My friend Chase and I backpacked for four days across the Great Sand Wash, Vermillion Basin, and Cold Spring Mountain, a land with more pumas than people, the nearest gas station 50 miles away. We encountered wild horses, rattlesnakes, pronghorn, deer, horned toads, and fossil algae balls. Special thanks to TW.
Cold Spring Mountain
Gates of Lodore from Cold Spring Mountain
Friend Chase between shepherds’ cairns
India after climb up Limestone Gap
Prairie rattlesnake
India cooking supper
Horse leg after mountain lion ate it
Horse ribs
Pronghorn antelope male and two females
Horned toad
Glacier lilies
Vermillion Basin
Morrison Formation, Upper Jurassic dinosaur time, 150 m.y.a.
India hiking, heavy pack, heavy mud
Wild horses near Sand Wash
Zen figure at lower right
Stromatolite, 50 million-year-old fossilized algae, formed on a slender tree
Friend Chase opening gate
Sand Wash
Eocene sedimentary rock, edge of Sand Wash
Vermillion Basin
Lichen
Lichen in Sand Wash basin
Sand Wash basin
Prairie rattlesnake
Junipers couple years after a fire
Duffy Mountain and Yampa River
Looks like a fossil Beluga whale, Duffy Mtn
Coal-fired power plant, Hayden
Marmots
Mule ears
My supper of tenderloin, seared vegetables, bread