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.
Update: Forgot to include the rest of the schedule for the week!
Albatrossity
After the 2007 solstice sunrise at the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, we spent another couple of days camping and sight-seeing in the Bighorn Mountains and surrounding country. I did not keep a diary, and my camera at the time did not have GPS capability, so some of these recollections are a bit hazy. I guess I need to go back there and poke around some more!
Back at the campsite I heard a bird singing a lovely song that I had not heard before. I chased it down and discovered that it was a male Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), singing from atop a small conifer. I got several less-than-satisfying photos, and this is the best one. To this day I do not have any other photos of this stunning member of the finch family. I definitely need to go back there! Click here for larger image.
Our campground had lots of wildflowers, so again this week I will include several images of those. For the most part I have been able to ID them, but this one remains elusive. If any jackal can help out with an ID, I would be grateful. Click here for larger image.
Thomas Nuttall not only is memorialized in some bird names, as we learned a few weeks ago, he also has at least one plant named for him. This is Nuttall’s Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum). Very pretty, but also apparently quite toxic! Click here for larger image.
Another early flowering plant in this late-spring part of the world is the American Globeflower (Trollius laxus), which was blooming along the marshy edges of the stream near our campsite. Click here for larger image.
This patch of Rocky Mountain Phlox (Phlox multiflora) attracted an interesting day-flying moth, but because it has clear wings, it blends in pretty well here. This is a Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), a widespread pollinator in North America; I’ve photographed them here in Flyover Country as well. Click here for larger image.
That afternoon we headed north, across the Montana/Wyoming border birder, mostly because I had never been in Montana before and needed to add it as the 49th state on my list of states that I have visited. The Bighorn River goes through some very scenic gorges there, and it was well worth the trip. Click here for larger image.
The wet meadows along the river had some wildlife as well. This pair of Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) belong to the subspecies known as the Greater Sandhill Crane, which breeds in the wetter parts of the northern Rocky Mountains. They probably had a youngster or two (known as colts) in this meadow somewhere, but we did not catch a glimpse of those. Click here for larger image.
More charismatic megafauna. A bull Moose (Alces americanus), with velvet antlers, also hanging out in the wet meadows and chowing down on the new spring foliage. Click here for larger image.
This is one of the images that I wish I had GPS coordinates for. I do remember that we drove up a canyon on the west side of the Bighorns to see petroglyphs, and we saw these as well as others. I just have no clues as to where that canyon is! Click here for larger image.
After leaving the canyon, we continued into the National Forest along a “road” that was basically not suitable for passenger vehicles. We were headed to this lake, which is Paintrock Lake, near the Cloud Peak Wilderness, and we finally got there, after a pretty hairy drive! But it was definitely worth the trip. Click here for larger image.
eclare
That last photo is stunning with the reflections in the lake.
Donatellonerd
thanks, as usual. what state have you not visited? (guessing Hawaii but can’t believe there aren’t birds there to add to your life list)
SteveinPHX
Helps start my week off on the right foot! Thank you!
Another Scott
Google seems to think that your unknown flower is a prairie crocus or something like it.
Thanks for the shots and stories!
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
Let me put Crazy Woman Canyon on your “must see” list. It’s off of Hwy 16 on the eastern slope. Just spectacular, and you can drive thru it. No 4wd needed. Or at least it wasn’t when I was last there… Oh, 35 years or so ago.
Damn, I’m getting old.
Trivia Man
I always appreciate your variety… birds, insects, mammals, landscapes, and today petroglyphs. Full service indeed!
Ive been stuck on 45 states for years, the full set gets more unlikely by the year.
Albatrossity
@Donatellonerd: At the time I had not visited Alaska, but I get there in 2012. So I’ve been to all 50, although I still need to get to Puerto Rico!
@Another Scott: Thanks! I’ll check out Prairie Crocus. Unfortunately that is the only shot I got of that flower, so it may not be simple to clinch the ID.
Albatrossity
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! I just googled Crazy Woman Canyon, and indeed to does ook like it would be a fun place to visit. So many places still to see!
Spanky
Hah!
Madeleine
Such a wide range of beauties today! Thank you!
Kabecoo
@Spanky: you beat me to it!
Hope they’re OK!
mvr
Thanks for the photos. I’ve spent a few hours watching the Bighorn around Thermopolis near where it becomes the Wind River, but not further north except perhaps to cross it on the interstate. This prompts me to want to go explore.
While you might not be all that proud of the Pine Grosbeak photo, I still think it is pretty cool. And the petroglyphs are pretty neat as well!
cope
Thank you for the diverse photo subjects and interesting back stories. When I was doing oilfield geology, I sat a lot of wells in Wyoming though rarely in as pretty a location as around the Big Horns.
Doing a reverse image search, I got Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site as the location of your petroglyphs.
Thanks again, keep ’em coming.
WaterGirl
Forgot to include the coming attractions in this post, so here it is, belatedly.
pieceofpeace
These are the way to awaken in the morning and start the day off. Again, thank you for the enlargement feature. It makes a ‘big’ difference, closer to being there, such as the lake’s cloud reflection. Ummmm…good morning to you, too.
way2blue
Never been to the Bighorn Mountains, so many thanks for sharing a bit of its abundance of cool flowers plus animals with big horns… Not to leave out the finch perched on the conifer & the cranes hanging out in the chaparral.
stinger
What a lovely set of images! The velvet-antlered moose, the pine grosbeak singing away (I clicked on the link to hear it), the ribbons of softly colored vegetation in the sandhill cranes photo (and the sandhill cranes!), a see-through moth, and yes, I love that you had to cross a birder! I hope there was no retaliation!
Albatrossity
@cope: Thanks! Yes, Medicine Lodge State Historical Site is indeed the place where we saw those petroglyphs. Well worth the visit, even if I blanked on remembering the name.