A Smoky Mountain Winter Wonderland

Smoky Mountains Early Snowfall

It was cold, windy, raining and then the snow started falling.  It was a beautiful scene with snow on the treetops falling on colorful leaves.  Fall meets Winter Wonderland.

Shoshone National Forest

  The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway runs through the Shoshone National Forest. 

The scenic drive offers spectacular scenery! The National Forest was set aside in 1891 as part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, making the Shoshone the first national forest in the United States. It consists of some 2.4 million acres  from the Montana state line south to Lander, Wyoming, and includes portions of the Absaroka, Wind River, and Beartooth Mountains.

Beartooth Front Scenic Drive

One of the main reasons for a vacation in Montana was the Beartooth Mountains and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in Wyoming.

Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range

Within the Wild Horse Range, we saw a lot of Big Horn Sheep but only one horse far in the distance.  I read that some of the wild horses live in the desert lowlands of the range, and many of these can be seen along Highway 37 in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. We drove Highway 37 for that specific purpose of searching for the wild horses.  Because of the landscape and behavior of these horses, it is often difficult to find them. Highway 37 is a well maintained, paved highway that was easy for driving.   Big Horn Canyon Recreation Area is so large it spreads from Montana to Wyoming.   The Wild Horse Range is located in the Montana side of the park.

The Lonely Tree at Devil's Canyon

I always like taking pictures of lone trees against vast backgrounds and wide open spaces.  It's leaves and broken branches show the harsh weather conditions it had to endure.  I named this the "Lonely Tree" among the rocks and prairie bush.

Devil's Canyon Overlook

Big Horn Canyon

Big Horn Mountain Range in Big Horn Canyon Recreation Area in Wyoming. We had the park mainly to ourselves since we were the only tourist on the road.  We drove miles without seeing a car or truck.  We had visitors of Big Horn Sheep to block the road. The scenery was truly spectacular! 

Creek Indian Reservation at Yellowtail Dam

Horses, Cattle and the Montana Big Sky...

Yellowtail Dam Montana

We had to drive through the Creek Indian Reservation to see the overview of the dam.  It is part of the Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Park

Wooden Leg Hill - Little Bighorn Battlefield

I visited Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Park.  This area memorializes the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indian's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors.  The picture above is the monument to the Indians who died at the battle.

Luther-Roscoe Scenic Drve

We drove six different scenic routes while we were visiting Montana.  The Luther-Roscoe Scenic Drive was on our way to Red Lodge where we stayed for two nights in the mountains.  Red Lodge was one of my favorite places for an authentic mountain town environment.

From Fishtail to Grassland Prairies

The Absarokee Scenic Loop passes through the small western towns of Absarokee, Fishtail and NYE.  From the grassland prairie outside of Fishtail, you get a stunning view of the Beartooth Mountains.  It reminded me a lot of New Zealand's rolling hills with sheep farms.  

Absarokee Scenic Loop

 

The Absarokee Loop Scenic Drive is a forty-mile long route that makes a scenic loop through a scenic and quiet corner of Montana.  The route, which has a series of paved and gravel roads, provides beautiful views of the Beartooth Mountains.  The highlight of the trip include the Stillwater River, valleys and the Beartooth Mountain range.

Lonely for "The Lone Tree"

It was 14 months ago I saw the Lone Tree on Lake Wanaka.  We search throughout Wanaka looking for the tree.  Photographers in Queenstown has made the tree very popular with tourist by selling prints of the tree in the art shows.  That was how I discovered the tree.  I only had a rainy afternoon and the next morning to take pictures of the tree.  The tree looks extraordinary in its environment by the way it is frame with the shore and trees in a semi-circle on the left and the mountains in the background.  In Florida and south Georgia, it is common to see trees growing in shadow lakes and swamps but not as colorful and flamboyant as the lone tree of Lake Wanaka.

The Scent of Flowers

Matthew 6:28-29                       
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Patience Taught by Nature

 
 Patience Taught By Nature

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

'O DREARY life,' we cry, ' O dreary life ! '

And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven's true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle ! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards
Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife
Meek leaves drop year]y from the forest-trees
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory: O thou God of old,
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these !--
But so much patience as a blade of grass
Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.