Ghost Towns in the American West - Photos

Animas Forks, Colorado

Bannack, Montana

Bodie, California

Calico, California

Gleeson, Arizona

Rhyolite, Nevada

South Pass City, Wyoming

St. Elmo, Colorado

Mustangs (or Broncos) of the Wild West

Mare and foal near Mesa Verde, Colorado

Buckskin in Nevada

Sand Wash Basin, Wyoming

Snaking stallion

Fight for supremacy in Utah

Triumphant

Wyoming - The Big Sky Country

Five Springs, at the base of the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming

Lush grazing in the Big Horn Basin

The Pryor Mountains

An old homestead

Bison and the Grand Tetons

Road along a canyon

This photo was taken by Mark Nobles.  It shows the Grand Tetons wrapped in clouds.

Around the World

Green River, Wyoming

Into the woods...

Rocco Calascio, Abruzzo, Italy

The Bastei Bridge in Germany

Fjord in Norway

Florence, Italy; Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

May is winding down, and Boulder is having light rain showers. The temperature is in the upper 50s, and Nedi and Lovey are delighting in shaking rain and mud all over the keyboard and monitor as I try to type this.  If the rain lets up, like the weathermen say, around noon, I'll take Rosie out walking then.  The rain was coming down pretty heavily at our usual walk time this morning, so I called and delayed the walk time.  Rosie hates walking in the rain - I just pull on my rubber boots and go...    Lovey has multiple scratch scabs all over her tummy, from fighting with Kiki, the pale orange cat in B building.  Thank goodness that Nedi just hisses and runs!  One fighter is enough in the family.  And the kits are unsettled because my neighbor of 5 years, Chris, has moved out, and the maintenance man, Jim, is working next door, with all kinds of unexpected sounds that are very loud.
   I have really enjoyed reading the last few books - especially Dan Brown's Inferno (the latest Robert Langdon mystery/thriller)  and Margaret Coel's Buffalo Bill's Dead Now, a Wind River Reservation mystery.  Both books took intensive research and both of them grabbed me and wouldn't let me stop reading until I finished each book.  There were unexpected twists and turns in each story, and I highly recommend both of them.  As usual, Inferno has the characters running about in Europe, seeking clues and answers.  The majority of Margaret Coel's book takes place in and around the Wind River Rez in Wyoming, with some glimpses back in time (1890) seeing The Wild West Show in Europe.  They are super books.
Here are a few places mentioned in each book:

Il Duomo in Florence, Italy

The Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Death mask of Dante Alighieri

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Part of the 2.2 million acre Wind River Reservation

St. Stephen's Mission on the Wind River Reservation

Farm on the Wind River Reservation.  Photo used by courtesy of the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

Western US Scenes

Red fox diving for a mouse in Wyoming

 

Telluride Valley, Colorado

 

Twenty-three degrees below zero (F) in Yellowstone Park

  

                           

Sunset on a western US lake shore

US Scenes

Arlington, Vermont

 

Horse and chicken coop in Wyoming

 

Shaft of sunlight in New Hampshire

 

Waves at Ocean City, Maryland

 

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

 

Winter Wildlife

Big horn sheep in the Rocky Mountains

 

A bison in Yellowstone National Park

 

Red fox in Colorado

 

Mountain hare in Scotland

 

Red stag in the UK

 

Wolf in Wyoming

The Best Feeling in the World

It's nice and windy outside - but the sun is shining brightly, and it's not too cold. Lovey and Nedi are chasing leaves around the back yard, along with an occasional squirrel. Lovey's check-up was fantastic, but the vet was surprised when I told him about the swelling she had 24 hours after I took her home - he said he wished I had called him, as he would have liked to examine her. However, since the swelling decreased and she is definitely back to her usual self, he said not to worry. She did have a small piece of suture that hadn't completely dissolved yet in her gums, but was not going to allow either Dr. Russell or me to remove it with tweezers... So I came back home with a light heart.

   I like to drive. I love being on a road that I haven't travelled before, and just seeing what lies on either side of the pavement, and where the road leads. After I got Lovey back home yesterday, I took the Rav4 out, and pointed it north. I've lived in Boulder for 9 years now, and I hadn't been to Wyoming, which is a 90-minute drive. I had a blast - even though I was on a road that millions have driven before me, it was something new for me to view. I took no maps, just followed my own whims, and I ended up in Cheyenne, in the Pioneer District, that was built in the 1880s. I got to see where the Transcontinental Railway was first laid - and got to visit banks and hotels and bars and stores that have been in the same location since the town was incorporated. The museum was really great, too, with the history of the town, the railroads, and the Cheyenne Rodeo. I had a blast.

   And I was able to see wide open spaces. Growing up a suburban kid in Florida and on the island in Virginia, I never got used to tall buildings, narrow streets, and restricted views. True, in Florida the view was restricted by woods of slash pine and pin oaks, and on Chincoteague and Assateague there were wooded areas, but one could always see a horizon, or hear the sea. I still feel restricted in Boulder because of the mountains to the west; at least I've gotten over the feeling that they are going to fall over on top of me and squash me flat... and I know that open country continues on the other side of the mountains, but sometimes my subconscious just doesn't want to handle that. In any event, driving through the countryside yesterday you could see folds in the hills, dips in the ground, a few limestone formations, draws, stream beds - and I just wanted to be in the saddle of a good horse so I could explore that expanse, and see what was lying behind that hill... It's a really odd sensation, but I felt free yesterday, and I'm sure that if I had been able to mount a horse and just ride away in any direction that my heart would have burst with a joyous feeling of complete freedom... I said that to a friend this morning, and she just looked at me; then she finally said, "Where? In Wyoming? But there's nothing there!" But to me, there is - the feeling of being out with your horse, seeing and exploring places for the first time. For me, that's the best feeling in the entire world.