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
