April 30, 2016 - Fallen City, Little Tongue Creek and Steamboat Rock.  Two feet of new Wyoming snow on top of the mountain this week.  Tomorrow is May 1st.

April 29, 2016 - Snow line on the hills above Soldier Creek; our cold, wet weather continues. 

April 28, 2016 - The barbed wire gang; up this morning and out of last night's spring snow.
Western Meadowlark and Sharptail Grouse.

April 27, 2016 - April fog, rain, sleet and snow continues.

April 26, 2016 - At the end of the paved road from town there are seven miles of gravel road along the base of the mountain to our house.  Yesterday afternoon was cold, wet and grey when I returned home this way.  The spring bird migration is swinging into high gear and along the gravel road I saw an Osprey, Bald and Golden Eagles, six Kestrels sitting near each other with two more in the air, a pair of Kingfishers, one Long-billed Curlew, a pair of dancing Sandhill Cranes, and a pair of Swainson's Hawks near Soldier Creek.  What a drive!  Here is one of the Swainson's Hawks.

 

 

April 25, 2016 - Back to reality at the end of the road in the middle of nowhere.  Out front the wild plum bushes are blooming this morning. 

April 24, 2016 - Page three of the Canyonlands float trip.  If you are beginning here, please skip back to page 1 on April 22nd to view the post in order.

 

A hike up Water and Shot Canyon near the end of our trip.  The first photo is near the end of our hike close to the top of Water Canyon.  The river is at the very bottom of the canyon and the snow capped San Juan Mountains are barely visible on the horizon. 

 

Then, negotiating one of the unique crevices on our hike; and finally a Collared Lizard in the sun. 

We reached the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers on the last day of our float.  We climbed up the slope a short way for a view similar to the one John Wesley Powell experienced 140 years earlier.  The Colorado River is on the right and the Green River enters from the left.  The rivers flow toward the camera.

Take a good friend when you go; and a good map.

April 23, 2016 - Page two of photographs of the April 2006 Canyonlands Green River float trip.

 

This is a panoramic view of Bonita Bend from above our camp there.  Our camp was along the river in the upper left of the photo roughly below the mesa on the horizon.  Click on photo to enlarge.

Bonita Bend from the canoe the morning we broke camp there.

Floating along the Redwall, and ancient petroglyphs near "The Turk's Head".

Evening light on "The Turk's Head" from above our camp downriver.

Tune in tomorrow for more of this trip.

April 22, 2016 - It is hard to imagine that 10 years ago today we were floating the Green River through Canyonlands to the confluence of the Colorado River as John Wesley Powell had done on a much longer and greater journey of discovery in 1869.  We were two canoes for six days on the serpentine river through a desert of canyons, cactus and stone.

 

In this photo notice the size of the people and canoe ahead of us.  The photo was taken in the first hour of the trip.  Day by day the canyons continued to grow deeper as we floated toward our destination of Spanish Bottoms on the Colorado River.

 

These last three photographs were taken on a hike up one of the slot canyons near our camp at Bonita (Beautiful) Bend on the river.  This was near "The Butte of the Cross" named by Powell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo was taken looking back toward our camp and the river from above the slot canyon, which is to the left and heading out of the photo.  There were petroglyphs near the river on the walls of the island butte in the center of the picture.

I am going to post a couple of more sets of photos from this trip in the following days.  Canyonlands is a wonderful place and the river is sublime.  Go do this on the river.

 

April 21, 2016 - Vinca, first flowers in the yard this spring.

April 20, 2016 - Red and black business planning.

April 19, 2016 - We are finally getting some much needed moisture.

April 18, 2016 - Sunrise from Harry McCormack Hill.

April 17, 2016 - The first beginnings of antlers I have seen this spring.

April 16, 2016 - This Great Horned Owl had a full crop from a late breakfast and could barely keep his eyes open.  Take a close look at his beak in the second photo.

April 15, 2016 - Photos of the broken country of the desert escarpment along Whistle Creek Road in the Bighorn Basin.  We saw a Sage Thrasher here.

April 14, 2016 - Wild Horses.  These mustangs make their way in the broken desert and sagebrush country between Greybull and Cody.  The horses with the arched necks are the stallions.  We counted about thirty horses in this group, part of which were over the crest of the hill out of sight.

April 13, 2016 - We visited "Devil's Kitchen" again to see its technicolor geology in the early morning sunlight.  I posted some panoramic photos from the rim of the place a couple of weeks ago; so these photos are from inside the basin.  The first photo is on the road to Devil's Kitchen.  The spring cottonwoods are showing their first touches of pale green.

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2016 - The Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is west of the Bighorn and Pryor Mountains on the Wyoming/Montana state line.  It is hard to believe this is not Arizona or Utah.  There are Bighorn Sheep and wild mustangs here.  The canyon is an all-of-a-sudden 1,000 foot drop at the overlook.

 

 

 

April 11, 2016 - A short trip earlier in the week; these are photographs of some of the Wyoming desert in the Bighorn Basin country along the twenty-five mile Crystal Creek Road.  The road is east of the Bighorn River between Highway 14 and Highway 14A.  The mountains in the background are the Bighorns.  This place is reminiscent of the Painted Desert in Arizona; but for us, it is one thousand miles closer.  I like the panoramic format to convey the immensity of the place and view, though I know it doesn't show well on the blog.  Click on the photos to make them bigger.