[1]
June 17, 2009
June 17th and as I have promised myself that strenuous hike upon relief from the Gallery this afternoon I am off. I didn't get away as early as I wanted so will have to curtail my original idea of going into Bomber Basin. I have promised Vicki I would be back shortly after 5:oo and it is now 2:00.
That doesn't leave much time and it is threatening rain already. The parking lot at the Glacier trailhead is pretty full of vehicles and I can see hikers on the switchbacks heading in the direction I want to go. That is fine but I was hopping for a more secluded hike and I opt to instead go cross country following Torrey Creek as closely as I can over glacier carved granite faces to the Torrey Creek bridge that spans the chasm on the main trail above.

[2]
June 17, 2009
Following the creek through the forest of Pine, Spruce and Aspen for the first 1/4 mile is pleasant and easy though I can hear and occassionaly see the creek as it runs angrily through the area.

[3]
June 17, 2009
That pleasant walk through the cool damp woods gives way abruptly as I enter the canyon. That water is roaring and no sound can be heard above the rushing torrent. I am standing on the same spot for this picture as I did back on April 14th when I posted my hike with my wife in this same area. A flycatcher flits through the air above the rushing waters catching bugs. Alighting from one side to the other side of the stream he rushes out over the water to capture his food. They have to be pretty small bugs because I sure don't see what he sees.

[4]
June 17,2009
It is impossible to follow the creek as it is in a narrow deep gorge cutting through granite so I contiue on by climbing and scrambling up through the granite faces alternated with small grassy sage and timbered alcoves tucked between rock faces. Wildflowers are everywhere and I stop to get a few pictures of them including these Cinquifoil. As I am kneeling for the picture I feel something brush up against my knee. Startled I jump back to find a pretty large Garter Snake who is more afraid of me than I of him. I don't know how I kept from stepping on the poor little guy but he is O K and fast into a crack in the rock. I can see him easy and lightly poke him to see if he will go on through and become famous with a Gary Keimig photograph. He wants nothing of it and slips deeper into the crevass.

[5]
June17,2009
Ever so often I find a way to the edge of the granite gorge for a careful look over the edge. It is 30-40 feet straight off. The roar of the water is deafening. Wild and extremely impressive.

[6]
June 17,2009
As I continue climbing I find myself rimrocked on occassion and even have to backtrack to find my way around rock faces. I can't help but stop occassionally to photograph wildflowers along the upward trek. Stonecrop seems especially colorful this year with brilliant yellow and orange colors.

[7]
June 17, 2009
Old gnarled pines and juniper are constant companions amongst the granite and park like features as I climb.
they all stir the creative juices and along with the vistas of Middle Mountain, Whiskey Peak and Arrow mountain that surround me-all beg to be subjects in paintings.

[8]
June 17,2009
Prairie Smoke is another beautiful plant now in bloom. I am surrounded by natures true rock garden. Beardstongues, Cinquifoil, various yellow and orange composites, white Phlox all make for a colorful arrangement amongst the colored lichens of the granite. Ponds of water are everywhere and the squishy wetness of the soil are all similar to Horse Creek the other day. It has truely been a wet spring. I am now really glad I didn't take the trail as I would have missed this show.

[9]
June 17, 2009
I finally climb to the bridge that spans the gorge. It is large enough to accomodate horses as well as hikers and backpackers. It was built in the Forest Service shop then placed across the gorge by helicopter. Waterfalls from Torrey Creek thunder down to, under and below. Impressively it is a great place to bring visitors. By way of the the trail is is pretty easily accessible.

[10]
June 17, 2009


From the bridge looking straight down below the bridge. In winter I have watched ice climbers scaling the rock wall here using their ice axes on the overhanging ice that forms on these walls.
I am pushing my 5:00 deadline and as I want to return the same way I came up it is time to call it a day and head back down the mountain.

[11]

June 17, 2009

A look back at my afternoon adventure on the granite. What a great place to explore and I marvel at it in all seasons. No wildlife to speak of today outside of the snake who discovered me. In hikes through this area in the past I have run across Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, Cougar sign though I have never seen one. Even Moose on occassion. Guess Bomber Basin will have to wait for another day.

I do get home a little later than promised but that is easy to do in this country.

[1]

June 15, 2009

It is monday June 15, my Birthday and I was up befor daylight and am glad to find Kathy's Koffee open. Frank who opens up is a retired english teacher raised in New York City and found himself in Dubois some years ago. He opens every morning about 4:30 A M I think just to sit and enjoy his morning while he reads the latest acquired New York Times or a book of some sort. That works out great for me when I take off on my morning soujourns. I have to open the Gallery today at 9:00 so don't have a lot of time myself but a cup of European Blend seems just the ticket to get going and with that hot cup in hand I am soon on the Horse Creek road and off the pavement when it is just getting light. What a surprise to find Elk on the irrigated meadows just north of town. They scatter along with a number of Mule Deer as I stop to watch. I get a few pictures but it is really too dark for any good shots. I have never seen elk this low at this time of year befor. Don't know if it is the weather or maybe even predators[wolves and grizzlies]that are keeping them so near civilization.

I turn off Brent Creek Road which will be closed ahead due to elk calving and grizzly activity until July, 1. A bull Moose takes off ahead of me and is gone befor I can get his picture. He is awful looking with his shedding winter coat and seemingly oversized velvet antlers growing out. The sun is just now catching the Wind River Mountains to the south in its wonderful alpinglow.

[2]
June 15, 2009
I reach the closed gate which is in the midst of alternating Aspens, Pines and mountain meadows. The sun has just crested the eastern horizon and sends its promising warmth of sunbeams piercing the Aspens. I am hiking along this cowtrail road that goes into the old Mary Adams Cabins and taking in the mountain morning air. What peace to enjoy such an early morning hike. It is certainly wet and muddy out and as soon as I leave the roadway and am off into the Aspens and grass I am soaked to the knees. Walking is so wet that the ground oozes with every step. A Mule Deer Doe is standing back in the trees watching me. She doesn't seem alarmed in any way. Just curious and maybe a little amused.

[3]
June 15, 2009
Wild Strawberries dripping with last nights rain are abaundant and wet under the canopy of grasses. Always so easy to find the plant and flowers in the spring but hard to find any berries later. When I do they are sure good and tasty but very tiny. I almost feel guilty eating them as so many critters use them for food. It eems as though Robins are always nearby and chastizing me trying to make me feel guilty. So with a mouthful I apologize.

[4]
June 15, 2009
After an invigorating hike through the Aspens I drive down the Horse Creek road and for the 4th time this spring check out the 2-track road for grizzly sign that I continually hear are around here. I see nothing and no sign anywhere. I am wondering if someone isn't blowing blue smoke. It is still worth the drive though as the sun is hitting the timbered slopes to the west as I had hoped with dark skies and shadows it makes for dramatic lighting. It won't be long though befor the sun climbs high enough to loose itself in the persistent cloud cover and dissapears for the morning.

[5]

June 15, 2009

Moments later the sun is gone and I am on the Burroughs Creek Loop road. It has been improved a little over the past several years and is maneuverable without 4-wheel drive along Horse Creek. The road hugs a wetland off the creek where I have always found critters who from above have been easily photographed from the truck window. I am not dissapointed this morning as I watch and photograph 2 Scaup swimming back and forth across this little body of water seemingly unconcerned about my presence directly above them.

[6]
June 15, 2009
I park the truck and walk a ways along Horse Creek still flowing quite high. I spot 6 Buck Mule Deer climbing the opposite slope heading for cover in the timber off the willow bottoms too far away for any pictures. It is stormy looking now and snow showers are hitting the peaks to the north. It is in the mid 40's though so fairly comfortable which is good because I have gotten wet again from walking through the grass.

[7]
June 15, 2009
Heading back towards town to begin my day at the gallery I do stop at one of the numerous ponds at the National Forest boundry and watch a pair of Greenwing Teal. Mom doesn't stick around and is quickly hiding in shoreline willows but dad flaunts himself around the pond and I get a few pictures of him.

[8]
June 15, 2009
I am back near where the dirt road turns into pavement and where I had seen the elk at daybreak. I am really surprised to see them still there and laying around nonchalantely grazing on the meadow. What a treat.
I just wish I had more time and decide I owe it to myself what with this being my Birthday and all[hee hee]So Wednesday when my pardner, Tom relieves me for gallery duty I am going to head up Torrey Creek and maybe even into Bomber Basin as I have been wanting to do all spring.

[1]June 9, 2009
Today I have the second of two days reprieve from Gallery duty and spent the morning doing much needed yard work. It is overcast and periodically raining [again] and about 50 degrees but with no wind it is actually pretty comfortable outside. Yesterday I began the same routine of yard work until Les Lefevre showed up and announced since this is about the last chance he has of getting out befor he returns to Cincinnatti and being as how it is not raining or snowing we should go up to Bear Creek and look around for arrowheads around the Sheep Traps in that area. It certainly didn't take much to persuade me and less than an hour later we are climbing the steep mountain slope headed to the right of this photo to access the pass that gets you above the cliffs and onto the top meadowed slopes where the Sheep traps are located. Those rock faces in this photo are where the Indians drove buffalo off of in their hunting methods. The top still contains the remnants of those drive lines that they used.

[2]June 9, 2009

The climb up is invigorating and I can sure feel it in my legs. We are moving at a pretty fast pace as Les has a dinner engagement and has to be back to town by 5:00. It is now close to 3:00. It is sure muddy out as the snow melted off just yeaterday, and that doesn't help with footing. Looking back down into Bear Creek Basin I can see why I am feeling the climb in my legs.

[3]June 9, 2009
After gaining altitude we are confronted with the scenery. To the north the mountains are dressed in not only the snow of the last few days but are full of last winters snowfall. It is so green out and the wildflowers are just beginning to come into their own dressing the landscape with color. Balsamroot is blooming everywhere. We cross quite a number of elk tracks probably from this morning when they were moving off the meadows of the Bear Creek basin where they would have spent the night grazing.

[4]June 9, 2009

Arrowleaf Blsamroot. Nearly knee high with large yellow flowers. A favorite food for Elk. Indians also utilized this plant by digging up the roots and either drying them out and grinding them into a flour for some type of a bread or by boiling them as a potato type food.

Just to our right is the location of the famous Lookingbill Site where Anthropologists dug up a large area of an encampment and or butchering site that produced a lot of artifacts and information on the Sheepeater culture. A remote indian peoples that were probably Shoshone or at least with the advent of the white man became assimilated into that tribe

[5]June 9, 2009
We finally access the top but not befor noticing a grizzly track on the game trail we are following over the pass. It is pretty fresh so we are definitely keeping our eyes open. We break out of the timber and onto this bare grass covered slope and gaze south towards Windy Gap with Wiggins Fork in the next canyon beyond we check out the line of rock seen in this photo. There is still some log remnants visible. Some hundreds of years ago the Sheepeater Indians piled rock and logs into fence lines through which they then chased Buffalo into and over the cliff face that is at the edge of the grassy slope. Their idea of a trip to the grocery store.

[6]June 9, 2009

This are is interspersed with open parks and timbered gullies and a number of Sheep traps are evident throughout. Rock and even log pilings are evidenced throughout the area. Les is pointing out one of the traps itself upslope from where we are. He and his wife, Cathy were up here the other day and found an actual sheep carcass with horns from a Ram that didn't make it this spring from some unknown reason. A real find. Cathy also found a broken arrowhead and flint chips. Notice all the dead Pines in the background. Beetle kill from the past year and a part of the epidemic sweeping the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Mexico associated with global warming.

[7]June 9, 2009
This is the remains of a sheep trap. A built up ramp served as a means of the sheep being driven onto a hole filled with logs and sticks serving as a kind of flooring that the sheep would fall through suspending them and making them unable to escape while the indains could kill them with ease. A fence like structure of logs and rocks would be built out in the open and the sheep would be run into and too late find themselves running into an ever narrowing constriction and finally into the trap itself.
We search around for arrowheads or spear points to no avail but notice that strange odor best described as a cross between something dead and a wet dog which I years ago found to be a bear nearby. It is pretty strong in the swirling breeze and coming from either the rocks above or from the timber filled gully just to our left. Exactly where we had intended on going. We change our mind easily and don't mind at all backtracking our way back off the hillside some distance befor continuing on westward. I'm sure being this time of day that Mr Grizzly is sleeping pretty close by.

[8]June 9, 2009
We cross the grassy slopes further below the bear site and make our way to the edge of Wiggins Fork Canyon. The view is breathtaking what with the river flowing below and the timbered slopes and meadows rising westward to the Ramshorn Peak. We spend a little time with the binoculars checking out the river bottom and comment about how if one would spend a few evenings or early mornings here you would surely watch a grizzly prowling along the river. This is great grizzzly country and everytime I am in this area I come across grizzly sign. Most often wolf too. It is an amazing wilderness of such inspirational beauty. 5:00 is coming up fast and we are 2-3 miles of climbing and traversing slopes to get to the truck so it is time to get going.

[9]June 9, 2009
On the way back out we jump 2 pronghorn doe antelope who are off and running. We see them several more times on the way out and they actually cross that pass through the timber and are just above the truck when we finally arrive there. They sure travel some country. I stop and photograph several old dead fallen Whitebark Pines. They are full of character and I love painting them. This one even shows sign of grizzly activity where it has been torn apart as the bear searched for grubs.

[10]June 9, 2009
Even though we are traveling pretty fast to keep Les's deadline I can't help but stop and catch a few shots of wildflowers. The wild delpheniums are blooming everywhere leaving broad splashes of blue-purple color amongst the Sage

[11]June 9, 2009

Crossing the pass I stop again to try and get a few pictures of the grizzly track in the mud. This rear foot shot is not as large as some I have taken in the past and I'm thinking this is a young bear maybe even a three year old out on his own for the first time in his life. At 5-6" long it is still impressive.

May 28, 2009 [1]
Yesterday June started out without a cloud in the sky but by noon it had clouded up and rain began falling. By this morning we had an inch of rain recorded and is still raining. The river is now in full flood and it is a little nervous looking out my living room window with the river up onto my yard.[see my G Keimig art blog]The weather bureau is now counting it in the top 10 for flooding runoff since records have been kept.
The day certainly is different than last thursday morning when my artist friend, Les Lefevre and I left town at 6 in the morning to drive up onto Sheep Ridge, a spur off to the east flank of Whiskey Mountain just south of Dubois. I have to do this trip at least once a year. The sky is a deep blue and a light beautiful early morning haze engulfs the mountains in the distance. The wind is dead calm. A real rarity in this part of the country and in particular at this elevation on the ridge. It is slow gong in 4-wheel drive as we inch our way up the steep road. It doesn't seem that steep going up but is fun to watch first timers putting their hands against the dashboard on the way back down to keep from falling into it. That is when they reach fore their seatbelts. As we climb we do jump up several lone cow elk along the way who don't stay around to pay their respects. The Ramshorn Peak to the north is as beautiful as it gets.

May 28, 2009 [2]
We break on top of the ridge which is always a scene to behold. We stop and with field glasses watch a herd of Bighorn Sheep climbing out of a draw below us. They are too far away for a photograph but can easily be seen with the naked eye to the right and below center in this photo[best seen by clicking the photograph with your mouse]The glaciers at the head of Torrey Creek are in full splendor catching the early morning sun.

May 28, 2009 [3]
Last year at this very same time of year my pardner, Tom Lucas and myself made this trip up onto the ridge and fortuately encountered a band of Rams peacefully resting amongst a rockpile and sagebrush. We counted 13 Rams all lying quietly and they were so well camouflaged we nearly drove right by them. Dubois has the largest Bighorn Sheep herd in the world and they are widely sought after by hunters, photographers and artists worldwide.

May 28, 2009 [4]
Ahead to the south is Arrow Mountain and to the right is Bomber Canyon so named from a WW2 Bomber that flew up the canyon and could not climb out finally crashing into a waterfall in the canyon.[Bomber Falls] That canyon is a phenomenally beautiful canyon and is akin to entering a completely different world with overhanging waterfalls dropping off the edges of extremely narrow canyon walls of dizzying granite heights. Bomber Creek is itself a fast moving stream and full of waterfalls and thunderous cascading waters. Further into the canyon the way is blocked by a massive rock slide that one must climb up and over to access several lakes. Then it becomes mountain climbing finally to an arm of Ross Lake on Torrey Creek. One can climb up and out of the Canyon over No Mans Pass and that will get you into the Downs Fork and the glacial fields which are the largest in the continental United States along with the highest point in Wyoming, Gannett Peak at 13, 815'. Between Arrow Mountain and Bomber Canyon you can see the horse trail zigzagging up the face of the Golf Course. [easiest seen by clicking on the picture with you mouse]So named because of the seemingly nice green look of the open hillside. Believe me it is no place to play golf. That is the main trail used by horsemen to access the glacier country of the Fitzpatrick Wilderness Area.

May 28, 2009 [5]
We come to the edge of the ridge that drops off into Torrey Creek winding its way snake like down the valley towards the three glacial lakes. It is easy to see and visualize the effects of glatiation in this valley. Classic U shape valley and the ridge running off Arrow Mountain is a lateral moraine twisting its way to the east then north and finally west as though a huge bulldozer had plowed through leaving its giant wake on the side. Boulder are strewn all the way to Dubois where the ice left them upon melting. The road below serves several ranches including Ring Lake Ranch, an Ecumenical Retreat Center and Trail Lake seen here near the center of the picture run by the University of Wyoming as a nature education Center. It was used for many years by the National Audubon Society and known as Audubon of the West. The road finally ends at the Glacier Trailhead that offers tremendous hiking and trail riding opportunities and is the access into the Glacier country.

May 28, 2009 [6]
An old Whitebark Pine lends itself as the perfect prop as I get a picture of the galciers at the head of Torrey Creek. I have made many trips up into that country and once to the top. Some seemingly nightmares with horrible weather conditions and other days of weather pretty much like this morning. All these memories I will forever carry along with the beauty indelibly etched into my mind. Ross Lake sits at the head of the valley just below the snow line seen here. A long narrow lake ringed by towering faces of granite and overhanging waterfalls it sits amongst a string of rugged lakes interspersed with the raging runs of Torrey Creek. Much of this area of Torrey Creek can only be accessed by climbing gear.

May 28, 2009 [7]

Our spring has been so cool that there are very few wildflowers out yet. These clumps of Phlox are an exemption and really expected as they are about the first wildflowers in the spring. With all the moisture we are having though it should be a great year for wildflowers.

May 28,2009[8]
The sheep we had seen coming up onto the ridge were all Rams of various ages. A batchelor herd who stays pretty much to themselves away from the girls and young at this time of the year. Further out on the ridge we do come onto this herd of Ewes and last year lambs. They have watched us as we progressed across the ridge and are now all lying down. Notice how they are all lying and facing different directions, They are also well out in the open. A predator tactic.

May 28, 2009[9]
I didn't realize Les had taken a picture of me. He simply entitled it "The old Goat"

May 28, 2009[10]
We finally call it a morning and start the long creep back down in low range 4-wheel drive all the while enjoying the view to the north across the Absaroka mountains, the Dubois Badlands, and the glacial lakes-Torrey and Duck Lakes below. As always it is a blessing to be out in Gods great world and experiencing the morning adventures.