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WHERE THE COLORADO RIVER WENDS ITS WAY
“I sit watching until dusk, hypnotized. I think of the sea as continually sloshing back and forth, repetitive, but my psyche goes with the river- always loping downhill, purposeful, listening only to gravity.” ― Ann Zwinger
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THE CANDLESTICK - Canyonlands of southern Utah
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore from his book "Stray Birds"
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RAIN SQUALL ON THE SAN RAFAEL
Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. - John Updike
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FEASTING ON TENDER SHOOTS
I'm a big brown moose,
I'm a ravenous moose
as I hunt for the willow and yew;
with a snort and a crunch,
I rip off each bunch,
and I chew and I chew and I chew.
- excerpt from Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidmanungulatemoosevelvetantlerspringgrazewadebullnew growthpondsplashmunchingbreakfastwyoming
SANDHILL CRANE: Height: 3 to 4 feet Weight: 6 to 12 pounds Wingspan: 6 to 7 feet Lifespan: 20 to 40 years
Cranes are among the oldest living birds on the planet. A crane fossil found in the Ashfall Fossil Beds in northeast Nebraska, estimated to be about 10 million years old, is the Crowned Crane, a close relative of the Sandhill Crane.
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PILOT AND INDEX PEAKS - ABSAROKA MOUNTAIN RANGE
For us, the world was full of beauty; for the other, it was a place to be endured until he went to another world. But we were wise. We knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard.”
― Chief Luther Standing Bearpeaksvalleysprucesepiablack and whitesteepancientmountainlandscapePilotIndexAbsarokapeacefulBeartooth
GABRIEL'S HORN
A world without huge regions of total wilderness would be a cage; a world without lions and tigers and vultures and snakes and elk and bison would be - will be - a human zoo. A high-tech slum.
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IN THE MORNING'S FIRST LIGHT
At first light I was perched on the side of a hill that overlooks the Snake River valley, below the Tetons. Looking directly east into the blinding light of the sun... as smoke from nearby forest fires floated through the scene... this bull elk exposed himself from behind a spruce tree. I could barely see him through the light and smoke. I quickly tried to make camera adjustments for the strongly back-lit scene. Fortunately, through adjusting the contrast in post-processing I was able to closely render the image as I saw it through the lens. It's one of my personal favorites... although I have many of them.
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I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job. - Margaret Thatcher
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BATTLE HARDENED
“People in the West like to shoot things. When they first got to the West they shot buffalo. Once there were 70 million buffalo on the plains and then the people of the West started blasting away at them. Buffalo are just cows with big heads. If you've ever looked a cow in the face and seen the unutterable depths of trust and stupidity that lie within, you will be able to guess how difficult it must have been for people in the West to track down buffalo and shoot them to pieces. By 1895, there were only 800 buffalo left, mostly in zoos and touring Wild West shows. With no buffalo left to kill, Westerners started shooting Indians. Between 1850 and 1890 they reduced the number of Indians in America from two million to 90,000.
Nowadays, thank goodness, both have made a recovery. Today there are 30,000 buffalo and 300,000 Indiands, and of course you are not allowed to shoot either, so all the Westerners have left to shoot at are road signs and each other, both of which they do rather a lot. There you have a capsule history of the West.” ― Bill Brysonbuffalobisonbullhardenedbattle readyrutcharginghornsexperiencedwild westslaughtereddecimatedWyoming
SEVEN CRANES
I've been asked numerous times... 'is this a mutiple exposure of one Sandhill Crane?' I assure you it's not.
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MR. GRIZZ
I watched him go over a hill. After waiting a few minutes I thought to myself... well, I guess I'll go over the hill too. On the other side I saw him lumber off in another direction. But, for some reason he circled a clump of aspens and headed back in my direction on the narrow wildlife path on which I was perched. He didn't see me, well not at first. He just kept lumbering toward me. When about thirty yards away, he raised his head and noticed I was there. It didn't stop him. He simply left the path to go around me on my right side. I captured this image as he strolled on past. It was my dose of caffeine for the day.
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TEAM WORK
Life isn't always rodeos, cowboys, and horses... but it should be.
INTO THE STORM'S EYE
The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself. - Lao Tzu
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PROWLER
Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy. - Hamlin Garland
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WALKING THE RIDGELINE
"We cannot dwell side by side. Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that away from us. My brothers, shall we submit or shall we say to them: 'First kill me before you take possession of my land” ― Sitting Bull
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