Musings

Long views

Night rain

In the wee hours, rain came. With dawn, we found the haze greatly diminished.

Deconstructed elevator

Heading out of town, we saw the skeleton of one of the many corrugated-clad elevators. I never thought about the interior engineering. Here it is: wood. Lots of it. Some big timbers to keep those walls aligned. I hope most of this is being reused.

Devils Canyon overlook
Devils Canyon overlook 2

Took a side trip to see a canyon. It now supports a reservoir, I assume touted to locals by out-of-town politicians as both good for downstream agriculture, a producer of cheap electricity, and a great fishing and recreation destination. In short, build this and you’ll have a better, more inexpensive life.

Maybe.

Notice how light makes all the difference?

Red valley

Here’s a pair of long-view shots…. The first is the valley above the canyon. Just a valley. A red valley.

Long view

Also, we climbed up into the Bighorn range. About 10 miles up and 10 miles down. That is about 10 miles each way of grades up to 9°. Our mileage took a serious pounding. The down did not quite balance out the up-grind.

With that magnitude of elevation change, there’s such a difference between the valleys and the alpine zones. The landscape was generally rounded, often grassy and lacking trees.

Compared to the Winds…hmm. If someone told me I could come back to just one range, which would I pick? Very difficult call. I could go either way. This was the northern and central Bighorns. Tomorrow is the southern Bighorns.

Canyon waterfall

Descending, we checked out this canyon waterfall. I should have recorded the sound of falling water to use sometime as a stress-remover.