Custer State Park, where we discovered that Lulu likes hiking but hates small log bridges.

Neither of us slept great on Sunday night, but we were up and ready to go with the dawn on Monday morning.

I took with us some of my World Famous Roasted Coffee (this batch from Guatemala) hand grinded it and made us two moka pots to get started. A great way to start the day.

It is really pretty here at the cabin.

and, of course, there is this:

One can look at that as an engineering marvel, but not sure what else.

But we soon got to the trail head, and after a little confusion (which is very common for me), we started off.

We were, indeed, there.

The trail was very easy, except for the 16 creek crossings, most of which were easy for us, hard for The Dog. Lulu does not like log crossings.

She doesn't like water, either, but she likes it more than log crossings. She would frequently just walk through the creek, up to her chest, to avoid the bridge.

It was a great, fun, walk, though.

Lots of mountain medows.

And rock bluffs.

We stopped occasionally to take a nice sip of cold water.

This was near the lake.

We saw two bald eagles harassing an osprey here. Fun for us, probably not fun for the osprey.

This is me carrying Lulu over one of the log bridges.

That is the final distance. About 12 kilometers.

Relaxing after the walk. Or at least one of us was relaxing. There are always squirrels to chase.

We liked this tree coming right out of the rock.

This guy was grazing on the side of the road

and then crossed so we could get his good side.

This is from a lookout at the high point of Custer State Park. Nice.

Very nice.

Believe it or not, there is a wild turkey in this photo.

Nice sunset.

And a nice end to a good day.

Comments

Wyoming. Where family has to take you in!

I lived in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1978, working in a coal mine. Back then, when you entered the state, the sign said "Welcome to BIG Wonderful Wyoming!" It is a big, big state, and much of it is wonderful. I have fond memories of the place. Now, my oldest brother lives there with his wife, (Not in Kemmerer, but in Lander, which seems to be much more civilized) and it was just great to see them. Ah, but the sign. Now it looks like this: Let's zoom in a little: Personally, I liked the old sign better. A lot of Wyoming looks like this: That is a loading silo for the US's second biggest coal mine - Black Thunder, originally owned by ARCO, now by Arch Coal. Different mine, different technique than the one I worked it. But just incredibly huge. You drive through the mine and it just goes on forever. But there is a lot of this, too: We stopped at the Tourist Bureau in Casper to get some state maps (yes, we have been using hardcopy maps, our atlas, as well as The Google Lady o...

Home again, home again.

It's always good to be home. We have never taken such a road trip before, and certainly never with a dog. That was an experience. She loved the long hikes in the mountains, didn't care for the car rides, especially the long one. We, too, experienced new things. We listened to a lot of books on tape (well, Audible), trying to match the words to the Landscape. So we started with True Grit by Charles Portis, set mostly in the Oklahoma Territory. One of my favorite books of all times, and it was read by Donna Tart. ( The Goldfinch , etc). Perfect book for the start of the trip, from Houston to Bartlesville. On the next two legs of the trip, to Hutchinson, Kansas and then up to Keystone, South Dakota, we listed to My Antonia by Will Cather. (pronounced, we learned, as an-tone-EEE-ah). A wonderful book for driving through Nebraska. And we were on the Willa Cather highway while doing so. As we drove into Wyoming, we listened to Rising from the Plains , by John McPhee. The story o...

Driving Home New Mexico to Amarillo, Amarillo to Waco.

Leaving Colorado was hard. We had another long drive in front of us, and I was a little worried about driving through New Mexico. I had heard that they were stopping cars at the state line to enforce COVID quarantine. That was not the case: That is one beautiful state. This is near the Ghost Ranch, around Abiqui. The colors are dumbfounding Everywhere you look it is beautiful. New Mexico was the second state that have a "You are leaving" sign. The other was Kansas Home again. We did go to the Big Texan It is a whole "western cowtown" Complete with EMS on site for heart attacks. We stayed in this cute little house in the Wolflin neighborhood in Amarillo. It was quite nice Then we drove the next day to Waco, where we stayed in this very wonderful farmhouse. They had sheep Then we drove home, One more post coming with final thoughts.

The Year of Months

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