Big Horns, Medicine Wheel, and the Pryors

Last week I took off for a few days and went to the Big Horns.  I intended to go for 3 days, but got rained out on the second evening.  I had been to the Pryors a few days before, and was quite taken with the area so I wanted to explore it more.  The [...]

Coyote pups

Yesterday morning I came across four coyote pups sniffing around the main dirt road.  Three of them finally trotted off through the meadow and down the hill towards the marsh area.  But one little pup, obviously the bold budding hunter of the group, remained in the meadows learning to hunt.
I’ve seen their mom around this [...]

In Praise of Magical Thinking

The other day I was watching a TV program on the housing meltdown.  The man they interviewed had been a NY times expert on the financial market and had warned the public not to get caught up in the mortgage scams.  Then he turned around, bought a high priced home with a huge mortgage, thinking [...]

PowWow in Cody

This weekend is the Powwow at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.  It was my first powwow, if you don’t count the one I stumbled upon when I was 17 in Montana, and it was great fun.  All the colorful costumes, dancers from old to young in all different categories of dance, from fancy [...]

Wildflowers, Geology, and the Chugwater formation

More wildflowers.  Its so green here, everywhere.  Won’t last long, this is the West you know.  I took a hike in the Clark’s Fork basin area where the beautiful Chugwater formation of red sandstone juts angled out from the surrounding ground.  This is the remnants of an ancient sea.  Fossils can be found embedded in [...]

Springtime bloom after the Gunbarrel fire

It was interesting to see the burn area from last summer.  I wanted to see the new growth and what wildflowers I might find.  Burns are important to the west.  Many species of trees, shrubs and flowers will only sprout after a burn.  Some plant’s seeds can lie dormant for years waiting for the heat [...]

GYC annual meeting in Jackson

I just returned from Jackson for the annual Greater Yellowstone Coalition meeting.  The convention was at the plush Jackson Lake Lodge.  The lodge lobby sits in Grand Teton National Park overlooking a large wetland where elk are calving, moose are bedding, and grizzlies are eating.  There’s something wonderful and strange about viewing all the wildlife [...]

California gardens are only a Slice of Paradise

The formality of 17th and 18th century European gardens is a reflection of people’s desire to control their environment and the natural forces around them.  They were still surrounded by wildness.  The comfort of a garden with lines, hedges, and geometric shapes was their safety.
Today people yearn for the natural.  We are surrounded by non-nature, [...]

Coyote the trickster and the real world

Coyote, the trickster.
I am staying in the Bay Area this week, seeing friends, contacting clients. Last January I was here for a month working on a job, staying at Muir Beach, when I had the most unusual coyote experience.
Our house was directly above the beach, with a private walkway down to the Muir Beach [...]

The Moose

My neighbor just had his 85th birthday.  He’s lived in the Valley all his life.  His father homesteaded here back in the early 1900’s.  I love to hang out with him, help with his two horses, and pick his brain for stories.  He knows this country like I might know all the shortcuts in my [...]