Ranch Land

I have not been back through Glenwood Springs and why 82 to check the traffic, so I went sight seeing close by.  This time it's ranch land I was cruising through...county road (CR) 311, Dry Hollow Rd, it will eventually bring you to Vega State Park, where I took you before.  I got rained out so I had to turn back but I enjoyed what I saw...

                                         

Dry Hollow Rd. 

Lots of Horses....

..this looks like an old school house, and I love the old truck...

still a beauty..

the road started out arrow straight then it began to get more interesting...

Rare to see large deciduous tree standing out alone here...

I've seen several of these older stone buildings...a barn? A food storage cellar? Don't know!

Saw lots of birds of prey out hunting...a red tailed hawk...

the road eventually turns to dirt as it enters the National Forest land...

yellow rabbit brush is blooming now...one of the uses of this plant by Native Americans was to make dye for their fibers....

Then rain came down....

so I turned around...

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 Yesterday We went North up Hwy 13, to Rio Blanco County.  
Then  County Road 5 through the Piceance Creek Basin.
 Piceance, a UTE native word for "tall grasses". 

Ranching has been going on here in this Basin since the late 1800's.  Now a days it's hay and Gas Wells...I didn't photo any of the Gas Wells, I'm sure you have seen them...It's the only drawback to this awesome area.  I read there are at least 7 ranches in this area that are Centennial Ranches.  We were heading up to a couple of Cemeteries to take some photos..

                      Several of these Ranch Owners are buried here including some of the Burkes.

We passed a few ponds, and saw a few ducks, Mallards, Mottled and Mexican ducks? as far as I could tell..

Mallard and Mexican

and we saw this dam, we now think it's a muskrat lodge, it just didn't have the look of a beaver lodge or dam...

They use mud and grass and roots, more so than woody stems

...and yet another stone building, I checked for barn owls saw none...but lots of Barn Swallow nests inside...

This door seems to be cut for a cat to get in?  Some research told us this may be the old rural schoolhouse? They have this old School House Historic Trail, it marks the locations of old rural schools..

Close to this we saw  an immature Golden Eagle...

he landed on the rocky ledge across the road..

After as picnic in the Little Hills Wildlife area....

We headed up to the second Cemetery...

Strawberry Cemetery where more of the pioneers of this area are buried. 

rio blanco reservoir 


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Monday was the Eclipse...we were not in the direct black out like my home back in SC was..(darn it) but we made up an eclipse viewing device out of a card board tube...this is what we saw when the moon moved across the sun...

and a photo just pointing my camera at the sun gave me this result...

the eclipse seemed to be refracted on one of those light spots...


check it out..and these weird patterns on the ground

My long time blog friend Diana got some fab shots   She was in the black out total path! Hop over say hi and subscribe to her adventurous blog!

what a beauty 

Till next time...

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.