The Difference a Week Makes

The extent of last week's
wildlife was a  photogenic
bluebird. 

 With nicer weather here, it's time to go outside and play! Last weekend, we went to the Pryors to ride with a couple of friends of ours. We knew we might find snow. Actually, we were hoping to find it, and we did. For the most part, we had fun blasting through the drifts. One spot, though, was not much fun. In fact, for the first time ever, I got off of my machine and declared that if it got to the other side, it would NOT be because I got it there! Of course, the guys obligingly got all the machines safely across, and everything was fine. (Hold that thought, I'm coming back to it.) 

Sunday, at church, we told another friend about our adventures. Since he has a new Honda Pioneer to break in, we made plans to ride again this weekend. Annnnd... then it snowed on Wednesday. 

That didn't stop us from setting out this morning. Again, we weren't sure how high we could get. But warmer temperatures throughout the week had trumped the one snowy day, and when we hit our first obstacle, it was not snow. Rather, a dead tree had fallen across the road and was blocking our path. Fortunately, we were able to go out around, so we continued higher. 

Uh, oh! This could be a problem!

We rode for a while without any further difficulties. When we came to Bear Canyon, we stopped for lunch. The view was beautiful, but we saw no bears. 

When we came back to the main road in the valley, it was still early afternoon, and nobody really wanted to quit yet. So we turned back up into the mountains on Horse Haven road, where we saw - yep, you guessed it - no wild horses (Not that we ever have seen horses from that road.)

Remember the snow drift where I bailed last week? Well, this week it was no problem at all! There was still snow, but now at least the road was visible. Now on Red Pryor Road, we were in for a treat!

We came around a corner, and Dan spotted a small bachelor group of bighorn rams. (We have never seen sheep in the Pryors, despite being told that they are there.) The rest of us waited at the machines while Dan hiked across to try for better pictures. Eventually, he returned and we made our way to the overlook where the road ended. 


Heading back, Dan said that if the sheep were still there, he wanted to stop again. They were indeed still resting on the sunny hillside, so we pulled over and approached them from below. I was surprised how close the sheep let the five of us get! But when they got up and started meandering toward us, we decided that it might be prudent to retreat. The funny thing is, they actually followed us back to the road and wandered out in front of us. They seemed far more curious than frightened! We hated to leave, but the afternoon was quickly becoming evening, so we called it a day.  

Life's a Beach in Weatherman Draw

This was a crazy-busy week at work, so I just had to get out in God's big playground! I needed some peace and quiet and solitude. We have driven by Weatherman Draw a time or two, but have never stopped to explore. Therefore, Friday morning, it became our destination. 

Much of the rock in the area is sandstone. What is no longer stone is sand - sand as fine and soft as you will find on any beach. At one point as we walked, I fully expected to lift my eyes and see a big, beautiful, blue lake. Nope, just sage and cactus. That's okay, I wasn't wearing flip-flops, anyway.



As we sat on a rock eating our lunch, we stared out across the valley. One spot in particular especially intrigued me. What was that dark area behind the trees? Dan couldn't tell any more than I could, even with his binoculars, so we set out to solve the mystery. 

There was a reason that we had been walking along the sandstone walls. There are known pictographs in the area, so we were looking for them. We eventually came to the spot that we had seen, and it proved to be a deep recess in the base of the cliff. We didn't find any ancient artwork, but we did spy a pair of nesting bluebirds. We got a few pictures of them before they flew out of range of our lenses. We waited for a bit, hoping that they might come back. It was nice just to sit and soak up the warm sunshine. Everything was so peaceful and quiet. 

Eventually, we gave up on the birds and made our way into the neighboring draw. Here, we did find some pictographs. Finally feeling like we had found what we came for, we turned back toward the waiting vehicle. Of course, there is still a lot left to explore another day.