The travelogue continues. This time with lots of trains and rocks.
Eastern Oregon, take while dangerously trying to drive a huge vehicle and snap a photo in an artful way.
The spotty hills of Idaho, near Boise.
At our campsite - Lucy pointed out that the trees had cozies of moss on their branches. I felt a dash of motherly pride of having affected the imagination of my children.
Wyoming. Looking at this photo, some days after it was taken, I am struck with the same feeling I had when I there in the original: What the hell? At the time, I think I was also thinking, get me outta here, pronto. I need me some trees. This was too, too much.
There is a train in this photo if you look closely at the center.
Actually, we saw some of the most amazing and amazingly depressing landscape in Wyoming. The depressing part was the human element, I'm afraid. In the southwestern part of Wyoming, there is a lot of natural gas exploration going on and there are large trailer parks of impromtu communities set up in this stark landscape. I had read about how they were filled with men, being paid large amounts of money to do this work, who have nothing to do and nowhere to go. A recipe for a lot of debauchery, as you might imagine. Also, we saw, near a (real) town, a hillside that had been torn up by ATV tracks - a landscape millions of years old ruined forever so that a few people could have a thrill ride on an ATV. I felt those scars like they had been done on my own body. They HAD been done on my own body. Your's too.
More trains and rocks.
We drove behind the Tow-Low for some miles, Finn and I speculating on what was driving it. A dog wearing a hat? It seemed entirely possible.
I'm with you on the ATV damage to the environment. It has happened in the deserts of southern California, and is endangering the tortoise population, among other things. We have some locals in our area in NM who ride those things through the forest, with never a care for sparks starting fires (I think they particularly like to do it while drinking beer...makes for an easier way to distribute your beer bottles around the neighborhood). OK, I'm going to stop here, but just to say, we're on the same page on this issue.
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