warning! these threads contain many pictures with lots of snow! those faint of heart or very cold probably should refrain from viewing (smile)that said, I've finally edited and uploaded the last of my pictures from my recent new mexico/wyoming trip. I sort of ran out of gas as far as taking lots of pictures once up north(west),
but I still ended up with quite a few. all images were taken with my little digital camera on higher resolution mode and though it was also set to 'panorama', you can tell that it has
a hard time keeping distant views in focus
I ended up staying in the bunkhouse of my sister's boyfriends' family ranch. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with the whole family and other ranchers from the surrounding area
and other friends and families. There was a ton of food which was all good (sorry I didn't get any leftover prime rib!
) and everyone was very nice. As usual, it was very cold, and a few times there was well over a half foot of snow (it often was constantly drizzling snow in the mountains). I was quite happy that my sister's truck was four-wheel drive
(she calls two-wheel drive vehicles 'death traps' on wyoming roads
), especially since the 'local form of pavement' is an ice-covered road with about a quarter-inch of sand on top (another description by my sister
). 'you can go 55 on this in four wheel high, no problem!'... I heard this, but my eastern-trained driving reflexes wouldn't allow me to test it out on the packed snow/icy roads, even with lots of sand on it! The ranch is located in Bondurant, Wyoming which is a very dispersed area with most of the few people living and
working on ranches. The Campbell ranch is the only land in the local area that has never been sold, since it was originally settled during the homesteading era and has
been in Campbell hands since the early 1900's. Bondurant is in the least-populated county in Wyoming, and Wyoming is the least-populated state in the U.S. .. so, if you want to
go someplace where you don't have to bump elbows with other people, this is a good place for you
Though very cold the first day or two I was there, there was enough humidity so that the trees were all covered with snow and ice like it was vanilla frosting. Each morning
before the sun would come out, trees and bushes would have a very thick coating of frost that was very beautiful.
view from the bunkhouse door where I was staying. shows some of the campbell ranch outbuildings
and some surrounding scenery. my sister told me that the wooden pole/chain structure that you can see
in the middle of the image was for scalding butchered pigs (removing the bristles from the outer surface
of the hide). a pig would be hung from the support and then lowered into a cauldron of boiling water
early morning frost; all frosty images are taken from the road between the campbell ranch
and my sister/boyfriends' cabin
frosty view showing a hay pile that will be used to feed calves later in the winter. this hay
needs to be fenced, or calves, elk, deer and antelope will eat freely from them. I learned that part
of the reason why the hay needs to be fenced, is that during early winter before the antelope and
mule deer migrate to their winter feeding grounds, if the hay is available the deer type animals might
hang out and try to live off of the hay alone, without eating any browse. some animals like deer and
antelope can't survive eating hay alone; they need forage to survive, and can literally starve to death
with a stomach full of hay. I heard about one of the local wildlife rangers talking about his adventures
trying to catch and/or feed stranded antelope and deer, and about how the animals would need to be led
to proper feed (or caught and carried). he tried to give some antelope hay and lead them down off of
their migration path that had been covered very early with too-deep snow, but they are so used to being
on their trail that it was very difficult to get them to go anywhere else. several starved before he was
able to beat a path to food using his snowmobile. game wardens in this area often take their jobs very
seriously and will go to great lengths to try and preserve the herds, if at all possible
animal tracks leading to the stream
view from cabin 'front yard'
merged view of the wind river range to the east of jackson hole and immediately north of the
Elk feeding grounds near the ranch
more in next thread reply!
