Carving gullies

I drove through Wind River Canyon again, after the flash flooding carved deep gullies in the steep canyon walls and pushed huge rocks onto the road.  That event was a good two weeks ago, and heavy machinery is still working on the road and railroad, moving dirt and breaking up car-sized rocks.  Perhaps you can see in the background that the traffic is stopped on the highway; I suppose we waited a good 15 minutes.

The gullies are big on both sides of the road.  It must have been a spectacular sight to see this event ... that is, from a safe distance.

Have you started a summer read?

This is mine.  It's absolutely fascinating and so well written.  I've only read the first 100 pages, but I'm enjoying the story of the man behind the idea to build the Brooklyn Bridge, and then how the project progressed to completion. It was Roebling's hope that people would come to New York just to see this incredible structure.  In the mid-1800's, this would have been the most impressive building project to date. I find I take so much for granted, not knowing what led to such engineering feats that have progressed the country forward!!

Oh, sweet Columbine!

Friday's Foto.

Spiral hat

I'm working on a different hat.  I pulled two 50% wool / 50% cotton skeins from the stash for this project.  I'm just not sure the yarn will offer enough stretch, and more importantly, recovery for this hat.  But I'm going to finish it and see what happens.  The yarn is wonderfully soft, but it might be a bit too drapy.  This is a new pattern for me too; it's easy and goes rather quickly.  Every four rows you offset (or move) the K2,P2 rib by one stitch.

You can see for miles

Across the valley -- east of Dubois.

Rushing muddy waters

The spring run-off is in full swing, aided by the recent rains.  The water in Sheridan Creek is rushing, tumbling, foaming  over boulders in the stream, carrying a lot of muddy sediment with it.

Tracks in the mud

A dear family friend who lives in the southwestern part of the state was up here for a visit and asked if I would like to go along on a ride up to Sheridan Creek above Dubois.  I'm always up for a ride in the mountains; every trip offers something new and beautiful.  My friend wanted to visit the area where her folks' ashes had been scattered and lay out some flowers as a Memorial Day tribute. 

Nearby is this towering tree, with this exposed root system (below).  How does it survive?

After enjoying the peace and beauty in this campground area, we started walking around, first down to the creek.  The water was rushing and pretty muddy in color; the main stream is in the background, and the overflow is in the foreground.

Then, we walked toward the road and planned to walk to the bridge - another nice place to snap photos.

As we were about to step on to the road, I noticed something pretty obvious... fresh tracks that were not from a moose, an elk, or a deer.  No sirreeeee!

We both thought these tracks looked particularly FRESH.  Soooo, how about a few pictures?  And, perhaps NOT continue on to the bridge, just in case momma griz and the cub are interested in lunch...or have had a bad morning...

After walking back to the car, we decided it would be safe to DRIVE up the road, wondering if we'd see the bears.  But we didn't.  All that we saw were more tracks in the mud.  Just for comparison, take a look at my size 10's compared to momma bear's paw print.