoy the view and then head back down to pick up my bike.

Instead, when I reached the top I found the entire Oregon Basin laid out before me far below.

I followed the trail to the right, thinking that it would follow the ridge line around the hills, but instead it dropped me down into the basin, and I spent the next couple of hours exploring the basin close to the hills before heading back the way I had come.

It was a wonderful and unexpected adventure.

LC drove the truck on this day all the way to the place I had found a couple of years ago.

Parking the truck in the grass, we climbed out of the truck, grabbed the little cooler of food we had brought with us, and then climbed up a small hill looking for a place to eat lunch............

While we’re young and beautiful, living free and easy. Here without a worry, dancing in our bare feet because when the summer’s done we might not be so young and beautiful..............Unknown

Promising But Unfulfilled

Many times LC and I watch storms approaching our area.

Mostly storms come from the south and west, sometimes from the north, and only very occasionally from the east.

For all intents and purposes Cody is located in a huge bowl that is surrounded by mountains.

The Bear Tooths, the Absarokas, the huge and endless and flat Big Horn Mountains - they all surround us.

We stand often on our front porch looking out over the mountain ranges and over the endless expanse of BLM land that also surrounds us.

We watch as storms struggle to make it over the mountains and when they finally do we always get suckered in, firmly believing that the storms will find their way to us.

They rarely do.

What happens more often than not is that these isolated storm bands (so isolated that we can literally see where they begin and where they end) circle around us.

Getting trapped by these mountain ranges that force the storms to change direction and circle around us before inevitably moving east.

I took these pictures about a week ago.

It was late in the evening, and just at a time when the sky was filled with different cloud types, promising but ultimately unfulfilled chances for rain, and setting sun...................

Many many years ago my youngest son Chris began to make some decisions under pressure from so-called "friends" at school, that increasingly got him in trouble - first with me, then the school, then with the police.

One day the police called me and told me that he was in jail and could I come pick him up. 

He was only 13 years old at the time, but was already over six feet tall and everyone thought that he was much older than he was.

I had become increasingly worried over many months about my youngest child, and was indecisive about what I should do for him, and just how serious his problems were really becoming.

By the time the police picked him up, Chris had already been in some minor trouble with them and they already knew his name.  Never a good sign.

I asked the police if they could hold him.  They asked me for how long and I told them as long as possible.

They told me that they would hold him as long as they could, but if they needed the space for a bigger fuck up than my son was, we would have to come get him.

I hoped that they would be able to hold him at least overnight. 

I wanted him to sweat and I wanted time to think.

Six hours after the first call, I received a second call from the police.  They needed the space for another kid.

I asked my husband to pick him up.  I wasn't ready to see Chris yet.

While I waited at the house for the return of my husband and child, I stood in the dining room beside the picture window, eating a bowl of cereal.

As I ate I stood by that huge window that overlooked the back yard, looking outside but not seeing anything outside, and feeling deeply worried.  

Sean walked into the dining room.

When he came up behind me he threw his arms around my neck and pressed his cheek against mine.

"You'll figure something out.  You always do.  It'll be alright".

I could feel myself well up as I fought back sudden and unexpected tears, and I turned my head to face my oldest son, smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek.

"We'll figure something Babe".

When Chris walked into the house I looked up at my young son and made the instant decision that I was pulling him out of school.

I didn't know what I was going to do after that, but I figured it out.

Many years later, I can't figure this out.

Today would have been my Seans' 6th wedding anniversary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvF2EChTyNA