The Great Wide Open...The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.I'm going back to the Sheldon for a week to do some more exploring...seeya next week.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

"The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders." --Edward Abbey

2010 Wild Nevada Calendar

Every year in July the editor of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness Calendar puts out a call for photos for the main shots. These are my submissions for the 2010 calender. Hmmm....I love the fall colors in the Mt. Rose Wilderness , but I think the snow scene is my favorite. Maybe then again I'm just hot...

Waxing Gibbous

Swan Lake

We drove out to Swan Lake from our camp at Cat Nip late in the afternoon to watch the sunset and try to capture the evening primrose in the glow of the setting sun. I have never seen so many flowers spread over such a large area. We were treated to small groups of Pronghorn as they raced across the yellow carpet...Good Stuff

Flowers

I have always heard that the Sheldon wildflowers are extraordinary and folks are right; I didn't get a lot of time to photograph them . We were either on the move, it was raining, or the wind was blowing , so as the battle cry of the Chicago Cubs goes, "wait until next year." I might be heading back to the Sheldon in July so we will see what happens.

BTW- It you want to see some VERY COOL images of flowers scroll though my friend's Karyns blog, Nevada Unplugged. She is the master of the flower shot.

Link to Karyns Blog: http://nevadaunplugged.blogspot.com/

Prehistoric Drive Fence, Sheldon NWR

This is why I hike uphill, down hill, sweating, freezing, while lugging heavy camera equipment over rough terrain, all the while watching for rattlesnakes and other things that go bump in the night. I'm not positive , but I think this rock wall is really a drive fence created by the ancients to channel the wild game past their hunting blinds. We saw a lot of evidence of the ancients in the Sheldon...Really Good Stuff.

Light from Above, Echo Canyon, Sheldon NWR

Makes one a believer doesn't it.

Stormy Sunset at Echo Canyon

I left camp at the "golden hour", the time when if you are really fortunate the illusive Magic Light will make an appearance. The wind started howling and it began to sprinkle as I got closer to the upper basin of Echo Canyon. I thought about turning around more than once because of the brewwing storm. Although the Magic Light didn't not explode, it did pop for a few precious moments so the reward was mine. I made it back to camp where my good friend Brian and his son Logan had dinner waiting just moments before the storm cut loose...phew.

Blowout Mountain, Sheldon NWR

Gooch Camp, Sheldon NWR

Home Means Nevada

Way out in the land of the setting sun,
Where the wind blows wild and free,
There's a lovely spot, just the only one
That means home sweet home to me.

~Bertha Raffetto,

Gooch Camp

Another one of the many ranches out in the middle of Nowhere Nevada. Gooch Camp is located at the entrance of Echo Canyon.

Near the turn of the century stonemasons from Cedarville built some of the old ranch houses that are still standing today...Do think I'm getting carried away with the door knobs lately?

Yellowheaded Blackbird

Big Horn Sheep

One of our work parties found this skull complete with lower jaw high up one of the canyons near their work site. The Fish & Wildlife Service snatched it up for their new visitor center. A few of the hunters among us ( some ex-NDOW folks) scored it as 156 , but said if it didn't have a broken horn it would of been close to the state record. There must be something in the water around these parts.