On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning, everyone!
Today we’re heading to Washington state for a wonderful adventure. Don’t forget folks, we need submissions! Now that this feature is live, it’s time to dust off those albums of glorious summer travel and submit!
Take it away, Mike in Oly:
In September I, my husband, and two of our friends went camping at the Tucannon River in eastern Washington State. The tourists had gone home and we had the campground to ourselves. It was lovely sleeping next to the river and enjoying the wilderness. One of the highlights was bumping into a family of Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep. A local informational sign indicated they had been introduced to the area to replace an historic native population that had been wiped out back in the day. We saw a ram with his two ewes and two youngsters. The adults had radio collars on. It was a lot of fun watching them gamble about along the road. They had no care about the cars sitting and watching them as they headed down an oak covered hillside to an open meadow below. Thought I would share the experience
Wanderer
What a wonderful sight.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I might have a few pictures kicking around on the ol’ hard disk.
Hermann Fegelein
What were they doing gambling along the road? Playing craps? Isn’t that dangerous? If it was 3-card Monte, someone needs to tell them that isn’t gambling, it’s a scam.
Barbara
Lovely pictures. We saw Bighorns at the Badlands National Park. One of those “traffic jam brought to you by wildlife” moments that are what you hope to encounter along the way. I think the word you intended is spelled “gamboling.”
J R in WV
YOu guys! The sheep can’t spell, they can’t even talk very much!!!
We saw a herd in a vertical sided (to us, to the mountain goats it was a playful yard1) box canyon between Canyon City CO and Cripple Creek mining district also in CO. The kids gamboled up and down the sheer cliff, it was June and they were probably a couple of months old, plenty old enough to be able to run from knob to tiny ledge to crack, stopping whenever they had places for all four feet.
They were on the other side of the canyon, near the upper end, so the canyon was probably only 3 feet wide. So they weren’t a bit afraid of us, we were right there, but half a mile of vertical cliff away at the same time. I’ve got some little paper photos, somewhere. Where could they be? Hmmm.
This photo is great, so glad you had the experience and that the critters are doing well in their new location.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I might have a few too, now that I can actually use the form to submit pics.
Alain
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ll run your most recent submission tomorrow, FYI
Alain
@Gin & Tonic: yeah I’m so happy they fixed that limitation!
waratah
Terrific photo Mike just what I needed this morning.!
JPL
Great picture.
Mike in Oly
Arg! Yes, gamboling. Apologies. It was late. Also, where are the other four photos of them? I sent five. First time using the new format tho. May have messed it up. Glad you enjoyed them!
Barbara
I actually thought gambol and gamble might have the same root, but I looked it up and they don’t. “Gambol” derives from the Latin/Romance word to describe the springing jump of a horse, whereas, “gamble” derives (as you might expect) from the noun or verb of “game.” Gambol was first used in English in the early 16th century, and gamble is much more recent, around the mid to late 18th century.
Avalune
@Mike in Oly: Even if it wasn’t intentional and even if the other photos are amazing and need shared as well – I kind of liked the abbreviated post.
WaterGirl
@Mike in Oly: There were two submissions from you on the same day, one with just this photo and another that has all 5. Is it possible that you did one as a test to the process and another as the real thing
@Avalune: I can’t imagine that Alain doesn’t have the one with 5 photos on the schedule, also.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: That happened with my Argentina pics. I put in one as a test, then I put 5-6 later as the full post, and Alain went with both.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Double exposure! :-)
Mike in Oly
Thanks, Watergirl. That would explain it. The sheep are awesome enough for a second look later.
WaterGirl
@Mike in Oly: Yep! Great pictures.
WaterGirl
Just want to give a heads up to the morning On the Road peeps:
I just moved On the Road to the Category Bar, so now it’s hanging out with Politics, Open Threads, Pet Blogging and Garden Chats.
Nothing is forever, but On the Road will stay there for a good while.
stinger
What a great photo, and it must have been a wonderful moment in person.
If I’d been given the naming of them, I’d have called them goats rather than sheep. Why doesn’t anybody ever ask me???
Dan B
It’s great to see sheep in the Blue Mountains. The Blues are so isolated that sheep would probably never return on their own. How many miles of dry steppe are there between the Idaho Rockies and the Blues? The alternative is crossing the Snake River and many miles of Oregon scrubland.
Dan B
@stinger: I’ve seen Mountain Goats in the North Cascades. These are sheep – heavy curly horns, tan coats. But you probably knew that, right?