Beautiful Autumn Drive

We did take a drive this week, just a short afternoon jaunt to get us out of the house. We started out initially heading northwest  this time, taking the road to Masonville, then continuing up to CO 14 on a beautiful road that wound through a steep canyon. From there we headed east and eventually wound up driving Owl Canyon Road, a road we've long wanted to explore. Very nice drive, after which we just headed for the Pawnee Grasslands, where we drove around until it was time to head for home.

 It was a beautiful afternoon everywhere we went, and the golden sunlight of a late October afternoon, falling on the landscape of muted browns and gold on the prairie, was spectacular:




Pawnee National Grasslands

We saw two large herds of antelope on our drive through the Pawnee, and I even managed to take a short video of one of them:

apologies about the quality of this, I need to remember NOT to zoom with video. A few stragglers crossed the road just in front of us to join the others, so we pulled over to see if we could get a good picture. A few seconds into the filming, a dog (or something) barks, and the herd takes off...

The other notable wildlife we saw was a huge brown bird walking around not far from the road as we drove by; from its size we think it had to be an eagle. It was on the top of a rise that could be seen from quite a ways past, and when we stopped to turn around and look, we could still clearly see the bird's silhouette--it was that big! We've seen quite a few eagles flying or perched high, but haven't seen many hanging out on the ground.

And, check out this very cool modified vehicle we encountered on the drive:

It's an Oldsmobile

Agate and the James Cook Collection

The two hills that make up the fossil beds at Agate National Monument

We took a trip today to the Agate Fossil Bed National Monument in western NE, about a 500 mile round trip. It was our second visit, our first was almost a year ago.

Agate is in the middle of nowhere, literally. There's a nice visitor's center with displays and very informative movies about what the fossil beds are all about. There are some very nice hiking trails to the fossil beds, and out to an historic cabin where early paleontologists bunked, with incredibly beautiful scenery every step of the way. And, at least on the 2 days we've visited, there is incredible solitude and peace, both times we had the trails completely to ourselves. It seemed as if we were walking along on a different planet...

Outside, on the hiking trail:

The Neobrara River runs through the monument, and part of the trail to the fossil beds is made up of a walkway and bridge across the river and surrounding marshland. 

there were signs everywhere warning about the snake dangers. We kept a sharp eye out for them, but didn't see anything larger than a bug on our hike.

Inside, in the Visitor's Center:

displays of the skeletons of animals whose bones were found in the fossil beds. These animals were early mammals (not dinosaurs) and many were carnivores, and few of their fossils have been found elsewhere.

The bones collected and fossilized at Agate because it was one of the last wet spots as a giant sea that covered the area dried up, leaving the animals to eventually perish. The displays feature artists' depiction of those grisly times.

It is evident from the skeletons that some of these creatures were pretty fierce

this is an actual chunk excavated from the fossil bed, showing the mishmash of bones the paleontologists were faced with. The chunk was wrapped in plaster soaked fabric for transport.

In addition to its important role in preserving the fossil beds, Agate National Monument is also the home of the James Cook collection, which include some amazing pieces of Native American art and articles of historical significance. The Monument is located on part of James Cook's original ranch, and he was a very important pioneer in the area and one of few good and trustworthy friends of the local tribes. That relationship resulted in many gifts to Cook showcasing some incredibly beautiful workmanship, and the well-preserved items on display are truly gorgeous. Sadly, some of the collection is made up of culturally and historically significant items given to Cook in the hope he could preserve them for future generations, as conditions for all the tribes deteriorated and they were forced onto reservations. At least the items we saw today did survive to the present, but so sad to think of the circumstances.

The Cook Collection was closed for renovation on our last visit, so this was our first chance to see it. The display area is very well done and conducive to photography, and we really enjoyed the presentation.


exquisite quill work (using porcupine quills) decorate these moccasins. The ones with decorated soles were made for ceremonial purposes

moccasins with glass bead decoration

these quill work-decorated bags are for holding pipes

more beautiful quill work designs

Rainbows on the Prairie

We took another autumn drive through the prairie yesterday, through SE Wyoming to Ft Laramie National Historic Site, then a revisit of Scottsbluff National Monument, followed by a rainy trip home via I-80 and -25. We had a fabulous time, despite or perhaps because, it was an unsettled and stormy day and so different from the dry, sunny days we generally seek out for our trips. Had the weather been much more severe, keeping us from getting out of the car at all or making driving conditions hazardous, things probably wouldn't have worked out so well. But our timing seemed to be magical all day, and we managed to do most of our driving between storms rather than through them. The picture above is of the day's first rainbow, taken in SE WY.

We stopped for gas and a drive-through breakfast in Cheyenne, and then slowed the car down enough to take this picture, a sign that was evidently preserved when an old Husky station was torn down (its now a mini-storage facility). I've seen the sign before when driving through here, and today I finally had the chance to take a picture.

scene along the road between Chugwater and Wheatland, WY

another photo from the same stretch of road, the clouds adding massive drama to some already breathtakingly beautiful scenery

Fort Laramie, WY

Our first stop was at the Ft Laramie National Historic Site. It was our second visit, our first was almost a year ago. 

Fort Laramie consists of buildings in various stages of rehabilitation, some with rooms recreating different periods of fort life. Some of the buildings are no more than stone foundations, some are mere wall remnants. It is an interesting place to walk around, and we spent a couple of hours doing just that on our last visit. The area surrounding the fort, with the convergence of the Laramie and the North Platte Rivers, is also very scenic.

a porch on one of the houses at the fort

a hardy zinnia in one of the flowerboxes in front of the porch. It and a couple of similarly-hardy snapdragons were the only color left in the plantings

vines growing up the porch railings are drying out

picture of a reflected Ellen taking a picture of Joe...

...who then returned the favor. I'd planned for a picture of one of my new outfits, but it was so windy I wound up sliding this coat on over it all, although one tie from the gray sweater is peeking out under the coat hem. For most of our time at the fort I had my hood up, it was that breezy. Not at all cold, but very very breezy.

We stopped for lunch at the Fort Laramie American Grill (FLAG), it was good, then we headed for:

Scottsbluff, NE

where we headed for the national monument, a return visit from just a few weeks ago and the subject of my previous post.

By the time we got to Scottsbluff, we could see that we were running into some storms, so we decided to see what we could see at the top of the bluff. Like our last visit, it was very windy on the top, but this time conditions seemed much more ominous. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot, but their occupants quickly scrambled off the trails and jumped in them as big, cold raindrops started to fall. We'd heard a few thunderclaps and seen a few lightning flashes on the drive up the hill, so it was way past time for these folks to be getting out of such an exposed situation. Anyway, they all took off down the hill, while we stayed in our car to watch the developing storm.

Rainy areas around the bluffs had a blue, misty covering that obscurred any ground details and had the appearance of a sea. At some points, it really looked like this bluff was surrounded by misty water. Then part of the mist would clear and houses, trees, etc, would be visible, looking a bit like a "shorline." A very cool effect!

The storm intensified pretty quickly. For a short while it was raining so hard we couldn't see much beyond the hood of the car--and just a couple of minutes earlier we had been able to see a couple of hundred miles distance...

The storm produced small hail, maybe half-pea sized. We could hear thunder all around us, but had no sense of directionality of the sound's origin. Thunder in 360, it was great. Not a lot of lightning, but some, mostly horizontal-appearing flashes. Several of them together, usually, with the thunderclaps also seeming to be grouped in waves. We enjoyed the storm.

Before long, the clouds moved away, the sun came out, and we were rewarded with another beautiful rainbow. The storm lowered the temperature about 10 degrees, and everything looked and smelled that wonderful after-the-rain fresh. So crisp and beautiful!

We watched the storm move away and others move closer. Too many thunderheads in the area to risk any hiking, so after a bit we headed down the hill and started for home. Here are some pictures I took from the road in the monument coming down from the bluff:

We decided to head for Kimball NE and then take the interstates home. It was getting pretty stormy by then, and it seemed like our best bet. We drove through a few storms but nothing too intense, thankfully. One storm did turn into a nasty looking dark cloud as we watched it recede in the rearview mirror and then it produced an incredibly bright and vibrant rainbow (a double rainbow if you look closely), which turned out to be the final one we saw on the trip.

rainbow seen from I-80, east of Pine Bluffs, WY