Today feels almost like a fall day – cool, with an East wind bringing driving rain. The garden has been happy most of the summer – except for crops that like hot. Cool weather crops are doing well. Potatoes are the best we have ever had!
A recap of the summer is hard. Pictures on Flickr.com of iGISST (Geology both in Colorado and Iowa), the High School Friends reunion in Wisconsin, the Geology-Llama Odyssey through Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and back to Iowa, and our last fling the 2009 Iowa State Fair.
The more I delve into Geology, the most fascinated I become with how the land has been shaped, the lithosphere cycle and its interaction with the atmosphere, hydrosphere and bioshere, and how people use the land. An interesting facit is that people claim to love the very elements which they often harm by over use, abuse, and neglect.
The Llama Trek into the Wyoming Range with Highline Trail Llamas was stunning, difficult, remote, and inspiring. Al and Sondra Ellis and their staff train their llamas so well, love the land and have taken steps to rehabilitate the land they own and the wild areas where they pack into. The group of Llama Alumni was just great. Competent, friendly, go-getters. Nice to be with like-minded people.
I read page after page of “Roadside Geology” books on Nebraska, Wyoming, Yellowstone, and South Dakota on our 3500 mile trip. Oysters on top of a mountain. Sand dunes at the crest of a divide. Bedrock poking up through the 30K feet of sediments and soils in NW Iowa and SE SD. One of the most amazing sites and sights was Ash Fall State Park in NE. We visited with engaged graduate students about how the site was discovered, the demise of the animals, and the role Yellowstone’s Hot Spot played in all this. And, we met, “Just Mike”, a modest paleontologist, who discovered the site in the 1970s. Incredible man. Great role model for the students.
Ft. Robinson, NE, continues to draw us and we fantacize about a gathering there. Birding…hiking…chuckwagon dinners and breakfasts…trail rides…swimming…jeep rides…dirt bikes…rodeo….
Wyoming and Independence Rock was quite wild. Windy…dome of granite…history. Then, a quite BLM campground and a nice walk. The next day over South Pass with its lonely, windswept expanses. Low on gas, we carefully drove to the nearest junction and enjoyed icecream! On to Boulder, WY, and Al and Sondra Ellis’ Llama Ranch. Now, here is a couple that lives their commitments. They restored the feedlot into pasture for llamas with irrigation, fish, training places for the animals and a lovely home and space for their staff and equipment. Al and Sondra shared some of their finds from the desert – fossilized palm trees and petrified wood! Amazing. Too, they worked with several organizations such as Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Wild Sheep Federation to retire the grazing rights in the Bare Hole of the Wyoming Range and today the land is healing. Wild flowers abound, the water runs clear, the trails used mainly by wildlife. Deep skies…stars like we rarely see anymore…rushing streams…rocks!
On to YNP and the chaos of Jackson, WY, construction, buffalo jams and yet splendid beauty, excited tourists, history, cool evenings, visits with Nancy, Brian and their friends. A side trip into Bozeman, MT, to visit with Sally, and incredible drives over Bear Tooth Pass, down to Billings, through the sadness of the Indian Reservations and the Little Bighorn. Then, to the erratic hubbub of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in SD. Good thing the Ohlens hosted us where things were quiet and conversation great. Quiet, except for the terrific storm with powerful winds.
On into the Midwest, bedrock and corn and home.
