Wyoming
10 pieces
Grin in the Green
Your Adventure Awaits
Teamwork Aspiring to the Sky
Glacier Garden
Wildflower Sea Beneath Wyoming Peaks
Thank God for Rain 1,000 miles through Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Mile after mile of drought, cracked earth and dying grass. This sign stopped me cold. I drove past it, then turned around. 'Thank God for Rain'.
Snowy Range Tarn Mid-June in Wyoming's Snowy Range, wildflowers below and snowfields still hanging on up high. We crossed plenty of those snowfields, which happen to be one of Ellie's favorite things in the world. A very happy dog.
Born to Send It Doggles on, paws wet, zero hesitation. The serious face just matches the assignment: serious mountains, serious adventure. A happy dog living her best high-altitude life. 🏔️
Gems in the Wilderness Deep into the Snowy Range, Ellie and I found gems in the wilderness: a big boulder glowing blue-green against all that grey talus, with a few more of the same scattered up the slope. Ellie was ready to keep moving; I needed the shot.
I didn't know what caused it at the time. Turns out it's fuchsite, a chromium-rich version of mica that gives the quartzite its teal cast. It's rare enough that in the entire Snowy Range it only surfaces in two known spots, remnants of rock that got metamorphosed and tilted when two ancient landmasses collided almost two billion years ago.
So the "why is this rock teal" question I asked mid-trail had a genuinely wild answer: just under 11,000 feet, I was standing on the seam of an ancient continental collision. Not bad for a Saturday.
Medicine Bow Heals 1:30 AM, 10,000 feet, and the only reason I was awake was too much water before bed. Worth it. The stars we'd been waiting on all trip finally showed, and the Snowy Range opened up over the tent. Even bundled in winter down, I stood out there longer than I'd planned, just letting it work on me. Days of mostly overcast skies and some rain, tired legs and a tired dog Ellie, and all of it quieted under that sky. Medicine Bow heals. A meteor streaked past a heartbeat before this frame. Missed it. The rest of the night more than made up for it.