Where, oh Where, Did my Weekend Go?

 A short play in two acts...

ACT I ~ Friday

Another wedding anniversary has rolled around. How shall we celebrate?  A romantic, candlelight dinner? Pizza and a movie? Nah, let's go for a drive. 

Since our white Christmas made our original road-trip plans inadvisable, we took to the back roads. No, they were not plowed, but at least we had them mostly to ourselves. We even found a few roads that were new to us, starting with the very first one. There is an old barn visible from the interstate just east of Laurel, and I have been itching to to photograph it. But how to get to it? We found the right road, and came across several other barns along with the one that I originally wanted to get. 

The road we were on looped back to the frontage road, so we headed for Duck Creek Road, a long-standing favorite. There are plenty of old homesteads along this route, and with the full-frame feature on the new camera, even ones that we have photographed before were "new."

A couple of hours later, we arrived in Bridger (about a half-hour drive from home by the main road). After a quick stop for Cheetoes, we returned to the back roads and made our way toward Roberts. This stretch of road netted us an eagle, deer, and turkeys. When our road met up with 212, we decided that dinner was sounding better all the time. Humongous prawns from the Beartooth Grill fit the bill nicely. 

ACT II ~ Saturday

Pyramid Peak

Despite less than ideal road conditions, I persuaded Dan that we needed to head out again. Yes, I did have an agenda. I wanted to go back up past Cooney Dam and look for the deer. I was very disappointed with the fuzzy pictures that we got last week, and I was eager to have another go at it. 

Just before we got to the field where we always see the deer, we saw a whole herd of them in somebody's front yard! Even though they were close, I still had to step out on the running board to get the camera lens above the fence. Needless to say, these pictures were in focus. It is difficult, however, to convince people that you saw these "wild" animals when there are bird-feeders and a picnic table in the shot! 

Probably this spring's fawns. So cute!

We came around the next corner, and sure enough, the deer were out. Dan shut off the truck while I snapped a couple of quick shots over the roof of the truck, then I got out the tripod. I wanted to eliminate every possible element of human error. I even used the delayed shutter. Whether the snow helped the camera "see" what I wanted in focus or the tripod just steadied it better, the pictures were definitely better than last week's. Dan also got out the range finder to help me see what the equipment we have is truly capable of recording. (Ummm, we need a bigger lens!)

Late afternoon found us back in Nye. The wind had picked up and we were starting to see some blowing, drifting snow. At one point, we actually got bogged down and had to back out of a drift. As we sat in a clear spot between huge mounds of snow, we debated whether we should just turn around while we still could. Dan decided that since this was the last big, open field close to the mountains, the road would improve from this point. He put his foot down and this time we blasted through -- albeit blindly for a few seconds as flying snow completely covered the windshield! We made it without incident the rest of the way into Absorkee. Shortly after that, we spotted a rare late-afternoon bald eagle. (We see them most often in the morning to early afternoon.) Upon stopping, Dan realized that there were two more. They didn't hang around for pictures, but the deer did. This time, they were close enough to the road to get decent pictures even in the fading daylight. 

Here's an unusual buck!

Eventually, we came back to Columbus and hit the interstate. It was a relief to find that it was mostly clear, even though there were plenty of tracks to indicate that such had not been the case earlier. I was glad to pull up safely behind the house, but also very glad that we went out! 

THE END

Riding Shotgun

My poor little blog has been neglected lately...

After spending our last three weekends in Billings selling our photos, we finally got out to take some more. We didn't really have a set itinerary when we left the house Friday morning. We started out from Absorkee, following the Stillwater River. We almost always see eagles along this road, and this morning was no exception. Before long, we had spotted a golden eagle, and then a bald eagle. 

When we reached Nye, we turned toward the East Rosebud drainage, a great spot for moose sightings. Dan had been studying the map again and found a different way to get there. Almost immediately after turning onto the new road, we spied another bald eagle. But the best of the day was waiting a little further up the road where Dan captured THREE flying bald eagles in the viewfinder. We also added an old school house and a weathered barn to our collection of old buildings. We made our way past the road to the West Rosebud and continued on toward the East, talking about when we might actually make the hike from one drainage to the other. (It's a hike of at least 12 or 13 miles, topping out at over 10,000 ft. Not today!!) 

We finally pulled over at a trail head along the river on the East Rosebud road and ate our lunch. We then drove the rest of the way to the end of the road and spent some time photographing the mountains and studying the trail head maps. So many trails... (and so few moose, like none)!

When we came back to the T at the main road, Dan asked which way I wanted to go. I reminded him that he was driving and I was just riding shotgun. But having said that, I did remark that I was not in any hurry to go home. So we turned in the general direction of Cooney Dam, avoiding pavement as much as possible. Just before we reached the Cooney Dam State Park, we passed a couple of fields where we have always seen deer. It is posted, private property, so there are quite a few really nice bucks around. Sure enough, the deer were out and we spent several minutes keeping the shutter clicking. 

Not the best deer we saw, but it is the best photo we got. 

Winter days are just too short, so long before we were ready, we had to put the camera away and once again head for home. But we already have plans for our next outing. Stay tuned...