Pronghorn Photo Shoot

 I was driving back from photographing birds at the lake and literally had my camera with the telephoto lens on my lap when some pronghorn were right next to the road. What an opportunity! So I stopped, rolled down my window, and started snapping away.

The pronghorn are such interesting animals, North America's fastest land mammals. (There are invertebrates that are apparently even faster.) They used to have several relatives, but they died out at the end of the Pleistocene due to warmer climates (roughly about 10,000 years ago).

The pronghorn were definitely keeping an eye on me, and they moved a little further away.

But there were still close enough I could see them pooping.

They often have a characteristic when they poop called SPUD--scratch, paw, urinate, defecate. If you see little cleared areas near some pellets, they were probably made by pronghorn.

Another cool thing about pronghorn is that they don't jump over fences, instead they go underneath them. And if you ever have one running alongside your vehicle, slow down. They often will make a 90 degree turn and run right in front of you.

I felt so lucky to get to spend some time with them. And in fact, my photos of them were probably the best photos of the day!

Oh, what eyelashes! About the only thing cuter are baby pronghorn, which are generally born the end of May.

You can learn more about pronghorns here.

Sledding by Too Tall Tony

Another storm came and dumped more snow, and we got a call if we wanted to go sledding. Why not? It was beautiful and a great excuse to go outside! We went up to what we call the Too Tall Tony Hill, which is a pullout with a two-track. The south side is rocky, but once you pop over to the north side, there's a very snowy two-track.

Ava was ready to go.

And then we followed.

Did I mention this is a really long sledding hill? It's super awesome.

More kids were arriving, and they went to the actual Too Tall Tony Hill, a shorter but steeper hill up the road. So we went over to join them.

What's with Too Tall Tony? Oh, he's just a little too tall for his grave, so his legs stick out.

His grave is on an earthen dam that's nice and steep. Desert Girl loved it.

The clouds were drifting by, making the whole scene a little surreal.

Willow's expression is great on this one! She went up and down so many times. If this snowy trend keeps up, we'll be going on lots more sledding trips this winter.

Snowy, Snowy January

 This January sure has felt like winter! Lots of snow and cold temperatures. You'll see that theme in this and upcoming posts!

One afternoon we wanted to go sledding, but the roads were so bad we couldn't drive anywhere. So we went over to the nearby pond, which was now empty, and sledded into the bottom of it.

Desert Girl found a nice hill nearby and we all followed.

I love their expressions!

Desert Boy decided to climb a tree. Getting down was a little trickier.

Sledding party!

We decided to change our venue and go over to the gas station, which was being plowed. The old cabins looked very scenic with their snow coatings.

Looks like Ava wanted a snow coating too! This girl loves snow!

We trudged along in the snow, the colorful coats and sleds lighting up the afternoon.

You can see how deep the snow was by the spigots. Obviously no one was camping here that night.

Angie really loved the snow too, burying herself in it and running all around. This photo is bittersweet for me, as she was hit by a truck and killed the next day. She enjoyed her short life, but her bad habit (that we didn't quite manage to break) of chasing vehicles was a dangerous one that ultimately didn't work out.

At that point, though, we were ready for fun in the snow.

We saw the snow plows come by, at about 4 pm. They had been by at about 8 in the morning, then went back and couldn't get back to us until about 10-12 inches of snow later! The schools dismissed early and the kids still got home late because one school bus broke down on the road, another could barely move through the unplowed snow, and it all was a bit chaotic.

Once the plow came by, we had a semblance of normalcy and enjoyed walking down busy main street.

Oh my, this will be a winter to remember!

Grey Cliffs Cross Country Ski

 The kids didn't have school on Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the temperatures were in the low to mid-20s, so we headed up the Baker Creek road in Great Basin National Park to where it was closed. We pulled out the skis and headed up the road in ideal conditions.

Some snowshoers had been out, but we were the first skiers.

We headed down the incline towards Grey Cliffs campground. There was just enough of a hill to give us some glide.

We did pause to look at some of the numerous rodent tracks. We also saw deer tracks and maybe mountain lion.

Desert Boy really wanted to take a rest at the gate. He wasn't feeling so well, so he didn't continue.

But Desert Girl was ready to make some fresh tracks and broke trail for a bit.

This was about the only non-smiling photo I got of her. She was usually singing as we went skiing along. But she did ask several times when we were taking a break.

When we got up to Loop C, it was time for a break. We cleared off part of a picnic table and got out some snacks and our new JetBoil to try it out. The fuel canister was kind of empty, so we didn't get water to boil in two minutes, but we did get warm water...

...to make hot chocolate! Yum!
After a rest, I asked Desert Girl if she wanted to go on up to Baker Creek Campground and make the loop back down the road or if she wanted to turn around here. She chose to turn around.

She was immediately delighted with her decision, as it was so easy going downhill! In fact, she couldn't believe how fast we got back to the vehicle.

We did have to stop for another sit-on-the-gate photo. Then she followed me up the hill at a good clip. She will be ready for the Ely Birkebeiner's ski race this weekend!

It was so nice to have a perfect skiing day, with no wind, great snow, and beautiful vistas. We're already looking forward to the next ski!

2016 Turkey Shoot

 It's November, so time for the annual turkey shoot. We don't shoot turkeys, but the winners take home turkeys. Desert Boy competed in archery.

He had a nice grouping.

Desert Girl and I had been practicing quite a bit. She didn't do all that well, but had fun.

This was the kids' archery winner. Three bulls eyes!

Then it was on to pellet guns.

And kids' .22s. Desert Boy really likes shooting. Okay, so do I!

This photo cracked me up. The picnic table is a nice resting spot.

There were many different categories of rifle and pistol shooting at various distances. At least four people had to be signed up for the category to go. I had perfect scores in two of the contests I participated in, but lost in the shoot-offs, so alas I didn't go home with a turkey. Neither did my husband, although he also did some nice shooting. The kids each got a cornish hen.

All ages participated. And there were some stylish dressers!

There was also a raffle, and we were lucky to get a gift card.

There were also hot dogs, elk chili, and other snacks for sale. Add fun times with friends, and it was a most enjoyable day. Until the wind really picked up. But that's another story!