Among all the dainty flowers above 9000 ft in the Bighorn Range sits the showy Primula parryi, named in honor of Charles Parry, an esteemed botanist in the early days of the US Department of Agriculture.  The second photo is the flower from the side, showing the united petals.

Bighorn River Then and Now: “The land is all good…”

I’ve been reading Granville Stuart’s account* of the early days in Montana (1870’s and 80’s). At one point in the book he is traveling around Montana looking for range for 5,000 head of cattle. This is just before the big herds from Texas started to arrive in that part of Montana, and there was plenty…

My Visit to the Crazy Woman

The North Fork of Crazy Woman Creek tumbles down the dramatic Crazy Woman Canyon southwest of Buffalo, Wyoming.  Two legends exist as an explanation for how the drainage got its name: One involves a native American woman who was left alone after a rival tribe attacked and killed everyone in her village. She supposedly stayed…

Gotcha! Little Fox

I was a little groggy on a late Friday evening as we drove up to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. We hadn’t really gotten out of the (relatively) well traveled part of the trip yet. Actually, we were driving through an area of private cabins. Hardly the wilderness, so my camera was still securely packed…