Getting together over the 4th...

Getting ready for company...  can be a workout! 

Mow down the weeds, mow the grass, get a little ahead on the watering, get the beds made up, stock the kitchen (although my bro usually brings a variety of foods he'll be cooking on the grill), and clean the house.  It's so nice when it's done...  what else can you say?  The family is coming...

Then, we planned three days of activities.  Day one: a 4-wheeler ride to the top of Indian Ridge.  Day two: the boys go fishing, the girls relax and chat, and we all go to the fireworks at dusk.  Day three: go to the lake, water ski, ride the jet ski, and eat my brother's famous grilled shrimp and steaks.  Soooo good.

Day one:  This is the only day I made a point to bring my camera.  We have never been able to ride Indian Ridge this early in the season.  One of the big treats of getting up there (about 9,000 ft. in elevation) this early in the summer is that the spring flowers are blooming.  We were pleasantly shocked at the abundance of beautiful flowers growing along the trail.  Some were fragrant. Sniff, sniff....awww.   I stopped several times to get a photo. 

It make look kind of dry, but it's the intensity of the sun in these pictures that wash out the color.  There was still a lot of moisture in the ground, and it did not feel as dry as it does later in July when we usually make this trek.  The vegetation was lush and beautiful for this part of the country.

The mountain peaks in the Absarokas create an awesome panorama.

We only hit a couple bad spots, this being one of them; a huge snow bank covered the trail, so we had to skirt it...in the mud.  It wasn't so bad for those of us on 4 wheels....but a different story for those on 2.        My brother termed it a "controlled slide." A lot of mud and standing water awaited us at the bottom.  We had to choose a different route to climb the hill on the return trip.

 

                                                                         Lunch break.

Grandiose views from the trail.

 

We had some smoky haze blowing in throughout the county, and I saw on the internet that it was smoke from fires in Canada!!  I had assumed it was from fires in the southwest.  Nevertheless, it was a warm, beautiful day...perfect for this ride in the high country!