Travel log continues.

This is where I left you the last time. We had just taken a walk up the valley to explore the road that ran through camp, and continued to a wooded ridge top where we could look down on a cattle trough. We also had the revelation that the Elk we were seeking were not having digestion problems. All the large "elk" pies were indeed cow pies and we were on open range - DOH we were no longer in Michigan we still needed to think "out west".

On another day we took "White One" exploring and found the road that lead back to that same water trough. Now instead of exploring in a valley we were on the ridge above. The views were those mountain top views that will never become mundane to me.















Another day we went exploring for a dispersed camping site and drove across my favorite stretch of road. All along the fence line were flocks of Mountain Blue Birds, my first sighting of these little pieces of azure sky in their feathered forms. There were Mule or Black Tailed deer everywhere. Not the flighty nervous types like our eastern White Tails. These deer stood beside the road and watched us go by. We spotted a Pronghorn or two and a large flock of Crows.















I specially love the tops of the mountains we visited. Though I might call myself a tree hugger in a different sense of the usual term I loved the mountain scenery above tree line. you can see for miles either to other mountains or just across these alpine meadows that undulated against the sky. It is hard to describe in words the feeling of these places. I love the Northern Hardwood forests of Michigan and the Big Lakes and the dunes that shoulder up against them. Michigan is not flat, it also undulates very much like the prairies and the alpine meadows but their undulations are hidden by the dense forest growth. The mountains, especially these alpine meadows have a sense of "distance"? - I do not know the word or words that describe a sensation I have never felt anywhere else. Somehow maybe altitude, even when you are not looking down but across, creates that sense of awe and space that seems to go on forever.

There are more pictures on my Picasa Album.